Small School feed the Cats guys?

We blow the whistle every minute--so 10 minutes..

Not what i wanted to do but a tempo practice wasnt working .

quickly we got in shape and played better.

I hate it. I dont want to do it. But we just werent in shape.

I believe there is anaerobic conditioning for football and what I call collision conditioning. Your ability to hit and take hits wears you out if you don't condition for it. Anaerobic conditioning doesn't prepare you to take 60-120 hits in a game by itself. We will go live (no takedowns) for 25 plays in a row at no slower than 30 seconds between plays. We do 25 more after water. Once per week. Seems to work for us though a small roster team like ours will honestly make me a little worried about fatigue injuries. Luckily we've only had a few in many years. Obviously we progress to that level over a couple weeks. I think they become tougher. If I had to pick one of those it would be collision conditioning. JUST MY OPINION.

I am a small school FTC guy.

No, we have not had issues with conditioning / being gassed at end of games.

I still have occasional kids ask for us to do conditioning (which makes no {censored} sense to me) and I tell them if they want to do more on their own go for it. Some try and then practice like {censored} the next 2 days and figure out maybe it's not such a good idea.

The same thing happens with lifting. Kids want to lift more and do less speed work. I tell them the same thing. They do extra work, get sore as {censored} for 3 days. Arent worth a {censored} and again figure out... Maybe the old way isn't such a good idea.

I've found it's almost always lineman kids wanting to do more (I was surprised). The athletes are doing so many other sports in the summer and running so many more miles and taking bigger hits throughout the season that they love it and never complain.

I will never go back to the old/traditional way as long as I am the HC.




Secondly... Don't be a FTC school/program. I like to win and it gives us an advantage being the smallest dog in our conference/classification.

FTC?

What were you guys doing prior to the 10 110s? Were you prioritizing speed reserve?

I just can't see running 10 110s, with a one-minute rest between each, as particularly effective for developing either speed reserve or conditioning. First, given that it's probably taking the kids 15-20 (or more) seconds for each 110, you really aren't training the primary primary energy system utilized in football and second, there is no way the kids have enough rest between each 110 to be able to sprint.

Is it possible that the biggest reason your team was "in shape" was not the 110s but simply the fact that it was halfway through the season and the players had finally adapted to the stress of football?

My knowledge of kinesiology and muscle development is little to none. Others here can start speaking another language when it comes to that stuff.

However, I always thought long sprinting is counter intuitive to football training. Unless you are a RB or WR, Running a 100 yard sprint does not mimic the game. Football is short sprints, more times than not, laterally, for 5 seconds at a time. Just like any sort of drill work you want to do for individual drills, I would think it is important to ask if you find players running 100 yard sprints when you turn on the film.

Train them to be more powerful in the weight room and for their peak to be bar speed by camp, not 1RM. Peak bar speed again for conf play, again for playoffs, and again for the state title game.

Sprint-sprint, don't jog around. 5 sec sprints with 60sec rest / 10y. Time them on Freelap all off-season and push intent.

Phase your speed prog into tempos 2 weeks before camp starts. 6x 5 sec sprints with 35 sec rest, take 5 min off, do it again. But keep your curved sprints and COD/A days with 3-7s on and 35-60s off.

You have to 'practice contact' unless you have a senior heavy / experience heavy team that year. As a HC we always practiced with some contact, not a ton, just some. Better safe than sorry.

Practice gets you in practice shape, games get you in game shape, 110's get you in 110 shape.

Get better, not battered.

At a couple programs I was at we did a drill called chaos to start practice. It was good on good, O vs. D, running tempo for 5 minutes. Our goal was 20 plays in that period. Our 2's and JV guys were at the other end of the field doing the same thing. We started from the 40 and went in. If we scored, the ball went back to the 40. We were snapping the ball as quick as we could. That is a great way to condition at the start of practice. We then gave them a short water break after and went to Indy. All the guys that weren't in were running a sprint for 10 yards during the play, then lining up even with the ball and doing another sprint when the ball was snapped. We maybe had 15 guys or so doing that. 

Early in my career we started and ended practice with 10's. We ran 5 10's, then took a 60 second break. Then we ran 5 tens, and took a 60 second break. Then we ran 4 20's. We wanted to simulate a game situation. It was a good way to build conditioning in an actual football way. I like the chaos period better.

As a DC, I did a version of pursuit where we lined up to formations, pursued the football, and had to quickly line back up and get a call and communicate. We would go three plays in a row. We then would have the 2's go. Then the 3's. Then do it again. We would run a toss, in inside run, or a pass. That way they didn't know what was coming. It was a way to condition and practice lining up and communicating tired. I think the more football related you can make it the better it will be.

This is why I like bandit ball. Continuous movement, actual football being played, change the snap count, everyone gets work, and it's fast paced for "conditioning" It requires you to keep your mind focused on the task while tired, and under stress while still doing football plays 

If you feel it necessary to do Conditioning of some sort at end of practice try to make it "fun" ("Concealed Running").

Otherwise you might be better off finishing with Flexibility ("Static Stretching") on your heavy work days.

I do think there is a time and place to do some 100s or 110s, not as much for conditioning as it is for mental toughness......I know some will say there are some other ways to build mental toughness, and I agree there are. BUT....I do think you have to put your kids in adverse situations and encourage them to fight through them.

To be good at Football kids have to learn to take pride in doing difficult things well.

That's exactly what we did. Our usual offensive day went like this-
Dynamic warm up
Conditioning 1- the hardest we'd do of the day
Indy
Indy group conditioning- as OL coach we usually pushed the sled
Inside run/7on7
DBD- down back down across the field- done for time that if not achieved we did it again- time got faster as the year progressed
Team
Usually a very quick conditioning if we felt practice had been lethargic- if not we were done.

Not everyone always made the time, but we weren't going to punish the whole team because of that one OL.

Also, I usually timed the sled push. I can't remember the times, but for some reason 10 seconds a go seems right. Everything we did conditioning wise always had the carrot attached that if we saw maximum effort we'd shorten it.