|
|
Post by groundchuck on Jan 27, 2023 9:08:58 GMT -6
I would like to gather thoughts on the practice of No Sweat Wednesdays for practice. My understanding is Wednesday is literally a day where you try not to break much of a sweat. Walk through, run through. No pads. Short and sweet. Lift and watch film.
I have never done this.
What does the rest of the week look like?
Can this be done with high school kids? Varsity only? Whole program 9-12?
What other considerations are there?
|
|
|
|
Post by tripsclosed on Jan 27, 2023 10:11:00 GMT -6
Interesting. Unless I am mistaken/remembering wrong, from what I have seen over the years, in a lot of people's practice weeks, usually Wed is the hardest day of the week, before tapering down a bit on Thursday and then maybe a light walkthrough on Fridays if they have time/can accommodate it
|
|
|
|
Post by cwaltsmith on Jan 27, 2023 10:20:59 GMT -6
We started this at our school last in fall of 21... I LOVE IT!!! KIDS LOVE IT!!! Basically wednesday is a mental day... similar to what a lot of teams do on Thursday traditionally. We keep it to around 45 or 50 minutes. We go thru pregame for indy... but don't actually do pregame we use it and a review question period. Then we go straight into a scripted game. We run kick off team out and do a couple of kicks... Then defense... we have scout run scripted plays then punt block team etc... then offense ... until we have covered everything. Then we are done. I feel it has kept us million times more fresh. Regardless of what kind of year your having wins loss wise, by week 6 or 7 its a grind. This kind of practice help avoid that in my opinion. It keeps players and coaches more rested. Then we come back Thursday and do about 90 minutes with a more involved indy period and a more physical game script... and cover all special situations. We do it for the no sweat theory and also, we hit a little on Thursday bc studies show that if you go more than 36 hours without contact, that the central nervous system is more shocked when hitting resumes.
|
|
|
|
Post by CS on Jan 27, 2023 10:28:37 GMT -6
We started this at our school last in fall of 21... I LOVE IT!!! KIDS LOVE IT!!! Basically wednesday is a mental day... similar to what a lot of teams do on Thursday traditionally. We keep it to around 45 or 50 minutes. We go thru pregame for indy... but don't actually do pregame we use it and a review question period. Then we go straight into a scripted game. We run kick off team out and do a couple of kicks... Then defense... we have scout run scripted plays then punt block team etc... then offense ... until we have covered everything. Then we are done. I feel it has kept us million times more fresh. Regardless of what kind of year your having wins loss wise, by week 6 or 7 its a grind. This kind of practice help avoid that in my opinion. It keeps players and coaches more rested. Then we come back Thursday and do about 90 minutes with a more involved indy period and a more physical game script... and cover all special situations. We do it for the no sweat theory and also, we hit a little on Thursday bc studies show that if you go more than 36 hours without contact, that the central nervous system is more shocked when hitting resumes. What does monday and tuesday look like? |
|
|
|
Post by cwaltsmith on Jan 27, 2023 11:04:19 GMT -6
Our Mon, Tues looks like your traditional Tues, Wed that most people do. It is a normal practice which for us lasts right at 2 hours... sometimes 150 some times 210 but never longer. On those days we have a specialty period for kickers, QBs get arms loose, OLINE do extra indy, then we have prepractice. Then we started year splitting old guys young guys up and doing 5 min of off and 5 of defense (on review or touch on new stuff or set recognition). Mid year we started doing what we called FASTBALL!. Best on best for 5 plays as fast as we could go! Hyped it up as competition of which side could win more plays for trash talking or bragging rights. Then we do indy group team with special teams sprinkled in. Sometimes on Monday Bteam guys leave 5 to 10 min early for there game.
|
|
|
|
Post by freezeoption on Jan 27, 2023 17:07:46 GMT -6
Our Monday is jv. Half team is gone. Not much contact for varsity. Tuesday and Wednesday only days really to hit. Thursday is run through.
|
|
|
|
Post by s73 on Jan 27, 2023 17:53:07 GMT -6
Our Monday is jv. Half team is gone. Not much contact for varsity. Tuesday and Wednesday only days really to hit. Thursday is run through. Same. Furthermore, we have JV games on Mondays & our state rules are that they have no contact the day after a game so Tuesdays only non jv players can have contact. So Wed kind of has to be our day. Having said that, I feel contact in practice, at least for varsity is a tad overrated. Keep em fresh as often as possible. A boxer for example rarely spars HARD b/c you don't want him to get beat up, That's why they call it sparring and not fighting. I think the same mentality applies to football. |
|
|
|
Post by Old Pro on Jan 27, 2023 23:13:04 GMT -6
I’m pretty old school so take this for what’s it’s worth because there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
We had a coach at a local school that didn’t believe in padding up and hitting during the week. Was afraid of getting kids hurt due to small numbers. Everything was half shell and thud.
Long story short, they went 5-31 in the four years he was there finishing year four 0-9
You gotta work hard to win. Footballs a tough game.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachscdub on Jan 27, 2023 23:45:12 GMT -6
I would like to gather thoughts on the practice of No Sweat Wednesdays for practice. My understanding is Wednesday is literally a day where you try not to break much of a sweat. Walk through, run through. No pads. Short and sweet. Lift and watch film. I have never done this. What does the rest of the week look like? Can this be done with high school kids? Varsity only? Whole program 9-12? What other considerations are there? There is/was a write up of this from when Chip Kelly was doing this back at Oregon. I know some HS teams are doing this under the guise of 'Feed The Cats' which is roughly the same idea. Essentially it boils down to switching your last padded practice of the week with a walk through and your walk through (day before the game) becomes a 'Sprint Through'. For a college program a week would look ROUGHLY like this. Monday - Off/Meetings Tuesday - Padded Practice Wednesday - Padded Practice Thursday - No Sweat day Friday - Sprint Through The main concept of this relates to sprinter workouts where you rest your legs two days before your event and then do a sprint workout the day before to Re-Start your Central Nervous System. |
|
|
|
Post by CS on Jan 28, 2023 6:34:44 GMT -6
I’m pretty old school so take this for what’s it’s worth because there’s more than one way to skin a cat. We had a coach at a local school that didn’t believe in padding up and hitting during the week. Was afraid of getting kids hurt due to small numbers. Everything was half shell and thud. Long story short, they went 5-31 in the four years he was there finishing year four 0-9 You gotta work hard to win. Footballs a tough game. Half shell and thud is all we ever did this year and we were state runner up. I worked for the winningest coach in my state at 2 different stops and all we ever did was half shell and thud IF we hit. The only time we went all out was spring ball and first day of pads in fall. My guess is that guy you’re talking about had sh!tty players |
|
|
|
Post by larrymoe on Jan 28, 2023 9:35:25 GMT -6
I’m pretty old school so take this for what’s it’s worth because there’s more than one way to skin a cat. We had a coach at a local school that didn’t believe in padding up and hitting during the week. Was afraid of getting kids hurt due to small numbers. Everything was half shell and thud. Long story short, they went 5-31 in the four years he was there finishing year four 0-9 You gotta work hard to win. Footballs a tough game. Half shell and thud is all we ever did this year and we were state runner up. I worked for the winningest coach in my state at 2 different stops and all we ever did was half shell and thud IF we hit. The only time we went all out was spring ball and first day of pads in fall. My guess is that guy you’re talking about had sh!tty players Perhaps he did. But if it only matters what kind of talent you have, why do anything? Just show up in the fall, roll a ball out on Friday night and get to it. |
|
|
|
Post by CS on Jan 28, 2023 11:02:55 GMT -6
Half shell and thud is all we ever did this year and we were state runner up. I worked for the winningest coach in my state at 2 different stops and all we ever did was half shell and thud IF we hit. The only time we went all out was spring ball and first day of pads in fall. My guess is that guy you’re talking about had sh!tty players Perhaps he did. But if it only matters what kind of talent you have, why do anything? Just show up in the fall, roll a ball out on Friday night and get to it. Because talent is the most important thing but they need to know what to do. If you don’t have it then execution is even more important My problem with what he said was that he equated full contact with “working hard.” And no full contact resulted in bad seasons. Our jr high coach at my last stop was an “old school” guy and his practices were all full contact team and he ran about 4 plays an hour. Guess they were working their a$$es off since it was full contact |
|
|
|
Post by larrymoe on Jan 28, 2023 11:29:59 GMT -6
Perhaps he did. But if it only matters what kind of talent you have, why do anything? Just show up in the fall, roll a ball out on Friday night and get to it. Because talent is the most important thing but they need to know what to do. If you don’t have it then execution is even more important My problem with what he said was that he equated full contact with “working hard.” And no full contact resulted in bad seasons. Our jr high coach at my last stop was an “old school” guy and his practices were all full contact team and he ran about 4 plays an hour. Guess they were working their a$$es off since it was full contact And you're implying your success is because you do it your way when I can just say it's because you have a lot talent. In the end, all the dick comparison of whose dogma is better really doesn't amount to {censored} other than people making themselves feel better. |
|
|
|
Post by CS on Jan 28, 2023 12:24:26 GMT -6
Because talent is the most important thing but they need to know what to do. If you don’t have it then execution is even more important My problem with what he said was that he equated full contact with “working hard.” And no full contact resulted in bad seasons. Our jr high coach at my last stop was an “old school” guy and his practices were all full contact team and he ran about 4 plays an hour. Guess they were working their a$$es off since it was full contact And you're implying your success is because you do it your way when I can just say it's because you have a lot talent. In the end, all the dick comparison of whose dogma is better really doesn't amount to {censored} other than people making themselves feel better. Wasn’t my point at all. My point is that I’ve personally had success doing the light contact way to directly contradict his argument. And yeah we had good talent. I stated that talent was the most important thing so I’m missing your point |
|
|
|
Post by coachscdub on Jan 28, 2023 21:11:48 GMT -6
Here's a link to Noel Mazzone's gameplanning with mention of their no sweat thursday
|
|
|
|
Post by larrymoe on Jan 29, 2023 7:24:45 GMT -6
And you're implying your success is because you do it your way when I can just say it's because you have a lot talent. In the end, all the dick comparison of whose dogma is better really doesn't amount to {censored} other than people making themselves feel better. Wasn’t my point at all. My point is that I’ve personally had success doing the light contact way to directly contradict his argument. And yeah we had good talent. I stated that talent was the most important thing so I’m missing your point Sorry for being so grumpy yesterday. It was uncalled for. |
|
|
|
Post by cwaltsmith on Jan 31, 2023 9:11:33 GMT -6
The talk about being tough and being in pads is a mute point. We are more physical in helmets only at the school I am at right now than we were in full pads at my last school. Being physical and tough is something that should definitely be stressed, but IMHO, wearing pads has zero to do with that. Example... we had an 11 on 11 scrimmage with helmets only last summer. They are called OTAs.. I was scared to death going in because I had never experienced it, but it was really good work. There was no tackling to the ground, defense just touched off on the hip of ball carrier, but blocking was live. It was intense.
The deal with no contact day after game is tough one. We have JV on monday also, our JV guys practice and then run grab a sandwich and drink and get ready for their game.
|
|
