Sports: A question for anybody who has ever played football...

[battleknight24]

... Although I am looking for responses from primarily people who played Varsity High School football, anybody who played pee wee, junior high, freshman, or JV football is good to. If you coach or have coached football, this question is for you too.

From your experience, if you practiced from Monday through Thursday, and played your games on Friday, how many days a week did you have full pad, full contact practice? How often did you have a shorts and shoulder pads "hitting only" practice? How often did you have a "no contact" practice (perhaps the day before the game)?

For that matter, if you happen to know, what did the successful teams in your state, region, and area do, as far as the amount of hitting and contact per week?

In case you are wondering, the reason I ask is because I played football in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade, and what I see on TV from top college and high school programs, in contrast to my very limited experience, they have limited full contact practices during the season. In contrast, in my experience playing football, we would have mostly full speed, full contact practices throughout the season, sometimes even the day before a game; in 7th grade, I broke my wrist the day before the game in a full speed, full contact special teams workout. FYI, the football program in our town has sucked for years and years and years and...

What was it like in your experience?


Peace,

[GOPisEvil]

1. I quit after 9th grade (still middle school when I was a kid).

We practiced in full pads Monday - Wednesday. Wednesdays were not full contact though. Our games were Thursday evevnings, and we had a light practice Friday as I remember.

[IzaSparrow]

2. You might be comparing apples to oranges.

College players are the best of the best hs players. They are practically professional, without the pay. It probably could be argued they don't need the practice hitting, as much as executing a specific route or defensive set.

[battleknight24]

4. Very true, but...

... I have seen some high school programs that have several full speed, full contact practices, but I have also seen some good high school programs that have a little less full contact practices during the season.

[IzaSparrow]

8. how big are the schools you're comparing?

[texas1928]

3. Depended on how we did the week before.

I have actually practised full contact up to and including Thursday before a game, and then had no contact walkthroughs the day of the game(If we were at home). But that was on week after a loss. Needless to say we did not lose many.

[battleknight24]

5. Where did you play high school ball?

I'm from Texas too, and I am familiar with all great programs around the state...

[texas1928]

6. Ballinger.

We usually made it to District playoffs, or region.

[Generic Brad]

7. All pads full speed balls to the wall - every practice

And the teams I was on were lucky if they won even a single game in a season.

[battleknight24]

10. That is kind of my point...

... I understand that at the lower levels of tackle football, there needs to be a lot of hitting and full speed collisions so kids can get used to the game. But I can remember in my limited football playing experiences, we would still have hard-hitting, bruising practices the day before our games... in my original post, I mentioned how I broke my wrist the day before a game in a full speed special teams scrimmage- we were practicing our kickoff return.

[Twillig]

9. I can't remember tackling anybody during the season

Blocking maybe, or being blocked ('DON'T STAY BLOCKED!')

We were all about execution, reads, technique.

Monday was 75% film, 15% walk-through on the coming team, and the rest was conditioning topped off with five timed 200s.

Tuesday, and Wednesday we'd (us linebackers) maybe do some 'take on the blocker' drills just to get fired up. That was pretty savage. Other than that it was preparing for the other team with run-throughs. Mostly with tackling dummies to hit.

Thursday was shoulder pads and helmets.

We were a state semi-finalist my senior year. My school was always a playoff team in those years.

[battleknight24]

11. I'm not sure, but I think my old high school team...

... has pretty savage practices day in and day out.

The coach's career record, all at our school, is 26-59 in nine years, give or take a couple of games.

Yes, he probably will be back next season.

[Mojambo]

12. Full contact all week. n/t