2 Day Per Week Practice

[CoachAnthony]

We do Tues & Thur...Usually go the 1st 2 weeks of Mon-Thur...As long as we manage our time good it works out perfectly fine.

[johnnycam]

I would advise against it, but that's just me.

Last season, we did 3 days per week until school started. Then, we dropped to two days per week. (This was for 5th and 6th graders). I just never felt like we had enough time to work on as many things as I wanted to. I would have LOVED an extra day per week.

We had quite a few first-time players, and the majority of our guys were, well, not exactly superstars. It would've been nice to have some extra practice time.

I guess if you've got an established program and the kids are familiar with the system (and with football in general), then two days per week would work out better. But, for us, it was tough...

[moreps]

I love the practice time for the older kids.  However, for 8 year olds, once the season starts, 2 practices a week should be fine.  I think you identified most of the pros to that approach and I agree that it is important to keep the kids (and parents) motivated and fresh.  I agree with Dave that you can maximize efficiency and get done in 4 hours what many attempt to get done in 6.

[Pantherlinecoach]

Everything cant be about what the coach wants to do. Theres been several seasons were we barely got out of our basic packages. Different kids will pick up at a different rate. I have been into the bottom of the playbook at the end of our seasons. Have also barely left the basic 8 offensive plays at that point as well. 2 days is plenty for the coach who isnt stubborn and understands what concepts the kids will fully understand and execute. If there is trouble with the added stuff I like to see, then I wont spend a lot of time trying to push it. We will just execute our limited operation in a manner that is as close to perfection as we can get. It all just depends on the group of kids you have that season IMO.

[RoyalFlush18]

Thanks for all the replies/info.

I was surprised to see the number of coaches that only go 2 days per week.

My motivating factors for going 2 days per week come down to 2 reasons:

1.) To be a better football team by practicing only 4 hours per week as opposed to 6.
2.) As a recruiting tool to help increase our numbers (especially at the younger age levels).

I'm a less is more type of person....focus on the things that matter and become exceptional at the core skills that matter. As a staff only having 4 hours helps us focus on the important stuff and not get distracted. For the players (at this age) I feel that their focus would be better served by 4 hours of practice vs 6. There is a point of diminishing returns. Simply put 1 play practiced 100 times is better than 100 plays practiced 1 time.

We compete for players with a "select" league. Due to various reason, the numbers at the lower age levels have been down the last couple of years. Select League goes 5 days per week after labor day when you factor in Games and "B" Games. One of the more common reasons I got last season from families is that they just weren't ready to commit to 4 days per week for football for a 7/8/9 year old kid. I am hopeful the lure of 3 day per week commitment T,Th,Sat might help us pull in the numbers we need to remain competitive. My feeling is that for a percentage of the players out there, we do not compete with the Select League, they are going there no matter what (or at least till we change the perception).

We are targeting kids/families that are a bit on the fence about FB to increase our numbers. I'm hopeful that going to 2 school nights per week will only increase the numbers and not decrease (vs the 4 nights per week for Select).

That being said I'm planning on cutting back to 2 nights per week after Labor Day this year, 3 Nights per week for 2 weeks in Aug after School is in session, and we will go 4/5 nights the 1st 2 weeks of practice to get in the mandatory out of pads conditioning the league requires.

Thanks for the input.