are practices harder on player's health than games?

[argh!]

article about college football practice being a bigger cause of concussions than games (below). i know some coaches, like the butte high guy (high school, obviously) conduct no-contact or low-contact practices only, and still are very successful (someone please correct me on that if i'm wrong). Anyways, here's the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/sports/concussions-college-football-practice.html

 

[Grizfan-24]

From my perspective as a coach, absolutely.

In my roughly 20 years coaching high school football, the number of concussion and sub-concussions that occurred in practice vastly out numbered those that happened in a game. Stands to reason. You practice 4-5 times a week for 2 hours and if you go full out, there are just going to be that many more chances to be in on a concussive event as a player.

I am absolutely an advocate for reducing the amount of full contact activities in practice not only for concussion reduction, but because of the other benefits. Coaching much of my career in small school Montana and Idaho, you gotta have bodies for Friday/Saturday's. Coached a year with 4 extra bodies in a 11 man football team and been in programs that were just thin to begin with. You can limit injuries but to me it leads to better performance on Friday nights. We play better, execute better and yes tackle better.

In my years as a defensive coach and coordinator the principal complaint that I get from old school guys is that you can't tackle nearly as well. We tackle bags a ton and reinforce the angles that are necessary to execute. We were vastly better because we spent more time getting kids right in drills rather than spending so much 11 v 11 team time. I installed more coverage and blitz schemes, and our open field tackling was so much better.

Offensively we were vastly better in all elements minus one. The one issue that took us some time to get drills right for is speed/force the opposing DL/LB's play without contact. Once we looked into how some college programs handled that element of the non-contact element, we got better at our kids not being flatfooted on the offensive line at the beginning of the game

 

[Proud Griz Man]

I had to do it. I could not resist.

 

[PlayerRep]

2016.

"Ivy League football coaches have decided to take the extraordinary step of eliminating all full-contact hitting from practices during the regular season, the most aggressive measure yet to combat growing concerns about brain trauma and other injuries in the sport.

The Ivy League’s new rule was inspired by one of its members, Dartmouth, where full-contact practices throughout the year were eliminated by Coach Buddy Teevens starting in 2010 to reduce injuries, including concussions, that kept players out of games and wore them down over the course of a season."

Teevens figured out that full contact in practice led to way more injuries, as well as concussions, and that having a more healthy and on-field team was much more important than full contact and tackling.

The NFL started scaling back contact in practice during the season many years ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/sports/ncaafootball/ivy-league-moves-to-eliminate-tackling-at-practices.html

 

[alabamagrizzly]

Let me channel my inner PR. People who don’t truly know the answer to this question have never played the game.

 

[MikeyGriz]

Let me channel my inner PR. People who don’t truly know the answer to this question have never played the game.

I'd be scared to even admit I had an inner PR! :lol:

 

[oldrunner]

If I'm reading all of this correctly, it makes little sense to practice for six weeks and never play any games. You are going to get the injuries anyway.

All of the injuries I suffered in HS football were from practice and about half of them happened in 'non' contact drills. In a game you are in action 65 to 80 times for about 5 seconds each time. That is about 5 to 7 minutes per game. Your exposure to actual football action is much higher in each and every practice.

The argument that you are not playing games for the safety of your players is not logical. However, Covid and the exspense of the testing protocols may be legit concerns.

 

[PlayerRep]

If I'm reading all of this correctly, it makes little sense to practice for six weeks and never play any games. You are going to get the injuries anyway.

All of the injuries I suffered in HS football were from practice and about half of them happened in 'non' contact drills. In a game you are in action 65 to 80 times for about 5 seconds each time. That is about 5 to 7 minutes per game. Your exposure to actual football action is much higher in each and every practice.

The argument that you are not playing games for the safety of your players is not logical. However, Covid and the exspense of the testing protocols may be legit concerns.

The safety issue is from practicing outside in bad and winter weather conditions, and also playing some games in those conditions. The first week of practice would have just occurred.

 

[argh!]

Let me channel my inner PR. People who don’t truly know the answer to this question have never played the game.

i dunno, greenie probably values some discussion on the issue, rather than randomly trying to insult others and stop the conversation. plus, how do you define "playing the game"? note that tampa bay just won the super bowl with two female coaches - a d-line coach and a strength and conditioning coach. they probably didn't play past high school, if that, nor did bobby hauck. you seem to want to silence a nuanced conversation with such a blanket statement.

 

[alabamagrizzly]

Let me channel my inner PR. People who don’t truly know the answer to this question have never played the game.

i dunno, greenie probably values some discussion on the issue, rather than randomly trying to insult others and stop the conversation. plus, how do you define "playing the game"? note that tampa bay just won the super bowl with two female coaches - a d-line coach and a strength and conditioning coach. they probably didn't play past high school, if that, nor did bobby hauck. you seem to want to silence a nuanced conversation with such a blanket statement.

:shock: :lol: :clap: Wow, just wow. Talk about reading WAY too much into a comment. :lol: Let me channel my inner PR one more time and say that’s conjecture sir. Obviously you don’t know me very well and read many of my posts or would know that 90% of them are complete rubbish.

 

[argh!]

i dunno, greenie probably values some discussion on the issue, rather than randomly trying to insult others and stop the conversation. plus, how do you define "playing the game"? note that tampa bay just won the super bowl with two female coaches - a d-line coach and a strength and conditioning coach. they probably didn't play past high school, if that, nor did bobby hauck. you seem to want to silence a nuanced conversation with such a blanket statement.

:shock: :lol: :clap: Wow, just wow. Talk about reading WAY too much into a comment. :lol: Let me channel my inner PR one more time and say that’s conjecture sir. Obviously you don’t know me very well and read many of my posts or would know that 90% of them are complete rubbish.

oh, i'm well aware that most of your posts are complete rubbish. so are mine.

 

[alabamagrizzly]

:shock: :lol: :clap: Wow, just wow. Talk about reading WAY too much into a comment. :lol: Let me channel my inner PR one more time and say that’s conjecture sir. Obviously you don’t know me very well and read many of my posts or would know that 90% of them are complete rubbish.

oh, i'm well aware that most of your posts are complete rubbish. so are mine.

And nearly all of egriz for that matter. Expect for CDA. He’s pretty much the only thing that’s made this whole “off season” worth reading egriz lately. That and like most of us, I’m a Griz junkie.