Time to focus on excesses of practice

[Enhance]

From the standpoint of most spectators, football is all about the game. From the standpoint of most players, football is all about practice. What players go through at practice, particularly two-a-days, can be more grueling than what they go through during games. When coaches tell players, "Compared to practice, the game will be fun," they aren't kidding.
Though spectators and viewers think of games as the dangerous part of football, because it's during games that injuries are widely seen -- coaches whom I have interviewed think players are more likely to be injured at a practice than during a game. Partly this is simply because players spend so much more time practicing than performing, meaning more hours of risk.

But there's another, darker reason: Games are observed by the public and supervised by officials. At practice, there are no rules. Some coaches are conscientious about practice safety. Others are not. The Oklahoma Drill -- two players confined to a small area, instructed to run and smash into each other repeatedly until one yields -- probably has caused more injuries than the kickoff returns the NFL is concerned about. The Nutcracker Drill -- a version of the Oklahoma, in which two players repeatedly bash helmet-to-helmet -- not only is sadistic, it is all but designed to cause concussions and head and neck injuries.

Read more here: LINK

 

[Enhance]

A lot of interesting stuff here, especially the changes in rules being implemented across many states. The story about the 16-year-old player who died in Georgia is also very unnerving.

When I played football, I never had coaches that would push people to the limit. I wonder what other people's experiences have been, or even how widespread of a problem this really is?

 

[mcintyre1]

A lot of interesting stuff here, especially the changes in rules being implemented across many states. The story about the 16-year-old player who died in Georgia is also very unnerving.

When I played football, I never had coaches that would push people to the limit. I wonder what other people's experiences have been, or even how widespread of a problem this really is?

In my limited experience, it is a real problem at successful football schools. In high school, we ran pure conditioning two-a-days where we were not allowed to have water, only ice cubes, and very few at that. We would regularly engage in "oklahoma" style drills where the only goal was to knock the crap out of the guy infront of you. And this was all ~6 years ago, so we're not talking the "dark ages" or anything.

That said, it certainly helped make us a tough, physical, well conditioned team and directly contributed to our success. Honestly, I'm not sure whether more regulation is needed or not.

 

[The Maudfather]

tl;dr

 

[Hercules]

A lot of interesting stuff here, especially the changes in rules being implemented across many states. The story about the 16-year-old player who died in Georgia is also very unnerving.

When I played football, I never had coaches that would push people to the limit. I wonder what other people's experiences have been, or even how widespread of a problem this really is?

In my limited experience, it is a real problem at successful football schools. In high school, we ran pure conditioning two-a-days where we were not allowed to have water, only ice cubes, and very few at that. We would regularly engage in "oklahoma" style drills where the only goal was to knock the crap out of the guy infront of you. And this was all ~6 years ago, so we're not talking the "dark ages" or anything.

That said, it certainly helped make us a tough, physical, well conditioned team and directly contributed to our success. Honestly, I'm not sure whether more regulation is needed or not.

Why would any sane person not give out water? That's bad for your conditioning, not good. Maybe denying yourself water helps mental toughness and discipline, but it doesn't help you physically. You don't want to drink too much, but dehydration prevents you from getting the most out of a workout from a physical standpoint.

 

[tmfr15]

Watch this video....1:20 mark. Audio is horrid, but I think a lot of high school teams do drills like these.

 

[GSG]

I do the Oklahoma drill with my nephew. He's 7. Hasn't beat me yet.

 

[jsneb83]

 

[CU Sucks]

The Oklahoma drill was my favorite part of practice... It was a reward for dealing with the other stuff.