NFL Tackle Football

State of Maryland Start Day

For the start date of practice each year, our state follows the NFHS (National Federation of State High Schools Association) official calendar. Week one of the NFHS official calendar falls in the first full week of July each year. In Maryland, the first practice day is set for the Saturday in week six. For the date of the first contest in Maryland, twenty calendar days are added to that start day. In Maryland this year, for instance, we will start practice on Saturday, August 15^th. The first football games will be played on Friday, September 4^th.

In Maryland, we all have three weeks to prepare for the first contest, but the start of school is not uniform throughout the state. Some counties have more opportunities for two-a-day practices than others. In our county, we will only have two two-a-day practice opportunities this year since teachers report on Tuesday, August 18^th. We will also only have one week before the students report to school – Monday, August 24. So … we adapt and seek ways to be creative in our efforts.

Because of the time constraints, we have looked backward to find ways to develop an instructional and competitive off-season program by adapting, by being resourceful and being creative. Our pre-season goals have expanded to now include three components: developing athleticism in our players, have them fundamentally sound, and to have essentially installed the base offensive and defensive passing game prior to the start of practice in August. So philosophically when do we start the season … right before Memorial Day.

State of Maryland Out-of-season Rule

In Maryland, we are just finishing up our second year under a new rule regarding out-of-season coaching. Prior to the rule change, we were prohibited from coaching our returning players during the out-of-season period. We are now allowed to coach our returning players in sponsored leagues and tournaments as long as certain conditions are met.

According to our new rule … the “out-of-season coaching” window extends from the first Monday after the spring state championships through the first day of fall practices. Normally the spring sports´ state championships are completed over Memorial Day weekend.

We must have a non-profit organization such as a youth group sponsor the “team” in a league or tournament. We are allowed to schedule one practice for every scheduled day of competition. So if a youth group sponsors a “team” with players and coaches from our school in a one day passing tournament, we can coach them in the tournament and schedule one practice prior to the tournament.

Off-Season Phasing – extending instruction and installation

We are fortunate that our PE classes focus on a certain activity or sport of interest. The team sports-football class is scheduled during the spring semester and is not unlike a basic strength training class. For us, approximately three quarters of the semester is dedicated to managing our SAS program (Strength, Agility, Speed). In January, the class begins with a heavy emphasis in weight training and then phases into more speed and agility training – in time for the spring combine season. As spring sports close out and the combine season dissipates, units involving the Passing Game and Line Fundamentals are taught to finish out the semester.

We continue to phase into and out of training and competitions throughout the off-season. We hold our NFL-HSPD camp (High School Player Development Program) the week prior to the Memorial Day weekend. The HSPD is the closest event we have to “spring ball” in Maryland. Although we cannot use pads at our HSPD because of our state rules, we are able to drill individual fundamentals and technique as a group. We have over twenty schools and over 450 players participate annually at our HSPD. For our area, the HSPD marks the beginning of the upcoming season.

Our players and coaches then participate in a sponsored passing league and series of sponsored passing tournaments over the three weeks following the HSPD. After the passing tournament season, we settle back into our SAS training which lasts for seven weeks through the summer. During the summer we also encourage our players to attend college camps, especially those players that are on the recruiting trail.

We participate in one last sponsored passing league the week prior to starting the season. This allows us to review, revisit, and refine our fundamentals and passing game just prior to the start of our practices. There are other opportunities throughout the summer for passing tournaments and camps, but we try to phase our players in and out of competition and commitments instead of “burning them out” and wearing out our time with them.

The Practice Schedule

Below are the two basic schedules we follow for our first practice sessions once we get started. Remember, we will only have two two-a-day opportunities so we pack the days and keep the players busy for the entire day. When we have to report as teachers, we begin the Twilight Practice Schedule which takes us through the rest of the week. We have coaches who are not teachers come in at 1:00pm to run our weight room.

Two-a-Day Practice Schedule

Twilight Practice Schedule

During Two-a-Days, we use our endzone camera to film the team segments in practice. In the scheduled film review, we evaluate the previous team practice session with the players. At times, we may show cut-ups from the previous season as a teaching tool as well. The Gym Practice is in helmets only and against shields. It is low-intensity and is designed for teaching, repetition and to develop timing.

Installation Considerations

Offensively, the installation schedule is driven by our blocking schemes and to a lesser degree by our formations. We are multiple in nature so one blocking scheme may have several different backfield sets and backfield actions available to it. We prefer to script our team segments for organizational purposes, for tempo, and so that all coaches know what we are running and can teach effectively (we are a no-huddle offense). Therefore when we start, our play scripts will reflect packaging a single blocking scheme with several backfield actions and/or personnel packages and formations. This also assists us in installing formations and personnel packages. As we move through installation, play scripts may then be reflective of a single personnel package and/or formation with several blocking schemes or plays that we would run out of it.

On defense, we are more progression oriented. Defensive installation focuses first on our base run-fits (full-flow reads and keys), then split flows (counters, playaction, and boots), then line stunt packages with reads, to blitz packages with reads. We try not to over-coach our players on defense, but we do stress that our coaches understand and players are aware of the little things – that every time you stunt the line, the run-fits change for example. We do bring out the scout cards during this time to practice against an opponent that we will face at some point in the season. We may dedicate certain practices to certain opponents in order to aid in our defensive installation schedule.

Program Drills and Routines

There are certain drills and drill progressions we feel are paramount to our program – the Pursuit Drill on defense or the Stampede Drill for offense. They help to establish an identity for us and send a message to our players about what we believe will make us successful. There are also specific controlled drills that are needed in the beginning of the season used specifically for evaluation – our Cage on Boards Drill or our Funnel Drill would fall into this category. In many ways how we organize and schedule the practice itself sends particular messages about effort, about being physical, about being mental, or about tempo.

Expectations regarding the pre-practice routine also need to be established (and taught) from the onset – Early-outs. What do the players do as they arrive on the practice field and the coaches are setting-up? We have chosen to use this time to focus on special teams skills. For our post-practice “conditioning” we prefer to do circuit training. We either do a tackling circuit, turn-over circuit, or agility circuit. We rarely just run our players. We believe that if we, as coaches, do our job well and establish tempo in our drills and transitions during practice, we will condition our players throughout practice.

Maintaining Tempo and Teaching in Practice

We have a practice timer feature and horn on our softball scoreboard (our practice field straddles the softball field). We have our student-managers turn period cards through practice. The periods and clock are essential to our practices. Even our youth group schedules practices in the same manner and uses a watch and whistles.

As a head coach, assistants can be made more effective teachers by planning their time for them. Keep in mind that the transitions and set-ups are where most time and momentum are lost. The amount of time to set-up certain drills, the equipment that is necessary, and the following drill segment are all considerations when preparing the practice plan. Coaches need to do as much set-up prior to practice and during water breaks so that transition down-time is limited. Water breaks are useful reorganization periods for coaches.

Even changing scrimmage vests can kill the momentum in practice. Identify times before practice and at water breaks when players should put on scrimmage vests and have additional vests available for assistant coaches to carry during team segments for substitutions.

Within the practice plan, at times, we may have group or team segments identified as a “teaching” segment, or “coach on the run”, or “game conditions” which in turn changes the tempo in practice. Each “coaching tempo” serves a different purpose. Under “game conditions” for instance a player must be substituted if an immediate correction is required so that “game-time” tempo is not interrupted.

Practice Plans

When planning practice, we use two basic types of teaching “systems” – progression and block. A progression oriented plan is more of the standard. In general, we start with individual, move to different forms of group, then on to team. We use this type of plan when we feel like we need extended individual and group time. We look more at the block oriented plan when we want to extend the amount of team time. Instead of going through a long team segment, which creates its own difficulties in maintaining an extended level of high intensity and tempo, team segments are broken up through the practice plan based on blocking, formations, packages, etc. An example of each of the two plans is provided below.

Split Practice (Offense and Defense) Block Oriented

Split Practice (Offense and Defense) Progression Oriented

The Lawnchair Practice

As a closing note, we came up with our lawnchair practice a number of years ago to replace a scrimmage that was cancelled. It's become a mainstay in our program. Now that we always start on Saturday, we make it the last practice on the first day. We invite parents, family, friends and our youth group to practice and encourage them to bring a lawnchair, maybe an umbrella, maybe something to snack on and drink. Our parent group sells attire and makes contacts. We also arrange to have something fun for the players to eat after practice (watermelon, popsicles, whatever). We want the parents to see us working in our “classroom” and we want the parents to see their son in practice with the rest of his teammates. The event has been easy to arrange, fun, and serves multiple purposes.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily represent the opinion of the NFL.