Interesting Coach Quote - Too Much Practice?

Mackinbiner

Mackinbiner

Well-known member
Here's an interesting quote from an Ohio varsity football coach concerning ten camp days being allowed -

"Honestly, across the board in all our sports, we practice too much with our kids, It's become more of a, to me at least, we're looking at them like they're college athletes or professional athletes because of the time that we're spending across the board in all sports. As a football coach, I would like just to have five camp days in the summer to do some things with the kids, then get into two-a-days and start practicing."

I wonder if this coach has taken any heat for these comments. Or, do others agree?
 
 
Football has been encroaching on baseball for years. In my opinion, it is the one sport that keeps grabbing more and more the participant's time. "Non-mandatory" off season weight training, seven on sevens, quarterback camps, etc. Even though college football coaches keep saying they want multi-sport athletes, it is getting harder and harder to do it.
 
Why is it for every other sport you can play games throughout the entire year?

Baseball is in the spring then there is summer league

Volleyball for the school then JO

Basketball for the school then summer league...

Why is football coaching monitored more than any other sport???
 
I don't think football coaching gets monitored more than any other sport. But, it is the one high school sport where almost 100% of college recruiting is done. So, there are those challenges. The other thing is that baseball and softball are played during the Ohio Springs. The seasons are short from the beginning and often truncated by the weather. Summer baseball does not even start until the beginning of June and finishes at the end of July. Our team has already had one weekend where some of our players missed for a quarterbacks camp
 
What I felt was interesting about the quote was that it was a FOOTBALL COACH saying they even practice football too much and he would prefer to NOT take advantage of all the camp/coaching time allowed by the OHSAA. I suspect that may not play well everywhere.
 
I think this is why the OHSAA caps how much time can be spent on football. With as popular as the sport is here, it could easily be made into a year round sport for many schools/athletes. Not sure dedication to one sport helps in the grand scheme.
 
Because of the way football is/has been structured, and will remain to be structured, there is significant pressure on school programs to provide a "year round" infrastructure for football since athletes aren't going elsewhere to play (i.e. club/premier, or whatever you wish to call it).

Given that, there is an "arms race" aspect to school football programs and their operating. I think that is what the coach here is saying.
 
Yes, there is too much practice, for all sports, not just football. Let's also not be naive because while football seems to be requiring more and more they are just aying catch up to the rest of the sports that are truly year round. Club/select dominate the other sports and they compete year round, which is a problem all in itself, footbl is the it sport with just 1 season for competition. I would say though, if you have a competitive swim team, those guys practice way more than anyone else by far.
 
Pretty much all sports have become year round activities. There are no more "seasons." It's a shame, because kids should be able to play a number of sports if they want, not just concentrate on one.
 
Great thread. As much as I regret to admit it, we are in the beginning stages of an evolutionary change regarding football. The risk/reward scale has reached a tipping point. Smart coaches will begin to make such statements that align with parental concerns. Neanderthal communities/schools/coaches who wish to recycle their past glory days or relive a "Friday Light Nights" scenario will be left behind.
 
I am going to go the other way on this whole "too much practice" and speak in terms of youth baseball. At that level, there is too little practice and too many games.
 
I also wonder if the coach is trying to establish expectations for the amount of time that he is expected to give to being a football coach. I think that in Ohio, the expectations are pretty high.
 
I wonder what the opinions of the players are. And the parents. Would some feel cheated by thinking the coach isn't working as hard as he could to make the team better? Pay to play could also pop into the minds of parents who forked over money for their kid to be involved in the team.
 
It is crazy out here in Texas. The "season" starts in July and ends right before Christmas. Then you take a week off and football is a class you get credit for, so you start lifting classes and then after school you have speed/agility training. In the spring you have practice 5 days per week, though only 2 or 3 are padded in alternating weeks. Right before school lets out, you have your spring game. Take a week off and start summer workouts June 1. Rinse and repeat.

At the youth level it is worse because nobody really legislates it. My son played a 10 game fall schedule, then they had winter flag football and after Christmas break they had a second 9 game full padded season. June 1 they started a 12 game flag season and in July start padded season again. He and I agreed he will not play spring contact football next year. He will do another sport. He was ready to be done with football after that. 9 year olds should not play 19 contact games in a year.

I hope Ohio does not slide towards that model.
 
thavoice said:
I am going to go the other way on this whole "too much practice" and speak in terms of youth baseball. At that level, there is too little practice and too many games.
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We see the same in youth wrestling. Everyone wants to go to these huge tournaments and some kids go 2 and out. Then 2 practices and the next tournament. They need more mat time, not chances at medals.
 
702551_050715iversonpractice.jpg
 
thavoice said:
I am going to go the other way on this whole "too much practice" and speak in terms of youth baseball. At that level, there is too little practice and too many games.
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Agree!

Football still has their 7 on 7 season and summer camps. 3 or our baseball players missed games this past week while at Miami U's football camp.

Football practice has way more injury possibilities-so I think he has a point.
 
thavoice said:
I am going to go the other way on this whole "too much practice" and speak in terms of youth baseball. At that level, there is too little practice and too many games.
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lots of games in June 1--thru the second week of July...
 
bigkat said:
lots of games in June 1--thru the second week of July...
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Unless they cancel for football practice...

BAZINGA!


Once the baseball season got into full gear and we were blessed with good weather and it was game after game our coach would hold a practice before and/or after games. His reasoning, which I wholeheartedly believe, is that games are great but without practice time you lose those little fundamental things that may only happen once in a season and can cost you the game.

At the time, yeah you hated having an hour plus practice before/after games on PFP, pickoffs, situational fielding, 1st and 3rd offense/defense, baserunning, bunting, etc but man it paid off. Often times in the summer at least, if you wanted BP you had to do make arrangements to do it (sometimes we would do after game 4 man groups for extra BP) because the time most teams just used for BP was always use to work on the fundamentals of the game.
 
tom 48 said:
Pretty much all sports have become year round activities. There are no more "seasons." It's a shame, because kids should be able to play a number of sports if they want, not just concentrate on one.
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Honestly that is usually on the parents or player. Now if it is the coach and you don't like it then speak up as a tuition or taxpayer - you hire them.

Many coaches encourage participation in other in-season sports. Ours does. That is good (imo). Other coaches do demand and even threaten "their" players to dedicate themselves to one. That is not good.
 
TigerPaw said:
Honestly that is usually on the parents or player. Now if it is the coach and you don't like it then speak up as a tuition or taxpayer - you hire them.

Many coaches encourage participation in other in-season sports. Ours does. That is good (imo). Other coaches do demand and even threaten "their" players to dedicate themselves to one. That is not good.
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Ours does as well and a big reason why they are very successful in multiple sports.

FB coach allows FB players to miss 7 on 7s for tournament baseball games in the summer, or just be a spotter in lifting if he is pitching that night in a big game. Heck, he has even been seen throwing BP to the baseball team in the summer!



but many programs aren't like that. I know a local FB coach who gave some inside information about the baseball team to their opponent in the baseball tournament.......
 
BASESWIMPARENT said:
Football has been encroaching on baseball for years. In my opinion, it is the one sport that keeps grabbing more and more the participant's time. "Non-mandatory" off season weight training, seven on sevens, quarterback camps, etc. Even though college football coaches keep saying they want multi-sport athletes, it is getting harder and harder to do it.
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Football isn't alone. Basketball seems to be getting worse all the time as well.

Soccer, swimming, and volleyball are a pain due to non-school-sponsored club activities (indoor and outdoor club soccer, club swim practices before school, and JO volleyball). As the coach of a girls spring sport, I go through phases of which of those 3 sports I hate the most, haha. A couple years ago, our school softball team couldn't schedule games on certain weekends because of major JO volleyball tournaments that would've wiped out half the roster including the entire battery.
 
Training would have been a better word for practice in this thread. Kids are over trained.

Parents do not realize that talent rules all. You can train and train and train and have a wonderful career. But if your not talented, you may miss opportunities experiencing other activities since you train so much. Of course, the combination of talent and training is when you can really do some things in your sport.

Said another way, your not turning D3 talent into D1 scholarships training 365. Why not accept your D3 talent, and do other things?

Again, its great that kids now love (do they really) training. But there giving up a lot, for not a lot of potential future value.

Over training is real, and it stinks.
 
yakyak said:
Training would have been a better word for practice in this thread. Kids are over trained.

Parents do not realize that talent rules all. You can train and train and train and have a wonderful career. But if your not talented, you may miss opportunities experiencing other activities since you train so much. Of course, the combination of talent and training is when you can really do some things in your sport.

Said another way, your not turning D3 talent into D1 scholarships training 365. Why not accept your D3 talent, and do other things?

Again, its great that kids now love (do they really) training. But there giving up a lot, for not a lot of potential future value.

Over training is real, and it stinks.
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Well said, over training is a huge concern. There are so many terrible injuries in all sports now that could be prevented, and they are mostly due to over training, with 1 sport in particular. That is why cross-training (playing other sports) is so vital.... it conditions the entire body, not just sport specific parts.

I have heard of kids younger than 8 paying big bucks for speed training, conditioning clinic, hitting coaches, etc. The ignorance of these parents being taken advantage of, you are setting your child up for future injury and surgery when they get to high school.
 
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