Are two-a-days too much?

Big topic for discussion in Saturday’s News and Record and on-line at the N&R’s click on HERE spot. Tom Keller talks with several area high football coaches about the annual start-up of football practices and the hated two-a-day practices.

Tom spoke with Tommy Pursley of Northeast Guilford and Scott Loosemore from Eastern Guilford and he should have called me.

I lived through a many of these two-a-day football practices and I’m still here to talk about it and I for one don’t see any reason for this system to cease.

Why would you want to stop the two-a-days? This is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard of……

One of the coaches told Tom that he thinks we may be starting practices too soon with all of the summer 7 on 7’s and that coach may be right on the money.

In the past you spent more time in the weight room and that’s where you build up the bulk and strength you need for the upcoming season. This is where the season’s won or lost. Here’s the plan:

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday weight training and Tuesday and Thursday running/conditioning. Attendance must be mandatory and I remember one time a few years back when a player missed nearly all of his summer workouts and he had to make all those up on the first week of practice before he could even step on the field.

To me the 7 on 7’s are nothing more than glorified street ball games. Pass and shoot. Run and gun. There’s nothing here to help the linemen whatsoever.

We need to get back to the glory days when the first day of practice was August 1 and you went the first five days of practice with just helmets, shorts and “T” shirts. This is the full week of conditioning before you put on the pads……..

After those five days of State-mandated conditioning we then go with the two-a-days in full pads. Back in my day, in the old-school era, we had four-a-day practices for one week while living at the school.

In the four-a-day system you go out at 7:30am in full gear for and hour and a-half, then grab some light breakfast at the school and hit the field again at 11:30am for a light one hour work-out in shorts, “T” shirts and helmets. After this practice you get to go home for a while and then return to the camp for the 5:30pm session that goes another hour and a-half. This is followed by the closing session that runs from 8:15 till 9pm……

This is where you get your money’s worth, in those four-a-days. At the end of the week, you are ready for the BIG Saturday morning FULL SCRIMMAGE. After that week, you are just about ready for school to start back and it’s time to begin your regular schedule of practice at 3:30pm and again you go for an hour and a-half and there shouldn’t be any burnout.

You put up on the board each day what you are going to do and you stick to the hour and a-half practices. If you can’t get it done in 90 minutes then you are wasting your time and all the players time as well.

If we stick to this plan and keep that weight room hopping in the summer we should have no problem achieving our pre-season goals. It all comes back to that weight room and the off-day running/conditioning.

Maintain those 90 minute practices during the season and make the players run between drills and you have elvated their level of conditioning throughout the year and they will end up running on and off the field come game time.

Are two-a-days too much? The annual rite of summer needs to be reinstated and that day is August 1, the first official day of high school football practice. From that day on, your butt is mine as the old coaches used to say and if that means two-a-day, you take a full supplement of One-A-Day vitamins and keep on going…….

What do you say? Are the two-a-days too much??????????

And another point, is it time we start running the ball down the other team’s throat again and cut out all that Girl Scout-type passing?????

6 thoughts on “Are two-a-days too much?

  1. Thanks Joe and now we need to hear from a few players and coaches too…..

    Are today’s football players/athletes too weak to handle the rigors of a two-a-day practice routine???????

  2. Andy.

    You did all that while carrying a tuba and playing in the band.

    Simply Amazing.

  3. I remember in the 70’s we would spend the night in class rooms for a weekend for football camp and have four-a-days. Not all four were in full gear though. You remember Andy, you were there. Coach Henderson was able to win state with that work ethic. He did it without transfers too.

  4. Bill, I suffered partial memory loss while laying on a train track at West Market Street and Guilford College-Jamestown Road, but even after the accident I can still remember what you are talking about.

    Coach Hollifield always told us that if you laid on the train track and listened, you could hear what the Southern Guilford Indians and other Native Americans were thinking. What he failed to tell us was get the heck out of the way before the train crosses the intersection!

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