NO SWEAT THURSDAY

[jwells]

I have become fascinated with the NO SWEAT THURSDAY concept Butch Jones is using at Tennessee.

footballscoop.com/news/thursdays-now-sweat/

Does anyone have more detailed information on how he employs this in a typical practice week? Does anyone utilize a similar schedule?

We got away from doing the traditional Friday "walk-thru" in favor of "Focused Fridays" - bringing the team into the classroom and covering everything that way. 

Thoughts?

[Deleted]

It seems like he took the basis of the idea from Chip Kelly, who made Wednesday a very light day during the season at Oregon, then had an intense, focused practice on Fri to spark the CNS for the next day's game. he does this in Philly now and claims it's based off a lot of exercise science derived from the training of Olympic athletes.

I've never been a part of a team that's done this. We do the traditional Thurs walkthrough to rest them then. However, with more and more states adopting limited contact rules that say you can't hit for 3 days in a row, this seems like a smart adjustment to make.

[2adaysfootballcom]

Went to a clinic this year and saw the mount union staff speak, this is something that they do and I thought it was a great idea!!



VIDEO WALKTHROUGH (FINAL VIDEO SESSION)


20- 30 PLAY CUT-UP THAT PUTS PLAYERS IN MOST DIFFICULT SITUATIONS.

SIGNALER AT FRONT OF ROOM SIGNALS DEFENSE BEFORE CLIP OF PLAY.


HAVE PLAYERS TALK, ASK TOUGH QUESTIONS.


VERY IMPORTANT FOR BACKUPS….CALL ON EVERYONE!


WRITE OUT THE QUESTIONS YOU WANT TO ASK FOR EACH PLAY AND THE PLAYERS YOU WANT TO ASK THEM TO.

[bluboy]

We follow the Oregon format; this is our second year of doing it. On Wed. we practice in helmets and shoulder pads. First 30-40 minutes is entire kicking game script. We then go to offense where we simply run plays vs coaches standing as defenders (it's almost running plays on air). These plays are the plays we want to run at certain areas of the field. We then go to defense. During defense we might have a 10 minute 7on7 where the scout team runs opponent's pass patterns, but no ball is thrown. While the DB's and LB's are doing this, the line will go over pass rush. We then have a 15-20 minute team defense period. During this time, the scout team aligns in a formation and takes 2 steps when the ball is snapped. Defense must get aligned, make any check, and get to the correct gap once the ball is snapped. That's it for Wed. Practice is about 90 minutes long.
Thurs. (pregame day), players lift weights (not heavy) before going out to practice. Practice in helmets and shoulder pads. Offense goes through 2-minute drill and certain plays. Defense aligns to formations and makes checks. At the end of practice we do an entire kicking game substitution review. Practice is over in about 50 minutes.
Now Mon. and Tues. are typical work days, with a 2.5 hour practice. Our kids really like this format; they have fresh legs and are definitely ready to go on Friday night. We have not lost any games as a result of our practice routine.

[imacdonald]

Anyone plan on doing this "no sweat" practice schedule this upcoming season. How has it worked for those who have used in the past? The science behind it intrigues me.

[Chris Clement]

Our experience with the "Oregon method" was very positive. What we did compared to our former, more "conventional" approach was:

Day 1 largely the same

Day 2 same but more contact

Day 3 we cut the team period out - that's also a good opportunity to have scout vs scout where you run your own stuff, and bill it as their best chance to play themselves into the lineup. The intensity isn't down on this day but the volume is.

Day 4 we scrapped everything we'd been doing and went with an extra-long review, double special teams, and the team period we'd stolen from day 3, all at increased intensity, but the whole practice was done in, say, an hour.

[buckeye7525]

Chris Clement

When you had scout v scout on Day 3 what did your 1s do?

On Day 4 what was the intensity of the team O period? Full pads, vs bags?

[Chris Clement]

The 1s got into the excitement big time. We did a really good job of making the scout teams feel important and there was a lot of cheering going on. Everyone wanted to see their pet rookie make a play.

Day 4 was a scout made of whatever we could scrounge (assuming it was a morning practice before a road game) if we had the whole crew it was the usual scout team.