Practice structure for team with 2-way players

[natenator]

Looking for help on how others structure or would structure practices if they mostly had a team of two-way players?

If you had 3 practices/week (Mon/Tues/Thurs) for about 7 hours in total practice time how would you structure things from an O/D/S perspective?

Never had to do such a thing but from reading this board it seems common place with many teams here.

Thx!

[raymul313]

What day do you play your games?

[natenator]

Jul 1, 2015 10:28:31 GMT -6 raymul313 said:

What day do you play your games?

Saturday's

[coachbdud]

everyone plays both ways for us
i do not think i will ever coach a 1 way team

De La Salle is pretty much the best team in the country every year, and recruit the best players in the bay area... they are loaded everywhere, and deeper than anyone else in the state... and their best guys play both ways still

anyway,

we have done it different ways

Offense only days
Defense only days

1 day O
1 day D
1 day split

everything split 50/50 in terms of time

what we do now i like the best

We have a "focus" for the day, but the other side of the ball still gets time
an offense day is typically an 50-60 minutes of O, 25-30 defense
next day the times are reversed


when we split it evenly, it never felt like we got a ton done

i do not like going ONLY one side of the ball per day, because i do not like 2 days between a kid thinking about our plays, and Indy work

also, if a kid misses an O day for whatever reason, now it is 3-4 days between a kid's next offensive practice

even on our defense days, i can get 30 minutes in... 20 Indy, 10 team... and we can get better

just my personal preference,

[****]

I've been in both situations. If you ever have the opportunity to go truly one way players. Do it. The amount of extra time you get is unreal.

At a small school we would go about 2.5 hours total of practice. Tuesday/Wednesday were our work days. Offense and defense would each get an hour total. If one ran a little over it was fine. Whatever time we had left was special teams. Majority of our special teams work was done on Thursday during walk throughs. But I subscribe to the idea that special teams should be as simple as it can be and require the least amount of time possible.

As said above I would not split days up between offense and defense for the reasons coachbdud stated.

[natenator]

Just a caveat:

We were a team with one-way players but low roster size coupled with injuries are forcing us to use two-way players so we're trying to figure out how to structure things going forward.

[CoachH]

Split the practice. Go longer on Offense one day and longer on Defense the other day. If you can only go 3 days, split the 3rd day. Script everything -- even your indy periods. I felt we got more out of going both O and D in one day, then just one side of the ball.

[fantom]

Jul 1, 2015 12:50:15 GMT -6 CoachH said:

Split the practice. Go longer on Offense one day and longer on Defense the other day. If you can only go 3 days, split the 3rd day. Script everything -- even your indy periods. I felt we got more out of going both O and D in one day, then just one side of the ball.

I disagree. We have an offensive day and a defensive day and, as a DC, I love it. I never have to worry that the HC/OC will go over and I'll either get my tine cut out or the kids will be mentally done and the segment will be a wsaste. 

[coachphillip]

Exactly my reasons for loving it too, fantom. On defensive days, I'm the HC. I dictate the tempo and tone of practice. I'm fully in control of what we're doing. I don't have to worry about the OC going over on team O by 20 minutes and continually saying "one more play." I don't have guys tired from running someone else's defense for thirty minutes of team O quickly turning around and doing a tackle circuit or something. Andddddddd we get to finish with a pursuit drill for conditioning. Love having one day for each.

[tango]

We use all not pad days 2 to 1 offense. Preseason offense and defense day. We use 20 minutes on offense everyday.
Once the games start, we try to do the same but we set our time around the defense. We throw everyday and we are a run first team.

[CoachH]

Jul 1, 2015 14:30:47 GMT -6 fantom said:

Jul 1, 2015 12:50:15 GMT -6 CoachH said:

Split the practice. Go longer on Offense one day and longer on Defense the other day. If you can only go 3 days, split the 3rd day. Script everything -- even your indy periods. I felt we got more out of going both O and D in one day, then just one side of the ball.

I disagree. We have an offensive day and a defensive day and, as a DC, I love it. I never have to worry that the HC/OC will go over and I'll either get my tine cut out or the kids will be mentally done and the segment will be a wsaste. 

I understand the issue with going over, but that's mainly on the HC and saying look you can go over by a minute or two, but after that we're moving on.


The problem I have with spending a whole day on one side of the ball is that our players aren't going to get individual work on O or D except one day a week. When we split it - We get more time on both O and D and it makes my guys work through things instead of sitting around having story time because their period is longer. I want things to be moving the whole time and I feel we get more work done when we go 50/40/10 each day. 

I also have had kids more energized by switching sides of the ball instead of staying on O or D the whole day. Some like Defense more, some like Offense more, this way they both get their favorite side of the ball too.

That works for us, it might not work for everyone though.

[hammerswat]

How do you structure practice when only some of your players play both sides? If you are splitting practice time, what are you doing with those players that only play one side of the ball during the opposite time? Such as during Indy or install time?

[fantom]

Jul 2, 2015 9:51:04 GMT -6 CoachH said:

Jul 1, 2015 14:30:47 GMT -6 fantom said:

I disagree. We have an offensive day and a defensive day and, as a DC, I love it. I never have to worry that the HC/OC will go over and I'll either get my tine cut out or the kids will be mentally done and the segment will be a wsaste. 

I understand the issue with going over, but that's mainly on the HC and saying look you can go over by a minute or two, but after that we're moving on.


The problem I have with spending a whole day on one side of the ball is that our players aren't going to get individual work on O or D except one day a week. When we split it - We get more time on both O and D and it makes my guys work through things instead of sitting around having story time because their period is longer. I want things to be moving the whole time and I feel we get more work done when we go 50/40/10 each day. 

I also have had kids more energized by switching sides of the ball instead of staying on O or D the whole day. Some like Defense more, some like Offense more, this way they both get their favorite side of the ball too.

That works for us, it might not work for everyone though.

We don't have any story time. 

[q1108]

If you just have a handful of kids playing both ways have them limited on what they do on their secondary side of the ball and then have several crossover periods where they go to the other side and work their stuff. For example one of my tackles plays d end also so he goes through my offensive practice and then during our crossover time he will go work d.

[DLgaDC]

We have focus days like many of the coaches above mentioned. Monday is O focus ST in the middle then D. Tuesday is the same just flip O/D. Wednesday is an even split with Thursday walkthru. The OC and myself will talk each week and decide who goes first on different days so the don't always go O first and are not as focused on D. If you plan practice right and the hard part stick to the script you should be able to get qualtiy time on both sides of the ball.