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How long should youth football practice be?
It is my opinion that too many youth football coaches practice too long. The younger the players, the shorter each practice should run. I believe there is a point when the players burn out and their attention span goes away. I have always maintained that the young players have the attention span of an earthworm.
My youth football practices are very efficient. Each minute is accounted for with no time wasted. Each drill has a purpose and builds to a bigger drill or purpose. I have the entire year mapped out from the beginning of tryouts and have a very good idea on how long it will take to prepare the team properly. The preparation I do on my own time saves hours of wasted time on the field.
I believe that once you start going over an hour of actual practice time, you will start to lose the players attention. I allow time to warm the team up, run agilities, exercises and time to address the team before and after practice. These few items take between 15-30 minutes. That makes my total youth football practices run from one hour and fifteen minutes to one and one half hours.
If I need to work on any special drills or skills, I will have only that group (usually backs or lineman) come before the group practice. This will be for 20 to 30 minutes and is rarely done with the younger kids. I do this all the time with older kids, especially if I choose to use the Run and Shoot. The timing and quarterbacking for this offense takes extra time at the youth football level.
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