As we enter mid-August, high school football players are almost two weeks into the annual pigskin tradition of two-a-day practices. Having survived 15 seasons of two-a-days ( 7 years as a high school and college player as well as another 8 years as a high school coach), I decided to create my list of the highs and lows of this rite of passage into football manhood.
POSITIVE: WE GET TO HIT!!!
Football can be a very physical, violent game. Hitting (both blocking and tackling) is THE key element to to the sport’s identity. Players spend their off-season lifting weights as well as doing speed and agility training to put themselves in peak physical condition. All that time and sweat invested finally comes to fruition when the pads come on in early August. The work is done. Now it’s time to hit!!! Whether it be individual, group, or full team scenarios, there’s plenty of ‘chum in the water’ for the football sharks to get their fill of the frenzy of hitting. (gotta get my Shark Week plug in there).
NEGATIVE: WE HAVE TO HIT 🙁
For a football player, not much beats the feeling of laying a good hit on an opponent. On game day, that is. The adrenaline rush of playing in a game seems to fuel the appetite for the physicality of the gridiron. Practices, though, are a whole different matter. Sure, there are some players that love to hit all the time in practice. They usually fall into three categories:
- 1. The bigger, stronger guys
2. The crazy guys
3. The big and crazy guys
I fell into none of those categories, and I am guessing a good number of players have felt the same way. Tolerate the practice hitting to get to the fun of the game hitting. We don’t mind a little bit of hitting. The problem is that when you try to give pain, you usually also receive pain. Sore heads, smashed fingers, monkey bubbles on the forearms, bruised ribs, tender knees, and rolled ankles are just part of the list of side effects of blocking and tackling. For some reason, the NFL doesn’t read off these side effects at the end of a game like the end of one of those Viagra commercials! And I was fortunate enough not to have to be an offensive or defensive lineman. Those poor guys have to pound on each other the whole practice!
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NEGATIVE: The early bird gets the worm
The typical high school male likes to stay up late and sleep in late. Waking up at 7 am for football practice kind of messes up that ideal schedule. II was never a napper as a kid, but I became one soon after entering the world of two-a-days
NEGATIVE: the early bird gets the worm…in wet grass
At 8 am, a beautiful dew glistens across the lush grasses of Ohio…
And then you have to sit down and stretch in it. Not as refreshing as one might think for a hot August morning. As a player, you just feel wet and musty. And that feeling seems to stick with you for the rest of the day ( I guess that is another perk to having artificial turf as more and more schools do). Even as a coach, you come in from practice, and take your shoes and socks off to see a pair of bright white shriveled up feet…
It took me until a few years of coaching to have 2nd set of socks and shoes for the afternoon. Speaking of which…
NEGATIVE: it’s hot out!
Going out for afternoon practice is a rude awakening. Morning temperatures are pretty comfortable. But afternoon practice is just hot. And when you factor in that your body is sore and tired from them morning session, the temperature feels VERY HOT!!!
POSITIVE: it’s fun to chuck the ball around!
Football is a fun sport. Most of us are introduced to it throwing the football with dad. One of my early traditions with my boys was to throw passes to them as they jumped into the couch as we watched a Browns game. We had to get some enjoyment out of those painful Sunday afternoons! Kids then graduate to backyard football. I will let you into a secret about backyard football. 99.9% of the time, no one lines up to be an offensive lineman and block all day. It’s about passing the ball, catching the ball, and either trucking or juking guys out on your way to the end zone for a touchdown dance. My preference was do the Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson…
When you get to high school two-a-days, the joy and freedom of backyard football is gone for the most part. Well, except for seven-on-seven passing drills, or as some call it, ‘perimeter’. No linemen involved, except for maybe the center snapping the ball and blocking an invisible man (maybe one of those ghost men from a nearby baseball game?) Offense runs pass plays, and the defensive backs and linebackers try to stop them. Pretty darn fun. I was a quarterback and safety, so it was both a blast to throw the ball around (as long as you didn’t throw an interception and get an earful from the coach) and do my best Ronnie Lott imitation on defense trying to intercept the ball. It is also fun to coach as well! On the flip side, I did a couple of years coaching teams that ran the wing-T offense. Working on blocking the buck sweep properly over and over scores just a bit lower on the joy meter.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2
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