Teams adjust as NCAA ends two-a-day practices
The two-a-day football practices that coaches once used to toughen up their teams and cram for the start of the season are going the way of tear-away jerseys and the wishbone formation.
As part of its efforts to increase safety, the NCAA approved a plan this year that prevents teams from holding multiple practices with contact in a single day.
The move has forced plenty of schools to alter their practice calendar, with many teams opening their preseason as early as this week.
Officials don’t mind if it causes a few logistical headaches as long as it reduces the head injuries that had become all too common this time of year.
“It just makes all the sense in the world,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said.
According to the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute, 58 per cent of the football practice concussions that occur over the course of a year happen during the preseason. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said August also is a peak month for catastrophic injuries resulting from conditioning rather than contact, such as heatstroke and cardiac arrest.
“There was just something about that month really stood out,” Hainline said.
“We couldn’t say with statistical certainty if this was because of the two-a-days, but there was enough consensus in the room and enough preliminary data that it looked like it was because of the two-a-days.”
Some coaches believe the benefits could go beyond reducing concussions.
Teams still can hold two practices on a given day, but one of those practices can only be a “walkthrough” that includes no contact, helmets, pads or conditioning activities.
Three hours of recovery are required between a practice and a walkthrough, though meetings can be held during that period.