FHSAA To Limit Live Contact During Football Practices

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Talk to any football player and they'll regale you with tales of how hard football practice is.

Whether it's the sweltering weather conditions, the length of the practice or how a particular coach demanded things of them – they'll typically speak with just a hint of pride.

Those practices are about to become safer – at least in the eyes of the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The FHSAA announced late Monday via FloridaHSFootball.com that it would be implementing rules that would limit the amount of "live contact" that football players are allowed to have during practice – starting this coming August.

Florida's high school sports governing body defines "live contact" as "drills with game-like conditions where players are taken to the ground".

The new rules are being put into place as an added measure to increase player safety and to minimalize the risk of contact-related injuries. Concussions safety remains a hot button topic in the football world – trickling down to the youth/Pop Warner level, where medical professionals are continuing to ask the question: "how can the game of football be made safer?"

The rule regulates the amount of days per week that practices may have live contact. During the regular season and postseason, live contact during practice will only be allowed for up to three practice days per week with no more than two consecutive days being allowed to have live contact practice.

Also, live contact practices can only be a maximum of 30 minutes per day and a total of 80 minutes for the entire week.

The preseason practice rules have also been slightly amended. Still, teams will start the first five days of practice of the season going through an acclimatization period which incorporates what kind of contact or non-contact can be had by a player with select practice equipment.

Preseason practices may have up to 40 minutes of live contact, but with no more than two consecutive days being allowed; meaning if a team holds preseason practices with live contact on Monday and Tuesday, it cannot have live contact again until Thursday.

And as a silent enforcer, the FHSAA will also require schools to keep a written practice plan in compliance with Administrative procedures. The practice plan must be prepared in advance and be maintained by the school for at least 12 months and be made available upon request.

Miami Central head football coach Roland Smith, who's led the Rockets to three straight state titles and has four rings on his resume, said that he only sees positives from the new rule.

"To make a run to a state title, you have to be healthy," Smith said. "So having a rule like this – which is not too different from some of the guidelines that we already follow – isn't going to affect us all that much. During the fall, we don't take anyone to the ground and I know our trainers and coaches will be fully up to speed on the rule to make sure that we're in compliance and that we keep our guys as safe as possible."

Powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas has already taken strides in player safety on the practice field – implementing innovative technology of tackling donuts and a remote controlled, tackling dummy that mimics player movements and cuts down on player-to-player contact.

FHSAA Football Administrator Frank Beasley made a statement in FHSF's story.

"The game of football will always come with some inherent risk, but we will never stop working to try and make one of the greatest team sports on earth safer," Beasley said. "We will continue our efforts to educate and teach coaches on the Drive to December about how to run effective practices while using the limited-contact procedures."