IHSA New Football Policy

The IHSA released its new Football Acclimatization Policy, in early May of this year, which will govern how often and how long teams can work out at the start of the preseason, along with what equipment they can wear. The concept is to protect the players, but it doesn't come without some contradictions. The highlights are as follows: * Teams can practice no more than three hours a day for each of the first five days. After that, they can alternate three- and five-hour practice days through Day 14 of the football calendar. On the five-hour days, no single practice can go longer than three hours and there must be two-hour breaks between workouts. * The first two days of practice, only helmets are allowed. Then teams can be in helmets and shoulder pads for three days, followed by full pads thereafter. * Workouts are banned for the first two Sundays of the football preseason.

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FACEBOOK AmateurSports365.com likes Amateur Sports News Network Create your Like Badge Join our Amateur Sports Digital Newsletter by Express Email Marketing   That may be the rule, rather than the exception, around the state, given how most school calendars are set up and when football starts this year (Wednesday, Aug. 14). These new rules also points out an odd situation: IHSA practice rules now are more restrictive at the start of workouts in mid- to late August than they are during the height of the summer heat. Coaches in football, as in other sports, are allowed 25 contact days with their athletes during the summer. Apart from equipment guidelines (first two days helmet-only, then three days of helmet and shoulder pads), there aren’t many restrictions for summer work. It’s up to coaches’ judgment how long, how hard and how often they work out each day. IHSA assistant executive director Craig Anderson, who oversees football, said during a conference call that the football and sports medicine advisory committees would like to see an acclimatization policy for the summer as well. They hope to have one in place in time for the 2014 season. The idea for now is for coaches to use common sense and not overwork their players during the summer contact days even though there’s no rule in place to prevent that. In the meantime, the focus is on the fall rule, which IHSA associate executive director Kurt Gibson said has been a while in the making. “This has been an area of concern for the [sports medicine advisory committee] for the past four, five years,” said Gibson, who chairs that committee. Given the amount of discussion and input, Gibson said coaches shouldn’t have been caught off guard. “We recognize this is a big change,” he said. “But it’s not something that hasn’t been out there for a number of years.” How big of a problem that will be remains to be seen. But for the sake of the players whose health was the driving force behind the new rule and for the sake of the teams that follow the rule, hopefully it won’t be much of an issue. Read more from IHSA here

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