How do you structure a 90-minute situational football practice?

The sheet: 90 minutes, 7 blocks

Coaching it in the trenches, block by block

1. Movement and warm-up

   Full warm-up. A ninety-minute session earns one and the later blocks need it.

   0:00 10 min
   Set up

   Cones across twenty-five yards, the squad in four lines.

   Run it

   Six minutes of movement and four of acceleration work. This is the only plan in the set with a genuine ninety minutes to spend, so the warm-up is a real one rather than the compressed version a sixty-minute slot forces.

   Say this

   • “Build up. You have ninety minutes to get through.”
   • “Last two are at full speed. Earn them.”

   Watch for

   Everybody moving through full range before anything competitive starts. The fourth-down block is eighty minutes away and it is the one where somebody pulls up injured.

   The mistake

   Running a sixty-minute warm-up because that is the habit. The session is half as long again and the back end of it is the most intense part.
2. Individual period

   Split by position. The only block today that is not situational.

   0:10 12 min
   Set up

   Three or four stations, each with its own cones and balls, rotating on a whistle.

   Run it

   Three or four minutes per station, by position group: receivers on releases and route stems, defensive backs on backpedal and playing the ball, quarterbacks and centres on the exchange and a three-count release. Everything after this block is a team period, so this is the only individual work of the session.

   Say this

   • “Station work. Get your reps in, the whistle moves you.”
   • “This is the last individual block. Use it.”

   Watch for

   Stations that start on the whistle without a coach organising them. At this age the transitions should be automatic, and if they are not the ninety minutes will become seventy.

   The mistake

   Letting one station overrun and eating the next one. Set a phone timer and move them on it, not on how the reps are going.

   Go deeper

   Stem the route
3. Team offense against air

   Full speed, no defense. Get the operation clean before the situations start.

   0:22 14 min
   Set up

   Full offense, no defense, a coach calling from behind the huddle.

   Run it

   Fourteen minutes of the call sheet run at tempo against nobody. The three situational blocks that follow all assume the operation works, so this is where a slow huddle or a mis-set line gets found and fixed. Run the red zone plays here too, so the next block is about the situation rather than about the plays.

   Say this

   • “Call it, break it, run it. Nothing else matters here.”
   • “Get lined up. We are on the clock in every block after this one.”

   Watch for

   The gap between the call and the snap. That single number determines whether the two-minute block later is a drill or a shambles.

   The mistake

   Skipping ahead to the situations because they are more interesting. Every minute saved here comes back as confusion in the red zone, where the field is shorter and the margin is smaller.
4. Red zone

   Ball on the ten. A short field takes the deep routes away and nobody expects that.

   0:36 16 min
   Set up

   Ball on the ten, cones marking the goal line and the end line, full defense in a real coverage.

   Run it

   Four series of three plays. The lesson is spatial and it lands immediately: the defense no longer has to defend deep, so every route that worked at midfield now finishes in the end zone with nowhere left to run. Show them once, then let them solve it with picks, rubs and quick throws.

   Say this

   • “There is no deep any more. Everything happens inside ten yards.”
   • “Get your feet in. The sideline is closer than you think.”

   Watch for

   Receivers adjusting their depth without being told. A team that runs its midfield depths on the ten has not understood the situation, whatever the play call said.

   The mistake

   Running the red zone block at midfield because it is where you were standing. The whole point is the compressed field, and it does not survive being simulated.
5. Two-minute

   Real clock, real stopping. Practise the clock, not just the plays.

   0:52 14 min
   Set up

   A running clock somebody is genuinely operating, ball at your own thirty.

   Run it

   Two drives with a real two minutes on the clock and one timeout each. The plays barely matter here; what is being trained is what happens between them, getting out of bounds, and whether anybody knows the clock stops on an incompletion. Most teams have never practised any of it.

   Say this

   • “Clock is running. Get up and get lined up.”
   • “Out of bounds or throw it away. Do not take the tackle inbounds.”

   Watch for

   Players getting to the line without being herded. The difference between a good two-minute team and a bad one is almost entirely the six seconds after each play.

   The mistake

   Stopping to coach mid-drive. It destroys the only thing this block simulates. Let the drive finish badly and coach it in the thirty seconds before the second one.
6. Fourth down

   Fourth and three, then fourth and one. The call and the decision, both.

   1:06 16 min
   Set up

   Ball at midfield, chains or cones marking a real line to gain, full defense.

   Run it

   Six fourth-and-three snaps, then six at fourth and one. Tell them the distance before the huddle and make the quarterback say the line to gain out loud. Half the value is the play and half is that a team which has practised fourth down stops treating it as a panic down.

   Say this

   • “Line to gain is right here. Say it back to me.”
   • “We only need three yards. Do not try to win the game on one play.”

   Watch for

   Routes that finish past the line to gain rather than at it. A receiver who sits down a yard short on fourth down is the most common way a good call fails.

   The mistake

   Running the same call on every rep. The point is the decision as much as the execution, so vary the distance and let them feel that fourth and one and fourth and three are different problems.
7. Break it down

   Three situations, three takeaways. Name them before anybody leaves.

   1:22 8 min
   Set up

   One circle, everybody in.

   Run it

   One takeaway from each of the three situations, and ask them rather than telling them. Then name the one situation you will revisit next week. Eight minutes is generous on purpose: this is the block where a ninety-minute session either gets consolidated or evaporates on the walk to the car park.

   Say this

   • “Red zone. What changed? Somebody tell me.”
   • “Next week we run two-minute again, and it will be tighter.”

   Watch for

   Players naming the spatial reason rather than the play. Understanding why the red zone is different is what transfers to a situation you did not practise.

   The mistake

   Cutting this to five because the fourth-down block was going well. Ninety minutes of situations with no consolidation is ninety minutes that will not be remembered by Thursday.

Why this order

• Situations in game order

  Red zone, then two-minute, then fourth down, because that is roughly the order a game presents them. A team that practises them out of sequence has rehearsed an hour it will never play.

• Operation before situation

  Every situational block assumes the huddle and the snap work. Fourteen minutes against air first is what stops the red zone block becoming a lesson in getting lined up.

• The red zone is a spatial problem

  A short field takes the deep routes away, so every route that worked at midfield now finishes with nowhere to run. That lands in one rep and it cannot be simulated at midfield.

• Two-minute is mostly not football

  What is being trained is the six seconds after each play. The plays are the easy part and most teams have never practised anything else about it.

Where to go next

• Open it in the plannerThis exact plan, editable. Drag drills in, move blocks up or down, then print the sheet.
• The drill libraryFilter by the problem you have, the space you have and the age you coach. Anything there drops into this plan.

The 90 minutes, block by block

1. 1

   0 to 10 minutes: Movement and warm-up

   Full warm-up. A ninety-minute session earns one and the later blocks need it.

2. 2

   10 to 22 minutes: Individual period

   Split by position. The only block today that is not situational.

3. 3

   22 to 36 minutes: Team offense against air

   Full speed, no defense. Get the operation clean before the situations start.

4. 4

   36 to 52 minutes: Red zone

   Ball on the ten. A short field takes the deep routes away and nobody expects that.

5. 5

   52 to 66 minutes: Two-minute

   Real clock, real stopping. Practise the clock, not just the plays.

6. 6

   66 to 82 minutes: Fourth down

   Fourth and three, then fourth and one. The call and the decision, both.

7. 7

   82 to 90 minutes: Break it down

   Three situations, three takeaways. Name them before anybody leaves.

Adapting it

• Sixty minutes instead of ninety

  Keep the warm-up, the team period and two of the three situations. Drop fourth down, which is the one most teams can survive improvising, and keep red zone and two-minute.

• Younger than high school

  Halve the fourth-down block and put the time into red zone. Fourth down at youth level is usually a coaching decision rather than an execution problem, and red zone is where the points are.

• A team with a first game next week

  Swap the fourth-down block for a full-speed drive with real downs. In the week before a first game the operation is worth more than any individual situation.

What to cut when you are running late

• Cut the individual period

  It is the only non-situational block in the session, which makes it the honest thing to lose if the warm-up overran. The situations are the reason for the ninety minutes.

• Never cut the break-down

  Eight minutes is generous on purpose. Ninety minutes of situations with no consolidation is ninety minutes nobody remembers by Thursday.

• Do not shorten two-minute

  It needs a full drive twice to teach anything. One rushed drive teaches the opposite lesson, which is that two-minute is chaos.

Take it to your team

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