10 Advantages of the 90 Minute Practice Plan
How to Get More Done in Less Time with Efficient Practice Planning.
One of the most important steps to preparing a great practice plan is deciding on your Focus for the day. Every position group - and every player - needs a specific focus for improvement to measure the success of practice.
NOVEMBER 13, 2025
Written by Joe Daniel
Joe Daniel Football
Recently a coach asked me...
"Besides getting home early, what is the advantage of the 90-Minute Practice Plan?"
It's a good question. It makes sense in the dollars-for-hours world in which most people live. Work longer, get paid better.
That also makes sense for the grind-all-the-time culture of football coaching. Put in the time if you want to see great results.
In my early days of coaching, every coaching staff's office had a land line. Do you remember those?
Well we were preparing to open our season against a team whose head coach we all knew personally.
There was a running joke that summer. A few of us young and obsessed coaches were working all day every day. The days ended hours after the kids went home from workouts. Sometimes well after 10pm, even on days that started before the sun came up.
Finally we'd start packing up to go home. Someone would make the joke: "Call Sean's office. See if they're still there first."
Sometimes we laughed and went home. Sometimes we called. And if someone answered on the other end, we went back to work.
I'm serious. We were dumb.
That is the mentality. You may not call and hang up like a lovesick school girl in the 1980s. But a lot of coaches think that way.
Put in more hours if you want to win more games.
It's outdated. It was stupid then, and it is stupid now.
So here it is. 10 Advantages of the 90-Minute Practice Plan. Starting with...
Practice Planning is fast and easy when you have a shell you update for each practice. Change your focus, change the drills to attack the focus, and get to work. Click here to get my practice plan templates free.
1. You Have a Plan.
Seems obvious. Make a plan, follow it, have better practices. But the 90-minute limitation makes sure you are going to follow that rule.
Go without a plan? Your 90 minutes flies by and you have accomplished nothing.
2. You Have a Focus for Your Plan.
This has become the critical piece of the 90-Minute Practice Plan. More than anything else, you must decide what you want to get done.
It's written on the plan, you tell the players what it is. Everyone knows the job that needs to get done today. We don't have time to run five different Every Day Drills. You can bet if we are running a drill, it is to attack the focus.
3. Practices are Easier to Evaluate.
Was this a good practice? Bad practice? Coaches and players tend to judge that by how hard you worked. How tired you were. But that doesn't win games.
You had a focus going into the practice. Did you get the job done? Are you closer to it than you were yesterday? Good practice.
4. Less Complaints from Parents.
The Containers Principle is one of my core coaching principles. It states that everything needs a beginning and an end.
For practice planning, that means we start on time and end on time. No exceptions. Parents come to pick your players up on time.
There is no "Do it Wrong Do it Long" or "Start Over." Done in 90 minutes. Time to go.
5. Coaches Stay Focused.
Put an end to the Clinics on the Field. No more standing around with your hands in your pockets talking about the Monday Night game.
Coaches learn that if you waste time, your group falls behind.
6. Players Stay Focused.
Early in the first season we used this, our players had a bad practice. At the end of the 90 minutes, I called them up to end practice.
"How was the effort today," I asked them. "Bad, coach. We'll get it right. Let's start this over!"
Nope. That was the old way. Practice ends at 90 minutes. We are done. Today is gone, and we can never get it back.
We did not have another bad practice the rest of the season. Kids can gut it out for 90 minutes.
Using the 90-Minute Practice Plan helps keep both players and coaches focus. They don't let their mind wander thinking about bad A.I. images of blonde girls in a football uniform with two different numbers.
7. Coaches Don't Get Burned Out.
My coaching staff hated it the first couple of weeks. They felt rushed and unprepared. I knew they'd have to adapt. Yes, your first couple weeks look like a mess.
They adapted. Football is a long season. By the playoffs, we felt fresh. I felt better than I'd ever felt that late in the season. My staff told me the same thing.
8. Players Stay Healthy, Longer.
We started that first season with 27 healthy Varsity players. There were several factors along with the 90-Minute Practice Plan.
We had a veteran team. Our JDFB Weight Room training has a core injury prevention component that works. And of course we had our bumps and bruises.
But we went into our 2nd round playoff game with 27 healthy Varsity players. No one quit. No one major injuries. And we practice in full pads tackling to the ground three days a week.
9. Parents and Players Can't Use Grades as an Excuse.
Kids are kids and sometimes they have academic problems. You need to make sure to support that in many ways.
But the 90-Minute Practice Plan was a great combatant for "He needs to study because his grades are low." Or work on a project or anything else.
Ma'am, we are going to be off this field in 90 minutes. Are you telling me he would go home and study from 3pm to 4:30pm? Aren't you at work then? Nah. He'll be home in plenty of time.
10. Happy Wife, Happy Life.
It's good to get home at a reasonable time. Kick the coaching staff out. Don't let them hang around and kill time.
Get the prep work done on the weekend. Plan to meet after practice, but keep it quick. Keep one coach on duty each day (rotate this) to make sure the kids are all gone. Everyone else, go home to your family.
There are many, many more benefits to the 90-Minute Practice Plan. But it comes down to three things for me: 1) Forced Organization, 2) Healthy Players, 3) Happy Family.
Ready to give the 90-Minute Practice Plan a shot? Click here to download the 90-Minute Practice Plan Template now:
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- 4-2-5 Defense Positions: Fitting Your Personnel to Your System
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Defensive Playbook Weaknesses FAQ
Q1: What are the four types of weaknesses I should look for in my defensive playbook?
The four main weaknesses you need to identify in every defensive play call are Numbers Advantages, Space on the Field, Seams and Bubbles, and Leverage and Angles. These categories cover how the offense can gain an advantage in blocking, spacing, or positioning. Every defensive call will have at least one of these weaknesses, and understanding where they exist helps you plan adjustments and keep your defense sound.
Q2: Why is it important for coaches and players to understand the weaknesses in their defense?
When coaches and players understand the weaknesses in their defense, they can stay confident and prepared. Coaches know where to move personnel and what adjustments to make when the offense attacks those weak spots. Players stay focused because they already know the defense isn’t perfect and that there’s a plan to handle those situations. This awareness turns potential mistakes into opportunities to execute adjustments instead of panicking.
Q3: How do different types of defensive play calls affect the weaknesses in your defense?
Each type of defensive play call creates a different balance of strengths and weaknesses. Base calls have the fewest weaknesses and can be used against almost any offense. Movement calls, like stunts or coverage disguises, add more potential for breakdowns and open up more weak spots. Aggressive calls, such as blitzes, create the strongest pressure in one area but also leave the most weaknesses elsewhere. The more aggressive or complex the call, the more exposed your defense can become if the offense finds the right spot.
Q4: How can recognizing defensive weaknesses help you make better in-game adjustments?
Recognizing defensive weaknesses before and during the game helps you respond faster when the offense starts attacking them. Instead of guessing or making random changes on the sideline, you already know where the problems might show up and how to fix them. That preparation lets you adjust alignments, shift personnel, or change calls with confidence. The best coaches do not invent adjustments on the fly. They plan them ahead of time by understanding their weaknesses.
Q5: Can you eliminate all weaknesses from your defense with the right play calls?
No, every defense has weaknesses. When you strengthen one part of your defense, you create a weakness somewhere else. The only way to remove every weakness is to have far superior athletes than your opponent. Since that is rarely the case, the goal is not to eliminate weaknesses but to understand them and make smart adjustments to minimize their impact.
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