The Florida High School Athletic Association has taken another step in trying to make football safer, announcing that it will scale back live-contact football practices during the regular season.

The live contact - essentially drills that emulate game conditions and full-contact tackling - will be limited to 30 minutes per day during the regular season. Teams won't be allowed to have live contact more than two consecutive days, and are capped at 80 minutes of total live contact per week. It goes into effect on Aug. 1.

"Player safety has and will always be the number one goal of the FHSAA," executive director Roger Dearing said in a release. "Protecting our student-athletes is paramount in growing the game of football and this administrative procedure is a step in the right direction."

The move puts the FHSAA in line with the National Federation of High Schools recommendations that full-contact practices be scaled back to help reduce head injuries. The NFHS Concussion Summit Task Force made recommendations in a July 2014 report that detailed the risks of full contact practices. It cited several states - Alabama, Arizona, Maryland and Texas - that implemented full-contact practice reductions prior to the 2013 season and saw a reduction in practice-related concussions.

The Georgia High School Association adopted a similar measure last year, implementing 30 minutes of full-contact practice during the regular season and playoffs, with a 90-minute per week maximum.

THUMBS UP

Several area coaches said that the move is largely a positive one. Raines coach Deran Wiley said that it will help keep players healthier during the season and force coaches to decide how to best maximize their allowable practice minutes.

"It's kind of good and bad, good because it's going to keep guys healthy, but the bad is it's going to cut down some of the live work you can get," Wiley said.

University Christian coach David Penland III said that the new regulations are good for the game, and that he's been scaling back live contact practices and done away with full-contact drills like "Oklahoma" to prevent injuries to players.

"I've talked to some college coaches whose players don't even wear helmets in some of their hit drills so that they don't hit with their heads," Penland said. "I think for the sake of football, it's good. With all this concussion stuff, you don't want to lose somebody during the week. When we go [full] team, it's 15 minutes of good on good, then 10 minutes of the scout team."

During preseason and spring practices, teams are permitted to put players in helmets, jerseys and shorts for the first two days. On days 3-5, players are allowed to practice in shells (helmets, jerseys, shorts and pads). On the sixth day through the start of the regular season, full pads, and 40 minutes of live contact are allowed before teams then segue into the regular season practice guidelines.

"We thank leadership of the FHSAA for working with us on these practice-field restrictions," said Terry O'Neil, founder of the group Practice Like Pros, which encourages less contact in high school football.

Justin Barney: (904) 359-4248