More Spring Practice?

Dienhart, Tom. "NCAA's Rules for Spring Drills are Hurting, Not Helping." Sporting News 225.17 (2001): 66. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Nov. 2010.

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The first sentence Tom Dienhart writes is, “The NCAA loves rules.” Some proposed rules changes include athletes being able to earn money for conducting private lessons and obtain one-time bank loans of $20,000. Dienhart focuses in on rules for spring practicing. Teams can only practice 15 times in a 29 consecutive day span. Tom believes that schools should be allowed 20 days to practice. He says that spring is the time for leaning, and you cannot learn better than rolling around in the dirt. Joe Tiller, Purdue’s coach, says that athletes are coming with more athletic ability but poorer skills. Tiller believes that spring time is the time of year to work on skill development and fundamentals. Dienhart also believes more spring practices can help new coaches and by letting the coach get to know their players and apply a new plays that the college athletes have never done. Dienhart says that the number of spring practices being reduced was for academics and safety reasons, but he doesn’t believe that either is a plausible reason for the change.

Dienhart makes some good points with having more days to practice during summer. For new coaches at a college, more practices would help the coaches and athletes to make more of a connection like all the other teams may have with their coaches and understand one another. If someone was to read Tom Dienhart’s article over spring practice they might consider that there are more pros than cons. Sure, having 15 practices give athletes more time for practice and less injuries, but if they want to be great practice is what athletes need to be successful. With 15 practices instead of 20 is the NCAA trying to keep athletes from getting better? If someone interested in NCAA rules would benefit greatly from Dienhart’s article. The reader would see how coaches think having more practices during the spring can significantly increase a team’s overall performance. Shouldn’t the NCAA want players to be great and become successful? If so what are they waiting for?