Depending on which state you live in, there are roughly eight weeks until the start of organized football camp. But who’s counting?

Yes, you are.  

While eight weeks may seem like eternity now, many football coaches are already planning their practice sessions. So while you’re tinkering with how you’re going to schedule your sessions this summer, here’s a glimpse into what more than 1,000 youth coaches feel were the most effective type of practice. XandOLabs.com conducted the study, which is free and accessed by entering your email here.

Along with following USA Football’s National Practice Guidelines for Youth Football, here are five of the most common approaches the survey uncovered.

Have a practice plan. According to our research, 89 percent of youth coaches devise a practice plan. In fact, 67 percent of those coaches will only deviate from that plan once in a while. What’s more astonishing is that more than 10 percent do not. Regardless of what you plan to do this football camp, make sure it is documented and more importantly make sure the rest of your coaches have a copy. USA Football members can access a practice plan application through their dashboards.

Have 10 or fewer practice periods. The majority of contributing youth coaches schedule 10 or fewer practice periods per day, and each period lasts between five and 10 minutes. If you do the math, that is 100 minutes – less than two hours – total practice time. The longest session should is 15 minutes. It’s important to keep practices moving quickly and fun in order to not burn the players out.

The fundamental thirds principle. 61 percent of youth coaches say that fundamental work should consist of at least one-third of total practice time. These periods can come in the form of blocking drills, tackling drills, ball security drills, etc. Fundamentals must be learned before turning up the tempo. USA Football guidelines stress no more than 30 minutes of full-speed drills per day.

Design an active warm-up. 78 percent of coaches who responded start practice with a stretch period, and 66 percent combine static (stationary) with dynamic (movement) stretches. While this methodology can be applied to all levels of football, youth coaches feel it is important to get younger players motivated to start practice, citing that energy factor carries over. Payers sprawled out haphazardly on the field can sometimes focus more on picking blades of grass than properly stretching.

Make conditioning position specific. One of the aspects of youth practice that hasn't changed much is finishing with a form of conditioning. More than 50 percent of coaches still use this format. What has changed is the way that youth coaches are conditioning. Nearly 70 percent of youth coaches now use position specific conditioning rather than the typical wind sprints, gasssers or stations. Some examples of this type of conditioning comes in the form of sled pushes for lineman, running rapid plays on air for skill players and angle pursuit drills for defensive players.

This information is just a synopsis of what we found. The full survey includes looks at:

• Productive conditioning stations
• Productive tackling drill stations
• Using competition to motivate players
• Approaches to discipline

So, enjoy the rest of the summer because camp will come even sooner that you would expect.  

Mike Kuchar is co-founder and senior research manager at XandOLabs.com, a private research company specializing in coaching concepts and trends. Reach him at mike@xandolabs.com  or follow him on Twitter @mikekkuchar.