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Yesterday, word came that the WFCA and WIAA were working on a joint proposal that would for the first time set limits on the type and amount of contact football players could have during practice, both before and during the season.

Not surprisingly, initial reaction by players and fans was negative, with comments ranging from "This is the dumbest thing" to "less contact in practice will be worse" to "if contact is such a problem they should just ban football and we can play tennis".

However, will these new regulations actually change what is already being done?

Most coaches I've spoken to over the last few years already indicate they limit the amount of live tackling and contact in practice, especially during the season. When the Fall Acclimatization was being discussed recently and it was noted contact limits could be coming as well, many coaches indicated they'd already been following similar procedures anyways, with great success.

Several coaches chimed in on Twitter when I posted the question there.

Racine St. Catherine's assistant coach Scott McAuliffe:  "we only go to the ground maybe 30 min a week. We stay mostly 'wrap' or 'thud'. Keep kids off the ground to avoid injury. practice head and arm placement. Pick up and drive. This wont affect us much at all. Small school cant afford injuries. im sure 95% of coaches are already in compliance with this."

Onalaska head coach Tom Yashinsky:  "go to the ground tackling, less than 10 minutes week if any. Inside run and team is live on the o/d line wrap on ball carrier. total thud/full contact time is around 60 minutes currently. 30 min tues/wed each Any more than that we increase injuries"

Winneconne offensive coordinator Brian Keller (whose team just won the D4 title):  "we run the same program as @TYash42 (Coach Tom Yashinsky)"

Johnson Creek assistant coach Trent Probst:  "we limit full contact. Would already be in compliance. Lot of half pad drills. Small school it is must"

Milwaukee Pulaski/Reagan head coach Greg Roman:  "fine line for City schools. Lack of depth a concern, but have to teach some kids who haven't played organized FB how to tackle. that being said, we fit the model already and would guess most City schools do as well."

La Crosse Central assistant coach Kevin Colburn:  "we do almost 0 go to the ground tackling. Probably less than an hour of thud...mainly wrap all week"

I also spoke to Kimberly head coach Steve Jones, who's team won the Division 2 state title, and longtime Menomonie head coach Joe LaBuda, who has won five state championships with a pair of runner-up trophies. Both highly-successful coaches indicated they are already doing most or all of the requirements from the proposed contact regulations.

According to Jones, they rarely if ever do full tackling in practice during the season that takes players to the ground. Any contact periods are done using the "thud" technique. He estimated that they only do about 45 minutes of "thud" per week, and these new contact regulations would have little to no impact on how they set up and run practices.

Likewise, LaBuda said that his program has limited contact in practice for many years. They don't even do full pads on Mondays or Thursdays, and he did not think the 60 minute limit on "thud"/live contact would be an issue for them the rest of the week.

Said Hurley head coach Scott Erickson, "None of the new rules will have an impact on our structure of practice here. We only wear pads two days a week and rarely bring anybody to the ground in contact time.

"We would have been fully compatible with the new rules for the last 20 years. Keeping kids fresh and healthy is especially important in small school football, and that is always our goal."