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Safety groups endorse practice guidelines for youth football

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Three medical organizations are endorsing USA Football’s new youth football practice guidelines in an effort to make the sport safer.

On Thursday, the sport’s national governing body announced the American College of Sports Medicine, National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) are backing measures to define “contact,” and to limit practices and the amount of contact that can occur at practice.

The guidelines recommend no more than four practices per week with no more than 30 minutes of full contact at any of those workouts.

USA Football defines full contact as drills run at competitive speed until the moment of a hit which occurs above the waist or drills run at game speed with players being taken to the ground.