Marty Smith’s recent television viewing is a big indicator of how much football has changed over the years.

Smith, who is entering his second season as the head football coach at Dallas County High School, said he’s been watching Australian rules football and rugby in an effort to learn new tackling techniques for the Hornets.

“The reason I am looking at those is most of those sports are played without pads,” Smith said. “They are physical and they are contact sports.”

Last month the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s central board approved turning practice guidelines it adopted in 2013 into bylaws. The practice rules start for the 2015-16 season and limit the amount of full-speed contact practices teams can have each week, which puts an emphasis on being able to  teach techniques without full contact.

The guidelines require teams to spend the first two days of fall practice in shorts and helmets. Shoulder pads and helmets can be worn on the third day, but not longer than 90 minutes. The fourth day helmets and shoulder pads can be worn for 120 minutes and the fifth day can be a full speed practice, but it cannot exceed 90 minutes.

After the first week, it gets less complicated. Week two and three allow for alternating days of full-speed contact practice, but the practices cannot exceed a total of 120 minutes of full speed contact practice per week. One intra-squad scrimmage is also allowed in week two and in week three.

Week four through the end of the season, 90 minutes of full-speed contact practice is allowed. Under the guidelines, full contact is defined as “live game simulations where live action occurs.”

Smith backs the rule changes in a big way. His daughter Beth Allen suffered three concussions in 10 months while playing basketball and volleyball in high school, so he understands the importance of protecting young athletes.

“It hits home for me,” Smith said. “… It basically cost her her high school career. We had to shut her down for an entire season, so concussions and young people are very dear to me.”

Smith has already been incorporating new techniques this spring. Along with teaching rugby style tackling, he’s also been using yoga balls in place of tackling dummies, a technique he learned from Auburn University and the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. Smith said the yoga balls have a bigger circumference than tackling dummies and allow him to teach tackling techniques more realistically and safely.

“We are using it in all of our individual drills,” Smith said. “That’s less time again that we are not having to use an actual player and tackle and have physical contact with somebody.”

Smith said the AHSAA deserves a lot of credit for recognizing that football is changing and for incorporating safer guidelines into the playing style. However, he said changes have to start at the youth level.

“As coaches, we’ve got to change our terminology, adapt to the new research and make our sport better and safer for young people,” Smith said.