CHICAGO – Pop Warner football players won’t be taking quite as many hits from now on.

The youth organization said it is limiting contact in practice to try to make the game safer for young players starting this year.

It said coaches must limit contact to no more than one-third of their practice time. It also is banning full-speed, head-on blocking or tackling drills in which players line up more than 3 yards apart. The organization said coaches can have full-speed drills where players approach each other at an angle but “not straight ahead into each other.” It also said there should be no head-to-head contact.