In military College they could only do sets of ten. But there was no time limit. We would be “up” for a while. Then 2 inches off the deck, for a while. Then back in a “forward leaning rest” position for a while.
In essence, we did 30 minute planks pretty much every day for a couple months.
A couple hundred push-ups would have been a nice break.
Those were the days….
Summer 1983, Fort Sill, OK, even the Army forced us take water breaks. Getting caught without a canteen full of water was considered a major malfunction.
Also, during lecture breaks we would be formed up outside and sprayed down with water.
This coach is an idiot and an ass if he didn’t let his team drink water. Pushups galore not really the problem here, it is the unsafe conditioning/training.