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Tackling Technique

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Someone that knows a lot more about how tackling is taught...please answer this.

After watching the game again on the Power Hour, you see the opening kickoff, where an EASY tackle is not made because the defender just throws himself at the returner's legs and misses. If he actually tried to wrap him up or even PUSH him out of bounds that play never happens and the whole game probably has a different tone.

I understand that if you tried to use your arms on every tackle there would be a lot more injuries but I see so many tackles (even in the NFL) that could have been made if people weren't just trying to throw a shoulder into someone and actually tried to tackle them. Is that what is taught?
 
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Grab, grab,grab, all we do is grab, no one's is tackling out there! We have a number of defensive players that do not hit hard or tackle from the waist to the knees. This has been going on for a few years. Lot's of wiffs with head down, missed pushes out of bounds with the ball carrier on the sidelines, soft attempts to grab the shoulders as the ball carrier blows right by them. Watching the games involving top 25 teams and see how hard the secondary's tackle.
 
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Gratz is a prime example of how not to tackle. Exploding through the target and wrapping up is how you tackle. Diving while turning your back to hopefully trip someone up is horrible form and he's been doing it all year. His pick was nice however.
 
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Gary is a 4 letter word that shall not be uttered. Every time i saw wilburn on the field, I said to my friends, "they are going to target him because he is always behind, chasing his receiver and there is not certainty he can make the tackle." sure enough, he was the guy who gave up the long ball, just like the western michigan game. A real liability in crunch time. He is a prime example of taking bad angles and even poorer tackling effort. The fact that Mack has not emerged from the rest of the back-ups perplexes me. I'm sorry, but I cringe when our nickel package falters consistently.
 

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Gratz is a prime example of how not to tackle. Exploding through the target and wrapping up is how you tackle. Diving while turning your back to hopefully trip someone up is horrible form and he's been doing it all year. His pick was nice however.

Agreed. All Gratz does is run into someone and hope they either fall down or go out of bounds. Horrible tackler.
 
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PolisHusky, I agree with your analysis 100%... I would also put safety Jerome Junior in that grab grab, push push, wrong angles... category…
 

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Someone that knows a lot more about how tackling is taught...please answer this.

After watching the game again on the Power Hour, you see the opening kickoff, where an EASY tackle is not made because the defender just throws himself at the returner's legs and misses. If he actually tried to wrap him up or even PUSH him out of bounds that play never happens and the whole game probably has a different tone.

I understand that if you tried to use your arms on every tackle there would be a lot more injuries but I see so many tackles (even in the NFL) that could have been made if people weren't just trying to throw a shoulder into someone and actually tried to tackle them. Is that what is taught?

Agree that tackling was horrible particularly in the first quarter. One thing that was pointed out to me in the game chat though that the horribly missed tackle on the kickoff return that you seem to be referring to was made by the kickoff guy (Christen?). It was a pathetic attempt in my book but as others pointed out, the guy is a kicker. If we have to rely on him to make a play then the coverage is already in trouble. Seems to me that someone in coverage missed their lane and let the returner spring through.
 
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Grab, grab,grab, all we do is grab, no one's is tackling out there! We have a number of defensive players that do not hit hard or tackle from the waist to the knees. This has been going on for a few years. Lot's of wiffs with head down, missed pushes out of bounds with the ball carrier on the sidelines, soft attempts to grab the shoulders as the ball carrier blows right by them. Watching the games involving top 25 teams and see how hard the secondary's tackle.
I wonder how many people on this board know who you're quoting?
 
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Agree that tackling was horrible particularly in the first quarter. One thing that was pointed out to me in the game chat though that the horribly missed tackle on the kickoff return that you seem to be referring to was made by the kickoff guy (Christen?). It was a pathetic attempt in my book but as others pointed out, the guy is a kicker. If we have to rely on him to make a play then the coverage is already in trouble. Seems to me that someone in coverage missed their lane and let the returner spring through.

I'm talking about the first guy that missed. That wasn't the kicker.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.237894,-73.077098
 
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Head up, wrap and drive. They teach it from day one and coaches need to keep teaching it at all levels. Eeverybody wants to make the big hit. The reality is being under control and exploding through the ball carrier, wrapping and driving is and remains the habit of the best defensive players...at least on the run.
On kick cover, you will see players were not getting down field in their lanes. Huge holes opened up because players were being engaged up field and not freeing themselves up. There was no energy on kick cover. You need toal kicker pyschos on kick cover, looking to blow up, and not afraid to get blasted.

A lot of this is poor coaching, lack of discipline and focus. The team is a mess.
 
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Poor tackling is nothing new for this team. I think it is safe to say we have been watching Jerome Junior and Harris Agbor missing tackles for the last 3 seasons. Poor tackling is the one constant gripe about the defense for as long as I can remember.
 
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ACtually kind of rare to see text book form 1-1 open field tackling during games, it's just not a situation that presents often. In my opinion, tackling is the thing about football that is the most talent and natural ability thing on the field. You just cant' really teach angles, leverage, you can just go out do it. The best tackler I ever saw was a kid that grew up on a farm in northwest CT that I played with. He said it was because all he did as a kid was bail hay, and run down the animals and tackle them and pin them down when it was time to sheer the sheep, or whatever they do on farms. I don't know. All I know is he was slow as hell in a straight line, but on the field in the SS position, he could run down anything he could keep in front of him and get in on the ground. That said -

You teach tackling form and do tackling drills for one reason only, player safety. The vast majority of catastrophic injuries in football happen when a player has their head down, eyes down, facemask horizontal, or chin tucked toward the chest and gets contact to the top of the head. Lots of different ways to do it, but the fundamnetals have already been discussed. Head and neck position is the most important thing in teaching tackling. Doesn't really matter what specific drills you're doing as long as you're teaching the kids to keep their grills vertical, up, and eyes on the chest numbers and keep their heads back and shoulders/neck back.

tackling itself, i've taught at the youth level simply as chest to chest contact arms wide open, you make chest to chest contact then wrap up the arms and just keep running through. Don't use the arms until you've got solid body contact with the trunk. I personally, do not like putting young kids in full gear. I think that helmets and shoulder pads shouldn't go on until high school age, but I"m in the minority in CT there. I think there's no easier way to teach kids safe contact, than when they're wearing nothing but a sweater, and pants, but that's my opinion.

When they get older, you start getting into footwork, body position, angles, getting your head and shoulders across the numbers, at different angles and haivng hte proper leg drive and all stuff like that. But the fundamental never changes. Head up.

When you see players lowering their shoulders to drop the shoulder pad into a thigh, or take out the legs or simply lay the shoulder into the chest instead of chest/chest wrap up contact, throwing the body at the legs, and trying to upend players, stuff like that, it's actually just blocking techniques that's being used by a defender, and that's why you see offensive players stay up a lot more than when somebody actually makes body contact and wraps.

A lot of time in the open field, it might not look like a good tackle, but you'll see a defender flying in and laying out, wrapping up, but slide down the player like a ring on a post or something, and end up with the arms wrapped around the ankles, and lying on the ground, and the offensive player is still standing, but has leg shackles on, and then the next defender can bring them down.

As for special teams tackling, it's 100,000% about desire, energy and staying in your assigned space on the field, and shedding your block and then making contact with the ball carrier if he's in your space and putting them on the ground.

We've jsut been very, veyr inconsistent with energy on special teams this year.

The best tackler we've had in this program, IMO, in the past 14 years is Tyvon Branch, and it's why he's a regular SS in the NFL.
 
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last thing - forgot to mention. One of the most important things you can have, in being a good tackler is strong hands. If you're a good tackler, once you got your hands on somebody, you simply don't ever let go. Blocking on offense, you can't do that, well technically, you're not supposed to, but as a defender, you get hold of that player and you simply don't let go and if you've got leverage, you plant them, if you don't have leverage or size, you drag them down, or in the case of trying to tackle a guy like Mark Bavaro, the guy drags you until he's got too many people on him to drag anymore.

No matter what, you get your hands on the ball carrier, and you don't let go.
 
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Grab grab grab ---Vince Lombardi
Where is Tevin Brandon and Taylor Mack?
 
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Grab grab grab ---Vince Lombardi
Where is Tevin Brandon and Taylor Mack?
Yeah, I've been trying to find a copy of it on Youtube but can't. Only one I can find is "What the hell's goin on out here?"
 
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Playing physical, tough football. TOUGHNESS. That's all tackling is. It's the ability to square up on somebody and put them on the ground, at full speed. ANybody have brothers? Ever see little kids scrapping with each other? it's the basics of aggression. The alpha dog is the dog that can put all the other dogs down.

Blocking is different, blocking is fundamentals. Blocking is discipline and controlled strenght. Tackling is the wild agression. Yin and Yang.

There are rules you need to follow. There are fundamentals aobut body contact that make some tackles better than others, but the goal is simple and it's always the same, it always defines a successful tackle. If the player goes down, they're all good tackles. The only bad kind of tackle is one where the offensive player is still standing. Illegal tackles - different.

You can't take them down by the facemask, which is easy to do. YOu can't clothesline and go for the throat. You can't collar somebody anymore either. You can't use your helmet as a weapon and spear. You can't hit players in the head...too hard. You can go for legs, but you better be ready for retribution if you do.

But the bottom line is that tackling is where the aggression is based in football. It's about being aggressive, hostile and breaking your opponent down to the ground.

"You need to be a man about what your doing, show some pride in how hard you are going to hit somebody and break that players ducking will". - Gunther Cunningham.

I believe it was Knute Rockne that said, you don't need to see a good tackle - you can hear it. I love that quote. There's nothing like the sounds of the game.
 
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Playing physical, tough football. TOUGHNESS. That's all tackling is. It's the ability to square up on somebody and put them on the ground, at full speed. ANybody have brothers? Ever see little kids scrapping with each other? it's the basics of aggression. The alpha dog is the dog that can put all the other dogs down.

Blocking is different, blocking is fundamentals. Blocking is discipline and controlled strenght. Tackling is the wild agression. Yin and Yang.

There are rules you need to follow. There are fundamentals aobut body contact that make some tackles better than others, but the goal is simple and it's always the same, it always defines a successful tackle. If the player goes down, they're all good tackles. The only bad kind of tackle is one where the offensive player is still standing. Illegal tackles - different.

You can't take them down by the facemask, which is easy to do. YOu can't clothesline and go for the throat. You can't collar somebody anymore either. You can't use your helmet as a weapon and spear. You can't hit players in the head...too hard. You can go for legs, but you better be ready for retribution if you do.

But the bottom line is that tackling is where the aggression is based in football. It's about being aggressive, hostile and breaking your opponent down to the ground.

"You need to be a man about what your doing, show some pride in how hard you are going to hit somebody and break that players ducking will". - Gunther Cunningham.

I believe it was Knute Rockne that said, you don't need to see a good tackle - you can hear it. I love that quote. There's nothing like the sounds of the game.
Thanks Coach!
 
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