Key Mechanics of Tackling in Football

  Tackling in football is one of the main components of the game. Proper tackling or form tackling in youth football is a core fundamental that must be practiced each and every practice at the youth football level. A team with good football tackling fundamentals is a team with confidence!
As a youth football coach there is several key elements of form tackling that you must emphasize prior to contact drills. Body position is probably the most important element of tackling in youth football. They have to be taught how to set up their body in order to safely and effectively tackle with confidence. So let's begin.

First of all it's important that they have a good tackling stance. What I mean by tackling stance is that they have a good foot base with feet about shoulder width and slightly staggered. The knees are bent with the butt down with a straight back. The head is tilted back with the neck bulled and the arms cocked back and bent slightly at the elbows. Get them to set up their body position for tackling over and over again until they get it. Once they understand their football tackling body position, its important now that you explain to them the mechanics of tackling, that is, how their body moves and explodes on contact so that they are effective tacklers. Explain to them that with their bodies in tackling position that they are like a coiled spring and all of its energy ready to explode up and through the ball carrier.
At this point it's important as a youth football coach to explain to them their point of contact. That is, what part of their body will contact the ball carrier first when tackling. We teach them at the youth level to make contact with the chest plate of their shoulder pads with the head back and neck bulled. The head is never in the equation as far as contact is concerned and is always, always, tilted back! You cannot emphasize this enough! We also emphasize a "chest on chest" contact during football tackling, again, with the head back. We do not teach shoestring type tackling as we believe that it teaches the youth football player to drop his head and expose the football player to more chance of being concussed or neck injuries. We believe that with good form tackling practiced over the season that if they are fundamentally sound in the mechanics of form tackling that they will be effective tacklers regardless of size.

Now, with these elements in mind the mechanics of tackling would fall in this sequence:

Stance and body position followed by a simultaneous explosion of hip rotation and leg extension driving up and through as the chest makes contact with the chest of the ball carrier, the head is back, and neck is bulled. As contact with the chest plate is made, the arms drive up under the arm pits of the ball carrier, the tackler locks in maintains his base while chopping his feet, driving his legs, with the head back until the ball carrier is taken down.
Coaching in football requires that you communicate effectively with your players. It's important to take the time and explain each element of tackling and body position to your football players so that they understand why they are being instructed to do things a specific way. If they understand the reasons for it the probability of them doing it increases.

Cheers!

Football Blocking Footwork: Stance and Step

Offensive line footwork is the key to good blocking. An offensive lineman has to be able to move his feet in order to be an effective blocker regardless of the type of blocking scheme that you implement. If they cannot move their feet, they cannot block!

The problem in youth football is that we neglect basic fundamentals that are necessary for our players to be effective blockers. Then we try and implement a blocking scheme and they struggle with it because they cannot move effectively. A lot of times, at the youth football level, the coach will take the biggest and slowest kids and throw then on the line of scrimmage and expect them to be able to block because they are big kids. In some cases this works but overall, without good footwork, they are exposed by a swifter smaller defensive linemen or linebacker, become frustrated, and lose their confidence.

It all begins with a good stance. As a youth football coach you must make sure that your linemen have a good stance. Practice it patiently step by step. Have them set their feet, and then get in their stances; feet should be about shoulder width apart and slightly staggered. Check their head position, make sure its back. Now check their back, it should be nice and flat and their butts should be down with their front hand just slightly touching the ground for balance. A lot of times the youth football player will put too much weight on their fingers. As a result they are slow getting out of their stance. Make sure to coach them up to absorb their weight in their legs, like a coiled spring, and then on the snap of the football to use this coiled energy to explode out and into the defender. Once they have their stance down pat. Teach them first step out of the stance. The first step should be a short six inch "power step" followed by a second "engagement of defender" step. Make sure they don't stand straight up as they engage the defender and make sure they always move their feet. Repeat as many times as necessary until they get Stance and Step down pat.

Offensive linemen have to be able to move in order to be effective blockers. Footwork drills are just as important as blocking drills and must be done every practice. These footwork drills are usually done in the individual group work session of your practice plan and should be a series of agility footwork and change of direction type drills. Begin all footwork drills out of a stance so as to make the drill as effective as possible. Good footwork will compliment your blocking scheme, give the big kid confidence now that he can move and not be beat by the smaller guy and as a result effectively use his size to drive out the defender.


Cheers!

Youth Football Blocking Tips

Adjust your splits for Run Blocking:
Once you have established your blocking scheme for your youth football team and your offensive linemen are confident in their assignments perhaps it time that you tweak your run splits a little bit to try and gain some slight advantages. One thing that you can do as a youth football coach initially is get your offensive linemen to slightly increase their running splits on the hole that you plan on running the football through. You'd be surprised what an extra couple of inches does in regards to a run split, it opens up that running lane just a little bit more for your running back to run through.

But be careful as there are some pretty sharp middle linebackers around that will pick up on your run splits and know right away where the football is being run. Just be crafty in your approach and like anything else don't go to the well with it all the time, otherwise those middle linebackers will blitz the hole and kill your play. Probably at the younger youth football levels they won't pick up on a slight increase in your split on a running play. If they don't adjust, then run it that way until they catch on, then back-off a few series and try it again. Coaching in football sometimes requires that you become a little crafty at times, this football tip is just one example.

Cheers!

Youth Football Blocking Rules

Once you have established your basic football blocking rules as you introduce your football system you can tweak and adjust the rules for certain plays and formations. For example, with a fullback orientated offence you may want to double team the defensive linemen at the point of attack and have your fullback go down to the second level and get the middle linebacker. Sometimes this adjustment in football blocking rules would be necessary in order to block a solid defensive lineman that has created havoc inside the box and cannot be blocked using your basic football blocking rules with one offensive lineman. Adjustments are a big part of football especially on the offensive line where changing fronts and stunts can create a lot of problems for your running game.

Between series you would discuss with your offensive linemen the defensive front and who is able to handle their block by themselves so that you can double team that pesky defensive linemen and have the fullback go down on the middle linebacker.

Another strategy in youth football is if you do not have a fullback in the backfield would be adjust to what we refer to as a "double team and chip" block. That is to have two of your offensive linemen double team a defensive linemen at the point of attack, and once you get this guy moving downhill that one of the offensive linemen would "chip off" the block and go down to the second level and get the middle linebacker. This is commonly done in the zone blocking scheme. The double team would get that linemen moving out of the box and then once momentum is established by the double team, one slips off to get a block on the linebacker.

The most important thing for you to do as a youth football coach of these offensive line adjustments is that you would have already practiced these aspects as part of your football practice plan. The message would be to your offensive linemen that if the basic football blocking rules are not working that these are the type of adjustments could be made. Again, it's important that you already would have practiced these adjustments in practice.

Cheers!