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Post by xxlbulldog on Jan 5, 2007 7:20:52 GMT -6
I was wondering how you teach head placement when teaching your players to tackle and/or block. I've heard coaches talk about "caging" and the "two screws" on the front of the helmet when tackling. It is what I want to teach but also know what the Federation rule book says about face tackling and butt blocking.
I am afraid that if we teach something contrary to the rules, we face legal liability issues especially if a player is hurt.
With that in mind, we teach putting the face on the ball or the ball side. Am I interpreting the rule wrong? What are your thoughts?
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Post by wingtol on Jan 5, 2007 8:24:23 GMT -6
The way we have gone in teaching tackling and blocking is to get the front of your pads under the pads of the player u are tackling/blocking. When we tackle we stress tackling with the front of their shoulder pads with the neck bulled and eyes to the sky. I remember teaching nose on number for tackling, we got the way we teach tackling now from Pitt if i rember correctly. I personally like the style since it stresses keeping the head up and getting a low pad level by getting your pads under their pads. Of course we also stress grabbing cloth when we tackle and running your feet through contact. Have a great one step drill we to to enforce this. Hope this all made sense
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Post by jaspercoach on Jan 9, 2007 13:18:11 GMT -6
We teach "facemask on the football" this does two things: 1. keeps the head up and protects the neck, and 2. since most ballcarriers will be carring the ball away from a tackle teaches the players to get their head across the body of the runner. An added benefit is that is causes fumbles.
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Post by superpower on Jan 10, 2007 8:17:45 GMT -6
We teach "facemask on the football" this does two things: 1. keeps the head up and protects the neck, and 2. since most ballcarriers will be carring the ball away from a tackle teaches the players to get their head across the body of the runner. An added benefit is that is causes fumbles. Coach, no disrespect intended here, but how does teaching facemask on the football keep the head up. When I look at where most ball carriers have the ball, I can't imagine how a defender will have his head up if he is putting his face mask on the ball. Instead, it seems to me that this would encourage kids to put their heads down on the tackle in order to make contact with the facemask on the ball. Just curious about how you avoid the head down with the facemask on the ball. I don't want to sound as if I am preaching to you, but I think you should consider if that is the best terminology to use. If, God forbid, one of your players ever suffered a spinal injury while tackling and you had to appear on the stand in a court of law, how comfortable would you feel telling the jury that you had instructed the kid to put facemask on the ball? Just something to consider. |
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Post by coachnorm on Jan 10, 2007 8:36:00 GMT -6
First off, let me qualify this by saying that if anyone asked me if this is the way I teach tackling I would deny it. The problem is there is a great discrepancy between the rules and the safest way to perform a tackle. Trying to keep the head out of contact is also a good way to get hurt!! What we probably should be teaching when it comes to tackling is to tackle with the eyebrows. The problem - no matter what lawyers and lay people say isn't injury from making contact with the head, we all know that. It is from making contact with the head down and the neck bowed which causes pressures on the neck which can break it. If we could legally teach kids to tackle with the eyebrows and get them to do it, we could cut down drastically on neck injuries.
When the rules say you can't hit with the head two things happen - 1. Kids, who are rebellious by nature, think it's cool to be a "head hunter" and they are3 the ones who drop their heads and hit with the crown of the helmet. 2. They try to keep their heads completely out of contact and thereby risk further neck, shoulder and other injury.
Eyebrow on the nipple is how we were taught to tackle and, while it's not perfect, it is a dang sight better than much of what is taught today.
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jjbtx
Freshmen Member
Posts: 22 
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Post by jjbtx on Jan 10, 2007 8:50:31 GMT -6
If you cannot stand by what you teach when asked that is a good indication you should not teach it. The National Athletic trainers Association has a great video on tackling. I encourage everyone, including players and their parents, to watch this video. www.nata.org/consumer/headsup.htm |
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Post by jaspercoach on Jan 10, 2007 10:33:40 GMT -6
We teach "facemask on the football" this does two things: 1. keeps the head up and protects the neck, and 2. since most ballcarriers will be carring the ball away from a tackle teaches the players to get their head across the body of the runner. An added benefit is that is causes fumbles. Coach, no disrespect intended here, but how does teaching facemask on the football keep the head up. When I look at where most ball carriers have the ball, I can't imagine how a defender will have his head up if he is putting his face mask on the ball. Instead, it seems to me that this would encourage kids to put their heads down on the tackle in order to make contact with the facemask on the ball. Just curious about how you avoid the head down with the facemask on the ball. I don't want to sound as if I am preaching to you, but I think you should consider if that is the best terminology to use. If, God forbid, one of your players ever suffered a spinal injury while tackling and you had to appear on the stand in a court of law, how comfortable would you feel telling the jury that you had instructed the kid to put facemask on the ball? Just something to consider. Coach in rereading my statement I can see your point. Facemask on the football is not the only part of our teaching progression. We teach getting your pads under the pads of the runner, square up, chest-on-chest, hit on the rise, club-up and grab cloth and facemask on the football. The "facemask on the football" part is to get them to remember that if your shoulder goes down you eyes must stay up. You can't get under the pads of a runner, put your facemask on the football and have your head down. |
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Post by superpower on Jan 10, 2007 10:48:21 GMT -6
I understand better now, Coach. I like the chest-to-chest, which really doesn't require dropping the shoulder. And while we don't like to think about it, any of us would be in a great deal of trouble if we taught something like facemask on football if we did have a spinal injury and the parents decided to sue. I think in today's world we must cover ourselves all the time and be sure we are teaching the safest, most efficient way of doing things.
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