How do you make soft players tough?

Reward clean, punishing hits. We have a "Rock Squad" that the kids love to get on. Basically if a kid gets a great de-cleater, really knocks the hell out of an opponent, they make it to the rock squad. We give out a t-shirt and a gold painted rock (one of our colors) for the first "rock" and then a painted rock for each after that. At the end of the season the kid with the most rocks is named captain of the Rock Squad and are presented with an award at the banquet. The kids love making it to the squad and it makes for some fun to watch, huge hits.

One thing that make the competition hotter is to peer pressure it. Do a drill in which two people square off against each other with everyone watching. This will create excitement. All of the player and the coaches yelling and screaming. Winners will want more, loser will want to "get some" and the faint hearted will either get tougher or get out.
It is not for everybody.

I believe the toughness issue goes all the way to the heart of the athlete's character. The physical collisions must, and in my opinion, will, mature with the athlete's sense of team, manhood, serving, sacrifice, and all around will to compete. Each aspect of what has been mentioned will find its way into that athlete's progression from soft to tough. I also believe a solid diet of character developing attributes and accountability is a mission critical ingredient.

I saw it in my own sons' development. When they started, they shied from contact, despite tough talk, they were looking to avoid contact - and like coachbdud said, it was important to acclimate. However, the inclusion of peer pressure through team hitting drills, games where they cannot avoid contact, positive reinforcement, and just plain getting a little bigger in the weight room - all contributed to their striking disposition that exists now.

I never once condemned them for struggling through the acclimation to contact/collisions, but when it came to their response to contact, and the character demonstrated in the midst of those experiences, they were held to extremely high standards of accountability. Attitudes, whining, outbursts, complaining, exasperation, etc. I dealt with severely in all my athletes publicly and privately, regardless of their talent. I never struggled with a young man's difficulty in collisions - that was normal, but their attitude and actions surrounding those moments was observed VERY CLOSELY and addressed relentlessly. The result, in my experience, was better heart driven decision making with regard to pain associated with collisions - "they sucked it up better", and self control when they got the better of the other in a hit, or vice versa. There seems to be a value to a steady diet of exposure to both elements. The adversity of hitting, coupled with the furnace of accountability at the heart level worked pretty well.

No matter what though, every athlete must be engaged in that process of physical maturity with each of the facets of what has been mentioned for them to toughen up faster.

In my experience, I found no better toughening tool, then game playing time where I could get them in. If games were out of reach one way or another, I had coaches assigned to mass substitution at every position, in order to accelerate the "ktpoot" process. ("knock the puss out of them")

Just my two cents.

Competition

Teach great tackling and blocking techniques with sound progressions.

Affirm them whenever they do something aggressive but keep raising the bar. Don't praise them next month for something they elevated to this week. It has to be a process and they have to continue to get better.

We have numerous kids in our program who were afraid to hit as 9th graders and love contact as upperclassmen now.

You have to instill confidence as that will be the springboard to lots of good things.

We started putting out bounties for the biggest hit in practice everyday. The kid with the biggest hit gets a free gatorade. Problem is, our 130lb sophomore backup QB has won the last two days.

Teach the kids How to roll their hips and move their feet. The rest will follow. Then it is an attitude. And it starts with the Head Coach. Soft play CANNOT BE Tolerated from the top down. That is tricky. That goes beyond the practice field. If you can block and tackle violently and efficiently, you can win with any talent level.