AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Focal Tackling - Using Your Eyes to Make Plays

Why many defensive coordinators teach tandem tackling.
by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

We know that football has become a game played in space – there is no denying that. In the last issue of AFM, we discussed the way that tackling has morphed from a semi-barbaric method of driving someone into the ground, into a more detailed approach based on where you are in the field. Because spread schemes get their athletes the ball in space, most defensive coaches preach to their players to “leverage” the ball or keep it inside the numbers and know where your help is. Tackling used to be all about bodying up a ball carrier and running your feet through the tackle, but because of the development of open offenses, now D-coordinators are combating that problem less with technique and more with tackling in tandems.

There are still plenty of coaches placing an emphasis on the fundamentals of tackling – and most of them are teaching the same principles: keeping your eyes up, coming to balance in a power position, butting up chest-to-chest, rolling hips, grabbing cloth and running your feet. Those fundamentals haven’t changed much since the game’s inception. But what has changed is the how these coordinators are finding a way to get defenders to the ball in order to execute those techniques. Like many techniques, it all starts with the eyes.

Focal Tackling: Training Your Eyes

Talk to any productive defensive coach and, without hesitation, he will tell you that eyes are the most important aspect of playing defensive football. You need your eyes to read your key, diagnose a play, drop into your zone, etc. You also need your eyes to tackle. But what sounds like such a simple task will not get mastered until, like everything else in football, it is repeated enough times successfully. “Chucky Mullins was an outstanding tackler,” said Ron West, the linebacker coach at Clemson, referring to the Ole Miss defensive back who was paralyzed after making a tackle in 1989. “But he didn’t finish with his hips and his legs. He dropped his eyes just enough to get hurt. Here was a terrific athlete making one horrifying mistake.”

It’s a horrifying mistake that is now being corrected on football fields all across the country. But training the eyes in a tackle is more about the phase before contact and not the hit itself. West, who constantly drills his players on using leverage to defend the ball, sees many errors that are less about contact, and more about getting players in a position to make contact. “The biggest thing is not understanding where you fit on the tackle – are you an inside-out player like an interior linebacker or are you an outside-in player like a safety or corner? If you have somebody on the top, he needs to set the point. You have an inside-out player and an outside-in player. We call that fencing the ball. A lot of kids we get we have to teach them angles on how to fence the football. Where you hit and where you are for a defensive structure.”

Although the defensive structure – odd, even odd stack, 46, etc. and coverage could change on a play-by-play basis, it is the players that have to know where they fit in each particular situation in order to be in position to make plays. While the structure can change, there are always three constants that remain the same. There should always be a force player, a cutback player and a point player. Based on the coaches that we spoke with, who play various types of defenses, the teaching progressions are the same:

1. Force Player - Must keep everything inside of him, can’t turn his shoulders. Sets the outside post of the fence. His eyes should be burned on the outside tip or pec of the ball carrier. He must not commit directly up-field, taking himself out of the play and creating a seam on the defense. He must work to the outside of all blocks.

2. Cutback Player - Any player chasing from inside out. This player must not allow any cutbacks by staying on the inside hip of the ball carrier. Usually a back-side linebacker, this could be any defender pursuing the football inside out.

3. Point Player - This player will fill the alley in any defensive scheme. He needs to come downhill in a hurry and butt up the ball carrier by keeping his shoulders square. Most commonly a safety, this player will come from a depth of 10-12 yards.

So, now you know at least the terminology and verbiage that these coaches are using when they teach focal tackling. Regardless of the scheme you incorporate, these same concepts can be applied. Below are a handful of coaches that run various defensive schemes and the drills they use to emphasize these concepts of force, cutback and point tackling.

Fence Drill – Ron West, LB Coach, Clemson

West combines all three of these elements into what he calls his Fence Drill. Usually a 4-3 scheme, Clemson’s structure and coverage can vary based on down-and-distance (See Diagram 1). West will simply throw a bubble screen to the receiver in space and watch his defenders rally to the football, checking how they position themselves to take good angles on the football. The outside linebackers (Will and Sam) would have the force, depending on what side it is thrown to, by pushing the ball inside. The Mike would chase the ball from inside-out as the cutback player and the corner coming over the top would be the point man.

Diagram 1: Fence Drill

“We constantly preach stepping on toes in the open field. We work on tackling thru the ball carrier,” says West. “Finish through, scrape your toes on the grass with chest up. Rake everything up. Grab cloth and run your feet. Do not lunge. The most common error we see is lunging from tacklers, because they are too lazy to move their feet in position. Keep everything under control. Secure the tackle.”

Another emphasis in this drill is not harping on whether or not the first man makes the tackle, because as long as he contains the ball his help should be coming. It’s a point that can’t go un-noticed. With the speed of the game changing, it is often extremely difficult for one defender to make a play on the perimeter with a ball carrier. The emphasis is on getting off blocks and being in a position to make the play. “If the force guy misses the tackle it’s not that big of a deal,” says West. “His help is from inside-out, his help is outside-in. If you’re an outside-in player like a corner, you need to make sure you don’t come inside-out, because all your help is inside. Come to balance, and buy enough time for your help to come inside-out.”

Match-Up Drill – Vince Kehres, DC, Mount Union College

As we discussed in the previous issue, it is more common now for defenders to learn to tackle skill players in practice – and not just their own kind. Linebackers should not just be butting up other linebackers – they should be learning how to tackle those who would carry the ball. Sounds obvious, but some programs are using their scout team linebackers as popsicles as their first team is getting reps tackling in practice. “Because of the spread offense, our LB’s now need to work in the open field with DB’s on one-on-one situations with receivers and backs carrying the ball. We now do more work with them and not with each other,” said Mark Stoops, the DC at Arizona.

Vince Kehres, the defensive coordinator at Mount Union College, echoes that sentiment in his daily practice routine. So much so, that he has developed what he calls a “match-up period” that he incorporates on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the work week. “It would be just a normal ten minute period in practice where we will pit linebackers and running backs together to try and do drills that would be beneficial for both. Tuesdays are our defensive day so it’s a great opportunity to work open-field tackling. The purpose of the drill is for the defense to make plays in an open-field. We work on keeping our body under control and nobody takes anyone to the ground so it prevents injury.”

In the Match-up Drill (Diagram 2) Kehres will work a swing pass or pitch to the running back. The linebacker works from hash to sideline, or inside-out as a cutback player on the ball. The running back is allowed to make one cut inside or continue to work towards the sideline. “We start our linebackers in a stance and a downhill shuffle towards the back,” says Kehres. “I always tell them to trail the ball carrier. Stay slightly behind the ball carrier and a downhill shuffle run. Don’t completely turn your shoulders unless he commits to the sideline or makes his cut. The teaching point is if the back’s numbers are facing the line of scrimmage, we must stay in a shuffle because we are so cognizant of the speed factor. Use the sideline to your advantage because that is where your force player will be. The emphasis on contact is shooting your guns, using a double uppercut and grabbing cloth. Keep your head and eyes up and run your feet on contact.”

Diagram 2

Kehres works the force players, which would be the safeties in Mount Union’s 4-2-5 scheme, in a different variant of the match-up drill where they would work against tight ends (Diagram 3A & 3B). Similar to West’s “Fence Drill,” a bubble screen will be thrown to a slot receiver and it is the safety’s job to get off the block of the tight end and make a play on the ball with outside leverage. “The safety needs to get off the block and fit up on the tackle. Force players are always trying to turn the ball back inside and keep their outside arm free. One thing that we do is get a good key on the EMLOS. We want to work a lot of width in a good force angle already. We don’t need to get outside to create vertical seams in the defense. We keep our outside arm free and settle on the LOS. It’s a drill that works pretty effectively in our scheme.”

Diagram 3A: Linebackers vs. Running Backs

Diagram 3B: Safeties vs. Tight Ends

3-Dot Drill – Robb Smith, DC, University Of Maine

Another productive drill that emphasizes focal tackling is what Robb Smith, the defensive coordinator at Maine, calls the Box Drill (Diagram 4). A linebacker coach by nature, Smith will pair up his Mike (strong side) and Bandit (weak side) backer on a ball carrier. The ball carrier will be five yards behind a three cone set-up (simulating the line of scrimmage) with the Mike and Bandit four yards behind the LOS. Smith, standing behind the backers, will give a verbal command to the running back for which cone to run to. The middle cone would represent a tight angle run such as an isolation or lead play whereas the exterior cones would simulate a wide angle-like toss. How those linebackers fit will be dependent on which one Smith points to.

Diagram 5

“If the back is heading toward the tight angle, we will press the line of scrimmage at the same time,” says Smith. “The emphasis is on getting downhill in a hurry to blow it up. If the back takes a wide angle path then we work in tandem with our shoulders squared. The play-side linebacker will “box” the play back into the back-side linebacker who will tag the running back at the hip. We always talk about the near hip position. Whether we are a force player or cutback player we always track the near hip.”






NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved