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If it’s All About Tackling, Let’s Do a Better Job of Teaching It…

by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
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When was the last time you saw a clinic presentation on tackling? Or when was the last time you viewed a DVD on just the fundamentals of a pure tackle? We thought so. It is without question the most important aspect of defensive football yet for some reason it gets neglected in favor of some innovative offensive scheme or some zone blitz package. I think Chuck Clemens, the co-defensive coordinator at the University of Central Missouri said it best when he said that he hears all these offensive line coaches speak about the techniques of the zone play down to every intricate piece of footwork, but when coaches instruct their kids on the proper form of tackling, our teaching method pales in comparison. Yet, when we play poor defensively, it’s all about “we didn’t tackle well.” Often it ends with that – we go back to the same boring drills and tackling circuits with nothing getting done to rectify the situation.

Sure it may not be a crisis, but it is cause for some concern, as evidenced by many of the coaches at different levels of football that we spoke to when putting together this issue. We sent a survey out to close to a thousand coaches and found the results alarming – 78 percent of you felt that tackling was a problem and more importantly were all looking for ways to correct it. So, we answered your requests and put together a string of information on identifying the problem and how to fix it. It may not be entirely ground breaking information – as coaches we all know that tackling is mostly toughness and willingness to hit. But with the spread offense dictating how we play certain defenses these days, tackling has become more about a science and technique and less about burying your face into someone’s chest.

As an aside, this has probably been the most rewarding issue of AFM that I’ve assisted in putting together. It’s a testament to the true art of football – the ability to hit someone as hard as you can, staying within the rules of the game. As Darian Dulin, the head coach at Coffeeville Community College (KS) says, “football is still about putting your hand in the dirt and whipping the guy in front of you.” Despite studying scheme and ways to out think an opponent, I always enjoy learning more about the fundamental aspect of the game. After all, who wants to burn their brain trying to out maneuver opponents to win. Me, I would rather teach my kids the best I can, and let them out technique their opponents and that’s what I felt I’ve absorbed while working on this material. I’ve learned a lot about tackling while surveying some of the coaches that contributed to this piece and I hope you do the same. Perhaps it will contribute more to our colleagues teaching the art of tackling and the current, not out-dated fundamentals that fit. We all know the game has changed offensively, so why are we not changing our methodology? At the very least it certainly re-assured me that we’re not the only ones going through this crisis. The good news is because of the kind of people in our profession, there are going to be plenty of resources to address it.

Yours in football,

Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer
American Football Monthly
MikeKuchar@AmericanFootballMonthly.com





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