Tackling Fundamentals and Safety

Tackling is fundamental to football, and should receive proper attention at practices. Tackling can be fun and exhilarating, but done improperly and it can be dangerous. When you tackle your opponent remember three important steps:

First, you need to stop the opponent quickly so make sure to place yourself directly in front of the opponents path. An excellent technique is to plant your foot in the middle of your opponents. Also, and in coordination with your feet throw your arms back preparing to grab.

Second, thrust your other foot again squarely in front of your opponent and with all the momentum that you have brought to the tackle grab your opponent. As your feet plants your head should be making its first contact. To protect yourself never, ever try to tackle with the crown of your head, but instead keep your head back, and your head square. You need to literally imagine that the football is a big hamburger and you want to bite it and not slam your forehead against it.

Third, throw your hips up and hard as you drive the offensive player backwards. Setting yourself up for this last step will ultimately prove the success in the tackle.

Weightlifting

No practice regime would be complete without lifting weights. The effects of weight lifting will add muscle to your body and increase strength, this straighten will add to your maximum power. Maximum power differs in importance to strength due to the fact that it is exertion during play and not just muscle mass. Strong and powerful execution will enable fast plays, quick action, and recognition on the field. We highly recommend working with a personal trainer when weightlifting to insure that you are doing it properly, and to help you design a program that will fit your position.

Conditioning: Five dot jump

Conditioning drills are effective in training and helping athletes be strong and reactive. For this reason, coaches like this drill for its focus on speed and accuracy. Setting up this drill is very simple, you will need five markers placed about a foot apart in an x formation with one of the dots being in the center surrounded by four other dots in a square formation.

This drill begins with the player starting on two of the outer dots and jumps feet together to the middle dot and then out again to the edge dots separating their feet. Next the player will jump touching each dot with on leg only, and then switch using the other leg. The next step is jumping on all five dots with both feet together. The last phase is really returning to the original starting phase of jumping together and apart, however this time the athlete will change directions after they have jumped to the outer dots. Players will need to increase their speed and accuracy to be effective with this drill.

Making a great hand off

Whether you are a quarterback, running back, or a player that at anytime will receive a hand off you need to realize the basics of a great hand off. Lets look at a simple hand off between a quarterback and a running back to point out the fundamentals of this skill. The running back starts the hand off running towards the quarterback with his arms open creating a pocket for the quarterback to slide the football right into the running backs chest. When the quarterback slides the ball into the arms, or the pocket as it is called, the running back closes his arms around the ball to protect it. As the running back leaves from the handoff he needs to stay low to react quickly and again to protect the ball.