Tackling Fundamentals and Safety

Tackling is fundamental to football, and should receive proper attention at practices. If executed poorly not only will you not succeed in stopping the offensive team, but you could possibly injure yourself in the process. Some points to remember when tackling:

First, you need to stop the opponent quickly so make sure to place yourself directly in front of the opponents path. You can do this by placing your foot between your opponents feet. Also, at this time thrust your arms backward to prepare for the next step.

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. The one golden rule in making a safe tackle is to never, ever lead with or try to tackle with the crown of your head. Tell yourself, or your players to imagine that they are biting the football.

Third, throw your hips up and hard as you drive the offensive player backwards. The squarer you are in the first step the easier it will be to perform the third step.

A great Handoff Drill

Running backs should constantly practice the hand off. A simple drill for a hand off is to line up all of your running backs in two lines facing each other in what we will call line A and Line B. The player from line A leaves the line with the football running towards line B. In sync with that first player, a second player leaves line B, when they meet player A passes to player B. At this moment another player leaves line A and accepts a handoff from player B. This drill should perform in a seamless motion. It is an effective drill to teach handoff skills and help running backs achieve higher accuracy and consistency.

Making a great hand off

Handoff skills can secure yardage on the field and increase your overall success. 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.

Prevent fumbles with strong techniques
One of the fundamental aspects of running with a football is ball security. There is nothing worse than almost getting a first down or even a touchdown and fumbling the ball, for this reason there is a great need for ball security. Basic ball security can be broken down into four steps. The first point is the claw, meaning that your fingers are wrapped over the tip of the football. Second, wrap your forearm completely around the football. Third, pull the football in close to your bicep to protect it from opponents jabs and attempts to make you fumble. Fourth, pull the football up and tight against your ribcage closing the gap on the football from all four sides. As a player, you will want to make sure that you are well practiced in this skill, and as a coach you should dedicate some time to ball carrying skills. In this way you can practice great defensive moves to force a fumble, and also focus on offensive ball protection.