IMAGINE THE PERFECT PLAY. Everyone on defense doing exactly what he’s supposed to do. Everyone has perfect alignment and plays the right assignment. From the defensive line, through the linebackers, all the way back to the secondary, everything is perfect. The quarterback hands the ball off to the tailback and he hits the hole. Everyone on defense is exactly where he needs to be but something goes terribly wrong. The TB scores.
What happened? Missed and broken tackles. How many times have we seen it happen? A defender is in perfect position to make a game-changing tackle and, because of poor fundamentals, he fails to execute the tackle. The game is changed and the opportunity to make a great defensive play is lost.
Emphasize Tackling
Games are won and lost by the team that executes and tackles. If your players can’t make a sound tackle, then all their other efforts, (and your coaching efforts) are in vain. Your players need to be fundamentally great tacklers. Coaches should emphasize it, teach it and expect it.
Here are six fundamentals that are essential to become a solid tackler. These fundamentals help our players focus on techniques and execution. We work on it every day and the results speak for themselves. In one recent season, our defense had three of the top five players in the SEC in tackles.
Everyone contributes to the success of our defense because we teach average tacklers to be good tacklers and good tacklers to be great tacklers. We give them six steps they can learn and use to help transform themselves into better tacklers. Good tackling techniques include:
1. Eyes Up. Your players cannot play football without using their eyes. Train your players to use their eyes in ways that your opponents can’t. Tacklers must keep their eyes up and see what they’re tackling or they’ll never make a good tackle.
Most tackle-related injuries in football are a direct result of a player not keeping his head up. If a player gets his head down, he’s leaving himself vulnerable to injury. The phrase “Eyes Up” helps the player focus and concentrate on not only seeing his target, but also on keeping his head up to avoid injury.
2. Ground Up. For any position, having a great base is a critical element to success. It’s even more important for a defender to have a great base when he’s tackling. “Ground Up” simply means that a player is working up from the ground to the point of attack. Defenders should have good bend in their legs and keep their back in an upright position.
Maintaining a great base position also helps players keep their eyes up.
It’s a common myth that great tacklers have strong upper bodies. That may be the case with some players, but every good tackler will tell you the power in a tackle comes from the legs. Working with a good bend and a great base helps the tackler explode from the ground up and add power to the tackle.
3. Chest Up. As with all of these fundamentals, this step works in direct correlation with the aforementioned steps. For a player to be in good position at contact, he must get his chest on the ball carrier. This helps him keep his head up. If a player is leading with his chest, he’ll almost always have a good base and will naturally keep his head up.
By being in a great football position at the point of contact and leading with his chest, the defender will be in a great position to finish the tackle.
4. Garbage Up. Have you ever seen one of those garbage trucks with the huge arms that raise the dumpsters over into the back of the truck? We use this image when instructing our players. Once the player's chest has made contact, almost simultaneously, we want our players to work their arms from their side and “shoot” them straight up from the hip and around the ball carrier. It’s almost like a gunslinger drawing his pistols in a gunfight. The defender can’t let his arms get too wide because a good back will just spin out of that kind of grab.
Your defender should never finish up a tackle by putting his arms behind him or above his head because this gets his head down and puts him in a bad football position. A great tackler must have quick, explosive arms that attack the ball carrier and allow him to be in position to follow through with the next phase of the tackle.
5. Wrap Up. Once the defender has made contact and shoots his arms up, he should quickly wrap up the ball carrier. With his arms already in position to do so, all he needs to do is “grab cloth.” Teach your guys that once they have successfully followed the first four fundamentals of tackling, they have to begin to finish the tackle by wrapping up. If the defender doesn’t wrap up, a good back will wiggle out of the tackle and get free.
If the defender wraps up the ball carrier, he increases his chances of making a successful tackle.
6. Drive Up. Once the first five fundamentals of tackling have been carried out, it’s necessary for the defender to finish off the tackle. If the defender has executed the fundamentals up to this point, there’s nothing left to do but drive his feet. This is necessary in order to stop the ball carrier from gaining any cheap yards after contact.
If the defender has the back wrapped up and is in good position from following all the fundamentals of tackling, driving up will enable him to close the deal.