We recently conducted a survey of high school coaches to get their thoughts on the state of tackling today.  We were surprised to find that 78.2% said that tackling has gotten worse.  Armed with this new statistic, I talked with coaches over the last several months on why tackling has gotten worse.  Here’s what I found:

•    The Spread Game – The most popular reason given is the Spread offense.  With Offensive Coordinators spreading the field with just about every offense, it’s putting their smaller, quicker players in open space against Defensive Coordinator’s bigger, slower defenders.  As one coach put it bluntly, “we’re a much better tackling team when the offense runs the ball between the tackles.”

•    Too Many Injuries – Another reason I heard from coaches around the country is that they limit tackling in practice to reduce the risk of injury.  Although this is a legitimate reason, I’ve spoken to many coaches, like University of Central Missouri’s Chuck Clemens, who have developed tackling circuits that do not involve contact. 

•    Blocking with Hands – One of the best responses I heard was from a coach who believes that tackling was better when coaches taught shoulder blocking instead of today’s method of using the hands.  He argued now that we are teaching kids to block with the hands to gain separation, this has carried over to tackling – kids are not comfortable making contact with their bodies.

    The good news is that there are quite a few new tackling strategies starting to emerge.  Many coaches are adopting the ‘Focal Tackling’ concept of teaching pursuit with tackling, while other coaches are breaking down the many different types of tackles and developing specific teaching progressions.  In this issue, we give you a tackling circuit developed by Cary Harger that he uses to better his program’s overall tackling results. 

    This is the last issue of Gridiron Strategies that I will be working on, as I am leaving to pursue other opportunities. I've greatly enjoyed working with coaches around the country to put this publication together and wish you all much success on and off the field. Your new Publisher and Editor is John Gallup, who can be reached at jgallup@lcclark.com.

                Respectfully,




                Travis Davis
                Publisher & Editor