The moments before contact determine the most likely outcome of the hit. How many times has the poor body position of one of your players allowed a ball carrier to slip through a tackle? “Turbo tackling” will ingrain good tackling habits throughout your team.

Warm up time: 5-7
Session time: 8-10
Development time: 8-10
Game time: 15-20
Warm down time: 5-7

What to think about

There are several decisions the defender must make, even before he commits to the tackle. Generally, the lower the tackler is at impact, the more chance there is of completing the tackle. However, remember that tackling higher up the ball carrier’s body can reduce the chances of an offload. In training, you can help your players’ decision making by stipulating where on the field the tackles are made. Players can then decide whether to prevent the offload (say near their own try line), or get the ball carrier to ground.

set-up

1. Get into a balanced defensive position quickly, ready to move forward or sideways.
2. Stay upright until the moment you have to make the tackle, then dip, drive forward and up.

What you get your players to do

Set up two attackers, a feeder (9) and a defender as in the top picture. Have the defender run to a gate of cones. As he reaches the gate, the feeder passes to either the first or second attacker. The defender has to make a two-hand touch on the shorts of the ball carrier to stop the attack. Develop the session by making it full contact. Then allow the ball carrier to offload the ball in contact, encouraging the tackler to prevent this. Next, think about adjusting the starting point and gate for the defender.