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Bounce is a good word to use when referring to tackle recovery. It’s an active expression which gives a sense of returning quickly to the action. The best players do this naturally, loving the thrill of making a difference more than once during a short passage of defensive play.
If only all your players were like this. We need to think creatively to design exercises that challenge the players to think this way and then execute the skills more often in matches.
So the rest of the team need to become more aware of what that skill looks like, and then become accustomed to the actions involved. That’s why I designed an activity that replicated the disorientation which happens during a tackle.
In almost all tackling cases, the tackler will be unbalanced, their eyes will close and they will twist before the end of the tackle. From that position, they must understand where they are, recover their feet and then snap back into the action. That’s not a natural reaction.
As they do “bounce up”, they need to read the cues to be ready to move in position to attack the ball, or most probably defend the next attack. That often requires some lateral movement, scanning and communication.
Tackle, roll, bounce, react starts this process. I’ve developed it since so the action can happen on either side of the tackle, so the tackler has to check whether to go left or right.
I found that if I tried this type of exercise with real tackles, the players tended not to be aggressive enough in contact. They were unrealistically up and out of the tackle faster than they should be.
I also tried it with the players hugging another player. This didn’t really work, even with older players. Too much mucking around, as you might expect. So, though I rarely like to use ruck pads, they worked well in this instance.
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