Encourage good head position and leg drive in this fun exercise in tackling. It’s low impact and ideal for building confidence with your players.
If a player can drive another player sideways, they’ll have probably got their foot position correct and their shoulder engaged into the flank of the ball carrier. If they can keep their eyes open, they should have their heads behind the ball carrier too.
Put a tackler in the middle of the box and four ball carriers inside the edge of the box.
The ball carriers walk around the edge of the box.
The tackler aims to bump them out of the box with a proper grip around the legs, hips or lower body.
Once each one is bumped, he stays out of the box.
After the ball carrier is bumped out, the defender then moves to the next ball carrier.
Once all the players are bumped, the tackler swaps with a ball carrier and it’s repeated.
Then, put a tackler in the middle of the new box.
Ball carriers split into two lines at one end of the box.
They come forward alternately once the tackler is back in the middle.
The tackler tackle-bumps the ball carriers out of the box. See how many he can complete in 30 seconds.
TECHNIQUE
Engage the shoulder into the side of the ball carrier.
Inspired by the work of Nick Hart, a headteacher and author of the blog,Thisismyclassroom, here is a “scaffolding” approach to teaching tackling. Scaffolding is where you build support around a task as it is introduced and built up. You then take away the scaffolding as the player becomes confident and competent. It was first coined... MORE
Use this low impact tackling exercise to work on both the ball carrier's ball placement after the tackle, tackler technique and recovering. The emphasis is on completing the tackle, with the tackler's "speed to feet" to then compete for the ball. MORE
Watch this clip from our media partners, RugbyFactory.tv and see how the tackler executes a strong, technically sound front-on tackle. Then, check out what she did well and how you can put this into a training situation. MORE
Use a game of "King of the ring" to encourage better tackles which dominate the ball carrier. Reward strong, successful front-on tackles where the tackle is completed and the ball carrier is driven back over their line. It encourages getting off the defensive starting line to make the tackle. This reduces the space as quickly as possible. The attacker still has an incentive as they want to make the tackle impossible or as difficult as possible. MORE
Here is a 15-minute mini contact session based on reintroducing players to the contact area. What’s important in this early stage is to revisit the basics of contact. Not only as players’ techniques may have slipped during lockdown, but also in an effort to make everyone’s contact area safer and better. The session focuses on technique in a safe but competitive environment, enabling the players to have fun with first getting the contact positions right and then working on their tackling. MORE
This session reintroduces players to the tackle, checking that players remember the basics of tackling safely and working on getting clear of the tackle area quickly once the tackle is completed. MORE