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Tackling from wrong side

How do I teach kids to get body around to tackle from correct position?
Asked using Sportplan Mobile App

Deirdre lithgowTeacher, New Zealand

4 answers

ANSWERS

Jaime BracewellAdministrator, United States of America

Hi Deirdre,

Making a tackle is all about timing, you do not want your players to get into position too early as the player will be able to adapt and move around the player before they have had a chance to tackle. Some basic pointers for the block tackle are:

Left foot forward, right foot back, stick on the ground or hovering slightly above the ground.
Position of feet and stick make a strong triangle shaped base.
Tackle must be positive and strong with feet balanced.
Stick face angled towards the ball

Hope this helps :)

Gary ThompsonCoach, England

Hi Deirdre

Show them the potential consequences for their face/teeth meeting the back-swing of a stick, when coming in from the `wrong` side, for a start.

Then focus on precursors to tackling i.e. marking, closing down, channelling, shadowing.

Show how you can control player movement just with your body.

Remind them that body positioning is about delaying the ball carrier and forcing a longer route to goal. Introduce the sidelines and backline as a defender`s friend and how to reduce the space that the ball carrier has. You can use "tag" for them to discover when it`s easiest to catch another player (i.e. no sticks or balls). They will find that trapping a player against the edges of the playing area makes it easier to tag them. Then scale this up to stick and ball work.

Getting them goal-side (or rather always between ball-carrier and own goal) will help a lot. Perhaps play with a stick and ball but have a bib tucked into the front of their clothes i.e. they tackle by grabbing the bib. They have to access the front of the ball carrier to `win` the ball.

Tackling comes last.

In terms of drills, the sportplan "1v1 - channelling" is decent and is scalable/offers progression options. You can change the position of the goals, add more than one for the attacker, add a goal for the defender to counter to and for the attacker to have to recover to defend.

Regards,

Gary