Focus on Great Tackling to Create a Great Defense

Today, I’m going to talk to you about tackling and pursuit drills.

Ideally, you’ve been running your own since the spring, and then consistently throughout the summer, and continued in camp during August.

As the season goes on, it’s easy to abandon these fundamentals and get obsessed with game planning as the season goes on.

But always remember, your game planning is in vain if you can’t tackle.

So, here’s a reminder as the season is still somewhat young to keep up with your fundamentals throughout the season!

Here’s a tackling circuit that we have run:

This email would be 10,000 words if I went through every drill listed, so I won’t do that to you.

But, I will point you to this video that gives a great overview:

Let me leave you with how I think about the importance of tackling.

Great Tacklers

Definition: a collision between the defensive man and the ball carrier in which you must win

Objective: To stop the ball carrier for no gain.

In a high school game there will be 50-70 chances to make a tackle. So if the defense fails to make a tackle on 5 plays, a 94% success rate, they will give up 35 points.

In other words, the stakes are high.

If you don’t prepare your defense and teach them to become sure tacklers, your defense will fall apart no matter what defense you run.