Coaching Youth Football – Tackling Drill

Michael in Coral Gables wrote to ask if I could suggest some fresh ideas for [tag]coaching youth football[/tag].   I sent him this [tag]football drill[/tag] that one of my subscribers sent in.   Keep ’em coming!

From Ceaser…
I coach youth [tag]football[/tag], so my guys like this [tag]football tackling drill[/tag], off the old game “Duck, Duck, Goose.”

Have the entire team form one large circle, all team members standing finger tip to finger tip. Let them put their hands down but keep the gaps open they just created.

Have a [tag]football coach[/tag] in the middle of the circle and he picks the match ups. The coach will choose one player to start and that player will run around the outside of the circle tapping his team mates on the helmet as he taps the coach yells Duck, Duck, until he gets the match up he wants then “GOOSE!” The outside player accelerates as fast as he can around the outside of the circle as the defender cuts through the middle of the circle to pick the proper pursuit angle.

The football drill ends when the tackle is made or when the outside player makes it back to his original spot. Then the tackler becomes the target and it starts all over until everyone has gone. You can add a football to drill and teach strip technique or have the defender seriously overpursue and fill with the hit on the rise technique.