Lots of ways, some dont even involve any contact at all
Blocking and block destruction is another
Listen to this....
- Thread starter True2tRA
- Start date
Blocking and block destruction is another
VectorVictor
Heisman Trophy Winner
Funny you mention this, as my kiddo has multiple classmates in Kindergarten that aren't potty trained, don't know their letters/numbers, can't write their name, don't know their parent's names, etc. Parents anymore expect teachers to raise their kids in addition to teach them, and that just doesn't work.
And first grade is even worse, as there's no 'mandatory' kindergarten in some states. Imagine a kid walking into first grade that doesn't know the above things, still craps their pants, and the parents tell the teacher 'he's your problem'. This is what teachers deal with now...but I digress.
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Going back to football, Fox Sports SW had a piece a year or two ago about how inexperienced and improperly trained peewee football coaches aren't teaching kids proper tackling techniques for years, and it's manifesting itself in the high school and college ranks, as kids have to be 'retrained' to tackle properly and still revert back to what they learned initially when they're not paying attention.
Not saying that's an excuse for everyone...but when you've been trained early on to do something a certain way, it's hard to break it.
A lot of injuries are non-contact. You've got knee injuries or ankle injuries from changing directions for instance. And then there's hamstrings. Those things can hit you while you are running in a straight line. Matter of fact most of them do. All sorts of hand and wrist injuries occur from blocking and catching passes. A QB can throw out his arm throwing a screen pass just as easily as a pitcher can throw out his delivering a change up. Jumping and landing leads to injury if the landing is awkward. And players are also subject to getting stepped on and landed on even if by accident.
Good note Landlord. I think they just try to avoid tackling to the ground, mainly to avoid pile ups and what not. Imagine the white hot scalding criticism of the staff if we had a bunch of defenders out with injuries related to tackling players to the ground. I will say that Bo said in a recent presser that they had been doing some tackling to the ground as of late.
damn, sounds like football! maybe we should just stop practice and watch more game film.
ScarletHeart
Walk-on
I'm sorry...I can't hold it in any longer. This whole theory on "what if a player get hurt during a tackling drill in practice" is absurd to me. I don't know about all of the NCAA rules, but the Huskers are proof positive that more live tackling in practice is needed. This is football people. I'm not going to go to the "back in my day" BS but tackling is arguably THE most important fundamental in the game. Practice it...as often as the rules allow you to. Prepare your players for the battle. I've never been to a practice but it sounds to me like everyday is a walk-through. And we wonder why they can't tackle and play so soft on Saturdays.
WhatDoIKnow
Special Teams Player
This is what we are bad at. Lots of diving and not breaking down. Bring a HS basketball coach in for a couple of weeks to teach these guys how to play defense with their feet.
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A former player commented the other day that when you live tackle in practice, you get your body used to taking proper pursuit angles, reading the defense and doing all the little things to be in position to make a good tackle. But, if you know ahead of time you're not full tackling, your body lets up or gets out of position because you know as soon as you hit the guy 1) you can't take him to the ground and 2) the whistle will be blown. Going full speed is what carries over into games, according to this player.
Obviously, tackling should be understood by now, and the NCAA does have limits on how may full padded, full contact practices teams can take part in. But, I still think there's definitely something to be gained from doing full contact tackling in practice. We had former players from the Callahan era saying this was lacking in their practices and that was one of the reasons they felt they weren't playing well.
That said, I know the NFL doesn't get that crazy with full contact practices, and probably do less than college teams. And that's just how it's done. Something to keep in mind, though. The NFL is the best of the best of the best. There are 120 division one schools with ~105 players. There are only 32 NFL teams with 53 players. The worst player on an NFL team is still probably better than 90-95% of a college team.
Obviously, tackling should be understood by now, and the NCAA does have limits on how may full padded, full contact practices teams can take part in. But, I still think there's definitely something to be gained from doing full contact tackling in practice. We had former players from the Callahan era saying this was lacking in their practices and that was one of the reasons they felt they weren't playing well.
That said, I know the NFL doesn't get that crazy with full contact practices, and probably do less than college teams. And that's just how it's done. Something to keep in mind, though. The NFL is the best of the best of the best. There are 120 division one schools with ~105 players. There are only 32 NFL teams with 53 players. The worst player on an NFL team is still probably better than 90-95% of a college team.
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TheRedCarver
Five-Star Recruit
Judoka
Starter
This blows my mind. My little guy can't start pre-school until he's 4 AND potty trained.
zoogs
Assistant Coach
It amounts to "hey, is it two gap or isn't it? look, it's one guy saying one thing and another guy/same guy saying the opposite!"
Or rather, radio man is confused about how defenses work, end of story.
Correct. The guys that Ive coached who have been great HS basketball defenders have been great tacklers, especially the guards. They know how to use their feet to get into position
Combine that with a kid who understands leverage AND is warrior aggressive- a good wrestler and you have a tackling machine
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JTrain
All-Conference
Football really isn't astrophysics. Like many fields (i.e., finance), football coaches have complex and at times ridiculous terminology that makes it seem more complicated than it usually is, and makes the gap between their knowledge and the average onlooker seem greater than it really is.
I've never liked the stance some fans take that, because we don't have coaching experience, we aren't able to make any valid criticisms of coaches. Baloney. If you're trying to critique an astrophysics thesis paper without any astrophysics education, then you're probably clueless. But football? It's eleven guys trying to advance the ball and eleven other guys trying to stop them. You don't need a PhD to have a good idea of what's going on. Just some solid analytical intelligence and observation skills.
I've never liked the stance some fans take that, because we don't have coaching experience, we aren't able to make any valid criticisms of coaches. Baloney. If you're trying to critique an astrophysics thesis paper without any astrophysics education, then you're probably clueless. But football? It's eleven guys trying to advance the ball and eleven other guys trying to stop them. You don't need a PhD to have a good idea of what's going on. Just some solid analytical intelligence and observation skills.