Do coaches not teach tackling techniques anymore?

[exstatic]

WTF is with all of the tacklers leading with their facemasks? That's a GREAT way to wind up a paraplegic/quadroplegic in traction for the rest of your life. :cuss

[FromWayDowntown]

WTF is with all of the tacklers leading with their facemasks? That's a GREAT way to wind up a paraplegic/quadroplegic in traction for the rest of your life. :cuss

What are they supposed to lead with? My recollection is that I was taught to tackle by putting a face into the chest and wrapping up.

Leading with the top of the head will get you a wheelchair or worse; but keeping your head up and tackling with your face first is proper tackling technique.

[exstatic]

Well, I saw two players (#21 Redskins and #92 Bears) this weekend have to leave the field with bad stingers after hitting facemask to helmet. Stingers are a warning that you are doing something wrong if you are intitiating the contact.

[FromWayDowntown]

Stingers happen for any number of reasons, not all of which are related to technique.

Ask any football coach you can find how to teach tackling -- I'd be shocked if any football coach is teaching basic tackling with any technique other than leading with the facemask.

[FromWayDowntown]

Well, I saw two players (#21 Redskins and #92 Bears) this weekend have to leave the field with bad stingers after hitting facemask to helmet. .

Proper tackling technique does not involve a facemask to a helmet. The facemask should be the leading point, but the facemask should be aimed at the body -- tackling high like that increases the possibility that a tackler will drop his head at the last second and take the hit on the top of the head, rather than through the facemask.

If you stop to think about it, the facemask is the part of the helmet that is furthest away from the head and it's designed to absorb and disperse the force associated with a hit, while keeping that force away from the head.

[FromWayDowntown]

The only other possibility that I could see is that someone may have begun suggesting that players tackle with their shoulders, but I'd find that surprising, since using the shoulder to tackle would result in more missed tackles and more head ducks, which could result in still more head and neck injuries.

Like I say -- I was taught to see what you hit and that meant leading with the facemask, so that it could disperse the force and save players from injuries.

[Obstructed_View]

WTF is with all of the tacklers leading with their facemasks? That's a GREAT way to wind up a paraplegic/quadroplegic in traction for the rest of your life. :cuss
You injure your spine by hitting with the top of your head, not with the facemask, which is why spearing is illegal; it is more likely to hurt the tackler. If you put your shoulder into a guy's chest, you keep your head up. Proper tackling technique is ideally to hit a guy in the waist to bring him down, but you obviously can't do that every time in a game. Nobody got a neck injury this weekend, but a couple of guys got their bell rung. Proper technique is the reason everybody walked off the field. Alexander got hit in the back of the head, which is why he got a concussion.


I was taught to see what you hit and that meant leading with the facemask, so that it could disperse the force and save players from injuries.
That's the way I learned it too.

[TxJudsonRocketTx]

I dont know whats going on with the tackling in the league, but if anyone finds out, please let my Chiefs know.

[rr2418]

I don't know about injuries, but the reason the tacking is bad in the NFL is b/c players want to knock the crap out of the ballcarrier. You see this in every game!! Instead of wrapping their arms around the ballcarrier, they try to hit him high with their shoulders or arms. They want to deliver that vicious hit that will make the ESPN highlight clip! What happens many times is the the ballcarrier will bounce off the tackler and continue on. Given the proper tackling technique, the carrier probably would've been stopped.