American Football Monthly Magazine – Nov / Dec
I received my December American Football Monthly magazine just the other day and I must agree with the cover story, “The Tackling Crisis: Why Proper Tackling Has Deteriorated,” that tackling at all levels of football is terrible. According to AFM research 78% of surveyed coaches believe tackling has gotten worse over the last decade. I hate watching NFL cornerbacks launch themselves at a running backs to make a big hit and not wrapping up on the hit, or they could have just pushed the back out of bounds. Most of the time, the great running backs bounce off the hit and score. I also agree with the article that some adjustments need to be made on how we coach form tackling. With today’s wide open spread offenses the perfect form tackle that has been taught over the years may be one cause of the tackling crisis. Subscribe to AFM and read the full story.
Take Our PollHere are some other interesting articles in the November and December American Football Monthly.
Top Football Articles – November 2008 Issue of American Football Monthly
- 10 Offensive Strategies You Must Implement Today
- 550 Yards Per Game: The Shotgun I
- The University of Wisconsin Whitewater Three Step Naked Package
- Pressuring the Offense with Effective Front Eight Movement
- Cal’s 3 Deep Zone Coverage vs The 4-Vertical Passing Game
- Halftime Adjustments
Top Football Articles – December 2008 Issue of American Football Monthly
- The Tackling Crisis: Why Proper Tackling Has Deteriorated
- The Tackling Survey: Understanding the Problem
- The Tackling Solution: What you must do to Improve Tackling in Your Program
- Nose Guard: Establishing an Effective Two-Gap
- Red’s Wing Offense: Giving Small Players the Chance for Big Results
- Special Teams Time Management
- The Sling T Wham Series
In the November Issue of AFM, the Charlie Stubbs interview in the “10 Offensive Strategies You Must Implement today,” is a great article. My favorite of the 10, “Develop flexible schemes that can adapt to players available.” What can this team do best, not last year’s.
If you’re a football coach and not reading American Football Monthly, you’re missing out on some of the best football coaching strategies in print and video. Subscribe to AFM today.
Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!
Hi Coach:
I am curious what your take on Chuck Nelsons article inside the magazine was. I went ahead and bought his three videos since I am coaching defense this spring. I am impressed so far but the drills are pretty wild.
He steps away from the traditional wrap up and takedown 90 degrees to the play and focuses more on wrapping up, thrusting the hips forward while lifting the player, grabbing cloth behind the collar and running through the ball carrier. He stresses high knees *outside* the frame of the ball carrier. He also has his guys clamp down on the runner with their inner arms using their lats. I can send you a pic of what it looks like – I am not describing well….
The drills look crazy but when you watch the game tape, the tackling by his team is insane! Its a swarming, enveloping type of tackle that looks really hard to get away from.
Hey Coach,
Thanks for your post.
Do you mean Chuck Clemens vs Nelson? I loved the Clemens article about tackling. I wrote blog post several months ago asking coaches about the merits of the traditional form tackle. I think the game has changed from the bruising inside game to a wide open game and now its about getting the runner down, held up for gang tackle, or push out of bounds.
I thought about buying the videos also. Do you think they are worth buying?
Please send me the pic you mentioned.
Play for Fun and Winning is Funner.
Just to underscore the importance of tackling properly – look what happened last night to Willis McGahee.
If you watch the slo-mo, right as Carter launches himself, he drops his head and looks straight down. At that point, he has no idea where his head is going since its now just an unguided missle and it ends up in a nasty helmet-to-helmet collision.