Playing physical

The teams in 9 Man

Postby AR » Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:53 am

Does anyone have any drills or ideas to get kids to play more physical????  Some seem to be "born" with it, what if anything can be done to help those that shy away from contact. 

I know strength helps build confidence in this area but maybe some coaches have tried some other things that have helped their kids.

I think a large part of this can be blamed on our society, they can't do anything during recess anymore in which they might get bruised or bloodied.  If you don't have older siblings beating on you once in awhile some of these kids don't even know how to "fall down" without getting hurt.  Then when they do get "dinged up" they act like they always need medical attention.
AR
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Postby GRIDIRON GURU » Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:13 am

Yeah it's too bad how soft society has become. We used to play smear the queer every chance we had it was full go kill the man with the ball and it was fun.

Now I don't think kids can even say "smear the queer" without getting suspended.

 

Some kids are tough by nature some are soft by nature,

It seems today that some kids are really coddled and are taught not to be aggressive especially bigger kids.

Here are a couple drills I have found to be very effective, in helping kids gain confidence and aggressiveness, along with learning sound fundamentals while doing it.

My favorite for linemen is the. KING OF BOARDS DRILL

What we get out of the drill is.... aggressiveness, competitiveness, staying low, as the lowest pad will win, you will find some sleepers, and you will be surprised at some kids who rise to the top, we also will keep a good wide stance and keep our feet, moving, and driving on the ground.

What you need.... two 1X12X10' boards, at least one insane coach, yelling, cheering, screaming, and encouraging, throughout the drill.

How it's run... two linemen line up in aggressive low stances in the middle of the board. The goal is to drive one man off the board, the man who stays the lowest and drives his feet will win, the board is more of a tool to keep a good wide stance than anything else.  Winners go to the winning bracket, losers go to the loser bracket to fight their way back into the winners bracket.

You keep going until you have two guys who have beaten everyone else, then gather the whole team for the championship and you will ultimately have a King of the Boards.

If I had it my way the backs would carry the king to a water break.

Do this drill every day the first week of pads then once a week or so during the season.

 

Tackling progression...

I always start out tackling progression with walk throughs making darn sure everyone is keeping their head up and to the correct side in a good tackling position and arms punched through and wrapped up or two fist fulls of jersey depending on the tackling method you teach.

Next progressing we go half speed still concentrating on perfect form and fit, at this point we still have not taken anyone to the ground we would have started tackling progression the first day without pads. then half speed with pads for two days.

Now we are comfortable with how we are going to tackle and we have to move on to full contact at some point, Now we steal a port a pit from the track team or lay out blocking dummies for a landing pad and we go full go tackling onto a landing pad. its fun! The ball carriers give us a good look and there is no hesitation by anyone. 

If we practice to be tentative and the aggressive players kill the tentative kids time after time it carries over to the field of play. 

In my opinion there is no better drill than this to get over the fear of tackling. Or being tackled for that matter.

 

 

 
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