Quote:
Originally Posted by Youth Coach
Hi everyone,
I am a youth football coach trying my best to understand the game of youth football. I hope I am in the right place for this question.
I was with our youth football league president and commissioner and were interviewing a first time potential youth coach for 7-8 year old kids.
I asked him how he plans on teaching tackling. His response was that he was going to teach them to put their face right between their numbers.
I eventually revisited that statement and said that he should not teach tackling that way and it is dangerous and might even be illegal.
The president and commish both disagreed with me and said you could teach tackling that way and it is legal.
Is this legal? Does anyone know if this is described in the NFHS rules?
I tried searching in the nfhs site but was getting some kind of database error.
Thank you for your help.
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Thanks for asking. As others have said face tackling has been prohibited for decades. I suggest you consult the NFHS Simplified and Illustrated Football Rules. I personally do not have available the latest copy but do know that it has contained an illustration of face tackling and probably has the same illustration in either the 2008 or 2009 version.
Best of luck. Face tackling is dangerous and your inquiry may have saved a young player from serious injury.