Quote:
Originally Posted by bigjohn
We have found that eyes on the chest is the most likely way to get kids to keep their heads up and eyes open. When the eyes close the head goes down and the danger of neck injury increases. Even sliding the head to the side causes the head to drop. Shoulder tackling is not a good alternative because it also tends to cause the head to drop. The safest legal tackle is head up, eyes on chest butt low and make contact with chest, shoot the hands and grab cloth on the back.
I have been coaching through all of the tackling rule changes and have seen many form tackling techniques come and go. Any technique that doesn't have the kid's head up is dangerous.
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Very well said! We teach "eyes on the numbers" when closing, and "eyes to the sky" on contact. We want contact chest to chest and wrap and grab cloth.
The thing that frustrates me as a coach is when the ball carrier is allowed to lower his head and lead with his helmet into the defender. That's every bit as dangerous and is hardly ever flagged in my experience.