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Tackle Clinic Session

Teaching the tackle has been dominated by words and terms like dominate, power, collision, win the collision, power through, punch, power step, and the colloquial terms like, ‘smash them’.

The ‘Tackle Clinic’ has been established to teach rugby players to position their heads in the correct position when making a safe and correct tackle. It carries all the goals of making an effective tackle, but its primary purpose is head safety and will be dominated by words like condition, move, adjust, fast, wrap, thrust and stick.

The following is an example of what a tackle clinic would look like for an U8 side, but feel free to use activites or drills that are more suitable for your age or stage.

The five stages of Tackle Clinic

  1. Conditioning to tackle
  2. Warming up to tackle
  3. Positioning stage
  4. Connection stage
  5. Finishing stage

CONDITIONING TO TACKLE

‘Conditioning to tackle’ are a series of activities that players can do to prepare themselves for the physical nature of tackling. These are activities that a coach can use pre-season or in season and a player can use at home at anytime to improve their tackle fitness.

The tackle is obviously the number one source of injury in our game – so why not prepare your team for rugby or more specifically to tackle?

WARMING UP TO TACKLE

‘Warming up to tackle’ are a series of activities that are specifically designed to prepare a player to warm-up for a tackle session or before a game.

THE POSITIONING STAGE

The ‘Positioning stage’ helps the player with tracking, getting their body in the correct position, and making sure their head is in a safe area.

Positioning is the ability to get to the ball-carrier with speed and accuracy, closing down the ball-carrier’s space, and enabling the tackler to choose the correct technique to make an effective and safe tackle.

THE CONNECTION STAGE

The ‘Connection stage’ is primarily where we look at the head placement of the athlete. All other factors can be correct, but if the head is in the wrong position, the tackle is far from being effective and safe.

THE FINISHING STAGE

The ‘Finishing stage’ is completing the tackle in a ‘live’ state. Feedback, questioning and confidence important factors here.