"I feel the reason a lot of people don't tackle is because they have not had a good experience." Eddie Robinson, Hall of Fame coach

"HEAD DOWN!" "TACKLE LOW!" "GRAB HIM AROUND THE LEGS!" Yikes! That may have been the way you were taught, and that may be what you hear from all the "experts" on TV, but dropping the head - either out of carelessness or because that's the way it's been taught - is a major factor in serious football injuries. Among the most serious are those to the cervical spine, which can sometimes result in paralysis. According to Ron Coulson, Director of Sports Medicine at the University of Georgia, "In most cervical spine injuries, somebody came in and put their head down."

Of course you want to practice safe techniques, but at the same time, if your players can't tackle, you aren't going to win a lot of games! So what can you do? Understanding that football is a rough sport, and there is no way of making tackling completely safe, this is a way to teach tackling that enables your defenders to hit hard and bring down The ball-carrier without ducking the head.

I've been coaching since 1970, and coaching this system of tackling since 1980. In that time, I've taught it to players of all ages, including college- age men in Europe who had never played tackle football before. (They went on to become Finland's National Champions!)

"Safer and Surer Tackling" enables the coach to begin teaching tackling to the greenest of beginners, and works its way to drills that will keep even the most experienced of players' skills sharp. Here's a look at the first live tackling drills I use at a high school, on the very first day we're allowed to have contact