I coach U8's and am looking for drills to get them?

Simon JonesCoach, England

Mark

Have a look at the tab at the top of the page called "Key Skills." In there you will see two sections - "Side on tackle" and "Falling in the tackle."

Both of these should help you and can be adapted to teach other forms of the tackle.

I hope this helps

Simon

Rugby CoachCoach

Mark

It’s all about confidence at this age. Your main concentration should be around getting the correct body position, so they can make contact as safely as possible. You can worry about getting aggressive later.

Might I also suggest that the session is fun? This will take some of the stress out of making contact.

Also you may find that some are making contact with "hands first". You could use tennis balls for the tacklers to hold when making the tackle. They will have little choice but to use the shoulder.

Hope this helps; if not then please send me some precise details of the problem and I’ll try and help.

David

Bjorn BuijingCoach, Netherlands

The first tackles can always be a bit scary for some kids, even the kids on my <13 team can be a bit nervous about it.

I always try to ease them into the contact situation. Warm up with a bit of contact, and do some safe falling drills. Start of with low impact stuff like sumo wrestling (which most kids like a lot) in a circle and gradually go towards the tackle drills.

Start from a short distance or even no distance while the tacklers are on their knees and work your way up if they get better at it. Every good tackle builds confidence which is the most important factor at that age, missed or painfull tackles will result in players which are afraid to tackle. Having the tackled players hold the ball and having them present it will help the development of key contact skills too.

Good luck!