Below is a sneak peek into USA Football's Advanced Tackling System, led by Andy Ryland and Richie Gray.  The Band Tackle drill is part of the Fight to Connect series.  Below you'll find a description of the drill, what it is used for, and an animation snippet from video content.

Traditional tackle drills focus on bags in motion before contact to mimic tracking but provide no counterforce post-contact. In gameday situations, ball-carriers attempt to break tackles, so defenders should be trained to combat that force after initial contact to ensure clamp and grip.

Because the bag within the Band Tackle drill can be pulled from the tackler's grasp, the athletes focus will be on the clamp and grip. Coaches still need to keep a vigilant eye for items such as cleats in the ground (we do not want players to be dragged) and finishing on top in a dominant position.

CORE COACHING POINTS

• Arm Clamp: Strength to Stick
• Iron Grip: Strong Fingers
• Reshape to Dominant Positions

Descriptions for the core coaching points, known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the Advanced Tackling System, can be found in the section overviews as well as the system's glossary.

BAND TACKLE DRILL SETUP

• Attach a long, heavy elastic stretch band to a tackle bag’s handle.
• The player starts in a same-foot, same-shoulder pre-contact stance.
• On the coach’s command, the player jabs with the shoulder and punches with the arms to secure the tackle. Good clamp, grip and arrowhead.
• Meanwhile, the coach pulls on the stretch band, challenging the player to maintain squeeze and arrowhead, keeping cleats in the ground all the way to the ground.

The Advanced Tackling System instructional materials cover the Band Tackle drill in significant depth. Drills often fall underneath the Install aspect of our systems, helping you build the skills necessary to properly use any one of USA Football's Systems. Click here to register to access the complete Band Tackle drill resource and two other lessons from the system.

ACCESS 23 TACKLING DRILLS

Tackling drills, and other football drills, are easily accessible on Google and YouTube. You may find a few tackling drills that can service a need, but are they going to fix your exact problem? Does one drill lead to another? Does one drill's technique match another drill's technique?

A systematic drill progression gives you a reference to identify what your players are doing and help them understand why they need to do it a specific way. This also lets you evaluate and program your practices to fix specific problems with your players or position groups are struggling with in regards to tackling.

The Advanced Tackling System includes 23 premium drills, along with 37 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), that help you coach your players, train techniques and evaluate success or failure for any kind of tackle. You can see the full drill list here.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SYSTEM IN THIS VIDEO