Seattle Seahawks Michael Bennett believes the key to player safety is improved tackling techniques.
In an interview with USA Today, Bennett explained, “Everyone that plays rugby is so tough and the way they play through injuries, and bounce back week in and week out – we look at them for inspiration to be tougher players and better defenders."
“When you have a helmet on, you can think you are invincible but to be able to know where your head is at, and be able to move and tackle with your shoulders,” Bennett clarified. “That’s what we are learning to try and prevent injuries to some of our best players."
“Everyone right now is looking at ways we can prevent concussion, and protect the players and the young players coming through in both rugby and football.”
The Seahawks' defensive line dubbed their technique "Seahawk tackling". Players who have incorporated this style of tackling in this game have not only remained just as effective, in some cases it seems to have made them even better at taking down their opponents.
Hawk Tackle utilizes these techniques, looking to rugby for ideas to improve player safety on the field.
Our tackling dummy incorporates the head safe tackling technique used by rugby players for over a hundred years. The tackle dummy designed to teach and reinforce tacklers on proper foot, shoulder, and head placement for a safe and effective tackle.
]]>Helmets and pads give a false sense of security.
The minute young players put on helmets and pads they lose the willingness to learn proper head placement in a tackle. Players think the helmets and pads will protect them and, to them, proper head placement is no longer relevant.
Proper form is the best prevention for head injuries.
History has shown helmets and pads do not protect a player’s head from bad form. What we now know: proper tackling form - not helmets and pads - is the first step in making a tackle safer. Proper form is best first learned without helmets and pads.
Without helmets and pads, players are forced to learn proper head placement at the point of contact. They are forced to learn to use their shoulders, and not their head, to stop the ball carrier. They are forced to learn to place their head off to the side and out of the path of contact. They are forced to learn to use their feet to provide leverage and drive to counter the ball carrier’s forward progress. They are forced to learn to use their arms and hands to wrap and roll the ball carrier to the ground.
After establishing proper shoulder tackling form, players can then progress to helmets and pads. However, coaches should focus on reinforcing the need for proper head placement in the tackle engagement even after a player learns the form necessary to tackle without pads.
Nothing protects a player from bad form.
Below is an example of Luke Kuechly using bad form on the field. On this play Luke suffered a concussion. Luke is one of the best, if not the best, linebacker in the NFL. But all his athletic skill could not save him from bad form.
Luke’s head placement, between the numbers, was incorrect. Luke needed to move the point of contact to the shoulder. Luke needed to adjust his feet so his lead foot was placed between the legs of the ball carrier with his knee in the ball carrier’s crotch. Luke’s shoulder should have been the primary point of contact on the ball carrier’s hip with his head safe to the side. Here is the tackle adjusted for proper head placement.
First, teach tackling without helmet and pads. Focus on proper form. Introduce a helmet and pads only after players exhibit the ability to tackle with their shoulders.
Interested in teaching proper tackling form to your players? Our patented, full body tackling dummies are engineered to incorporate the rugby style tackling technique. Our dummies feature space for placement of the lead foot and target pads for teaching use of the near shoulder on the hip for maximum leverage.
]]>In rugby-style tackling, the player is always leading with the shoulder and never the head. The emphasis is on hitting the ball carrier hard "in the strike zone" -- the area above the knees to the shoulders. Another key component to rugby-style tackling is wrapping up the ball carrier. By wrapping up the opponent and hitting the strike zone, the tackler’s head is positioned behind the ball carrier’s body and the head is never a point of contact.
Ohio State’s Urban Meyer was not initially interested in changing the Buckeyes’ approach, but former defensive coordinator (and current Rutgers head coach) Chris Ash persisted. Meyer soon became a believer, too.
Many teams in the NFL and college football have shifted to the rugby tackling technique, thanks in part to the video developed by Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks teaching the finer points of the "Hawk tackle."
"I did as much research as I could and ultimately we jumped in," Ohio State’s Urban Meyer said in 2015, via Jon Solomon of CBS Sports. "Tremendous success right out of the get-go. You could see the difference."
During the 2013 season, before Ohio State adjusted its approach to tackling, it was clear that tackling was a concern. Ohio State allowed 377.4 offensive yards per game through the 2013 season.
"It eliminated some injuries, but it also was a lot more effective. And I can tell you honestly right now, as a coach, I could go show you our film and what we teach, what we coach, what we drill and guess what? It shows up on film," Ash said.
Quinn not only thinks it will be easier to incorporate the rugby-style technique at the pro level if college programs are buying in, but he also believes pro teams have a responsibility to set that standard of safety and effectiveness.
"Our responsibility in the NFL it to keep filtering down some trends," Quinn said. "And then it gets down into college, and the college to the high school, and the high school all the way down."
"It’s an awesome game and it provides so many things, so if we can make it better and safer, then it’s our responsibility to get that done."
Hawk Tackle fully supports the NFL in moving forward with teach safe and effective tackling methods. With rugby style tackling, everyone from children to professional can practice safer techniques that will ultimately reduce head injuries and concussions in players.
]]>First came the collision. Then came the confusion.
"I was real dazed for a minute," said Troyano, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound junior from Fairless Hills, Bucks County. "I was so confused I was completely out of it."
No football helmet can guarantee protection against a concussion. Troyano, who was wearing a top-of-the-line Riddell Revolution Speed helmet, sat out the rest of the Falcons' victory that night and watched the next seven games from the sidelines as he recovered from a concussion. During his time off, his mother, Amy, said the effects of the injury made her son miserable, "like a different person."
Football players at all levels report concussions every season, and helmet manufacturers have scrambled to incorporate the latest safety technology into their brands.
"If you look at football in 2017 compared to football in 2011, it's drastically different," said Stefan Duma, a biomedical engineering and sciences professor at Virginia Tech University. "There have been major changes in terms of helmet technology."
In 2011, Duma and a team of researchers on football helmet safety unveiled the Virginia Tech helmet 5-star rating system that ranks a helmet's safety features from no stars (not recommended) to 1-star (marginal), 2-star (adequate), 3-star (good), 4-star (very good) and 5-star (best), with the 5-stars regarded as most able to reduce concussion risk.
A local survey of helmets in the Philadelphia area showed that more than 40 percent of the 2,330 helmets used in the 2017 fall season were rated 5-star. The 40 percent is up from 25 percent from just two years ago. The excellent article provides statistics based on helmet safety.
Hawk Tackle believes the progress of helmet technology is important, but that tackling technique can also play a major factor in the ongoing safety of young football players.
]]>Allen Etzler, of the Frederick News-Post, interviews two rugby playing brothers to learn more about teamwork and camaraderie on the pitch.
John Samonsky and his twin brother, Tyler, both play in the front row on the Frederick Rugby team. John plays the prop; his brother plays hooker.
“It’s good for us because we’re constantly communicating,” John Samonsky said. “We’ve always been together, so it works really well for us.”
That teamwork is an important key to be successful in rugby. John Samonsky said the ability to work with a team is probably the only trait that a rugby player needs to have.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a really good running back like it could in football,” John said. “You’re probably going to get tackled. Even on breakaways you usually end up getting tackled. So you have to be able to put yourself aside and you can’t try to win the game yourself.”
John said he never played football, but he enjoys watching the game. And while rugby often draws comparisons to football, the games are actually quite different... Besides the obvious difference of not wearing pads in rugby like football players do.
Because of the lack of extra protection on the field, players needs to work together to protect themselves and their teammates from serious injury through a combination of communication and proper tackling methods, like "Hawk tackling".
Read more about rugby camaraderie in The Frederick News-Post »