Tracking to tackle

The key to good tackling is how players get into position. They start working on this at a very young age in Australia. This is called tracking and is done before any contact is made. Craig Leseberg, general manager of community, Brumbies, Australia, explains.

A good tackle starts with good positioning before contact. If the feet are too far away from the ball carrier, the tackler cannot make effective contact.

Start with tracking

From a young age, Australian players are taught how to track the ball carrier. It goes before tackle technique. Tracking gains the correct field and body position to execute a tackle.

When this tackle is made, the defender needs to be close enough to hit with his shoulder and utilise leg drive to maximise impact. Tracking also involves taking up the attacker’s time and space, pressurising him into errors.

A good defensive system might turn over the ball even before it has had to make a tackle. A lot of tracking training focuses on balance and stability. Therefore, we work on foot speed, agility, core stability, rotational strength and reaction time through introducing shadowing exercises and wrestling drills that require pushing and resisting movements.

Good technique

Good technique in these exercises starts from the ground up. Feet should be shoulder-width apart, moving from wide to wider to preserve stability under force, with one foot in front of the other depending upon which direction you are applying or resisting force. The player keeps his weight on the balls of his feet and bends at the hips and knees when lowering his centre of gravity.

These exercises are applicable from Walla rugby (the youngest age group in Australia) through to the senior international teams. The top team coaches use balance and stability exercises with their teams. This is so fundamental that I make sure my teams are doing a couple of these activities at every session they attend.

Teach tracking

1. In a 5m square, a ball carrier jogs diagonally with a defender shadowing him.

1. The defender aims to stay slightly on the inside to get both hands on the attacker’s hips.

DEVELOPMENT

1. As the attacker ups his pace and starts in the middle of the square, the defender changes his own starting point.
2. Now he himself is also moving quicker, his feet should be a shoulder-width apart and he may have to move backwards to keep the attacker on the inside.