Rugby coaching tips to get players falling safely

As soon as your young rugby players move on from touch tackling to proper rugby tackling, you need to start coaching the techniques of how to fall safely. The following rugby coaching tips and drills will help.

Tell your players to:

Use knees, hips and shoulders to impact on the ground, not the arms.
Progress slowly, increasing the level of contact.
The ball carrier needs to know how to fall as much as the tackler needs to know how to tackle.

Get your players to:

Slowly increase the level of intensity.
Make sure every player practises with a ball held in both hands.
Make sure all players fall to the ground correctly – with no hands out to break the fall.

Falling drill

Get your players to practise falling to the ground. The order of contact with the ground is:

Knees.
Hips.
Shoulders.

Rugby drills to get players practising falling to the ground safely

Static tackle rugby drill

This rugby drill involves the middle and end sections of a full tackle. One player puts one foot in front of the other (heel to toes) while holding the ball in two hands. Another player is then shown the ideal tackling position and grip. He takes up this position.

The tackle for this advanced position is made, ideally, onto a mat or pad. Check both players have fallen properly.

With so much to cover when coaching young players, it can be a daunting task to know what to do. Now there's help. Coaching Rugby includes more than 100 drills and games for coaching all the basics. Click here to order your copy of Coaching Rugby.