In today’s video blog post, we are talking about a fantastic tackling drill called the “Eye Opener Drill”. This tackling drill is designed to maintain a good inline (from tackle-to-tackle) position for linebackers, where they are maintaining an inside out relationship on a ball carrier and making a close and tight inline tackle.
There are many variations of this drill, but this is a great one to use to teach basic position and tackling, and how to react to a ball carrier.
Eye Opener Tackling Drill
You are going to start with a line of ball carriers, and after they finish, they will go to the tackling line.
Set up 2 cones with bags or markers positioned in between the cones to simulate “holes”.
The ball carrier can choose to go through any hole he wants, so he can run at an angle to force the angle tackle, etc.
He is going to fake at a hole, and then run through another hole at the inside of the bag. So the ball carrier can fake it at 2 holes, but the hole the carrier actually goes into is where the tackler has to react and make a tackle.
It’s important to make sure that the players don’t overrun or get out of control, and that they are maintaining good shuffle body position relationship.
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Coach notes