A Youth Football Guide: Navigating Your Child Through the Basics and the Benefits
As the new season approaches, many parents find themselves at the crossroads of decision-making when it comes to their children’s extracurricular activities. Youth football stands out as a time-honored tradition that not only fosters physical fitness but also instills discipline, teamwork and invaluable life skills. If you’re a parent thinking of enrolling your child in […]
Is Tackle Football Dangerous for Kids?
Parents looking to put their kids into tackle football often question the dangerous nature of the sport. While any collision/contact sport will have some unavoidable element of risk by its very nature, is it fair that tackle football has been pushed into a position where tackle football coaches constantly have to defend the safety of […]
Should I be Worried about Concussions in Football?
The hottest topic of debate around tackle football is head injuries and – specifically – concussions in football. It has reached the point where even the word concussion is enough to scare a parent towards flag football and away from tackle football. Football coaching has significantly changed to prevent head contact in practices, with physical […]
Athleticism vs Skill
In my professional rugby career, there were almost always two schools of thought related to players. Those who believed that natural athleticism honed and channelled in the right way in training could be superseded by individual skills development in terms of time, effort and energy. Then there is the second, where athleticism and physical dominance […]
How Seriously Do You Take Tackling? – 5 Reasons Why We Should Practice Tackling More.
I ask coaches all the time, “How serious are you taking tackling?” A lot of the responses I get are not great… It’s vital that we practice tackling for several reasons, that we are going to get into in the post. A few of the big reasons though are so that we can be better […]
Can Courage Be Coached? 5 Useful Tips
Courage comes into play a lot when you are coaching or training for a sport. Is courage something that you can coached? Or is it simply something you’re either born with or not? Well for a short answer… Yes. Just like anything else, courage also can be coached. Courage is a very individual characteristic that […]
Practicing Tackling Without Live Contact Situations’
Practicing Tackling without Live Contact Situations Tackling is a huge part of football, and I believe it’s not given enough focus. With injury rates – and especially concussions – an increasingly hot topic, there are ongoing efforts to make the game safer. One proposed way is decreasing the amount of time that athletes engage in […]
5 REASONS WHY TACKLE FOOTBALL IS BENEFICIAL FOR YOUR KIDS
Tackle football is a popular sport among children and adolescents to help teach them the fundamentals of this traditional sport. Many parents worry about the risk of concussions from this sport. But with just 3 to 5-percent of youth suffering from concussions, some believe that the frequency of such injuries has been overestimated and the […]
Does the NFL concussion protocol really protect players?
How the NFL concussion protocol should work Back in 2009, the NFL implemented the concussion protocol in response to concern over concussion statistics. They’ve also continued tweak the protocol in the decade since, to better protect players from harm. In 2016, for example, they added additional disciplinary measures for teams that don’t follow protocol. Head […]
UNDER 14 TACKLE FOOTBALL
Despite progressive advancements in football gear, upgraded helmets, and more awareness surrounding brain injuries. American tackle football is still a controversial subject when it comes to under 14. Brain injuries are incredibly serious and can have lifelong effects. So parents and health alliances are understandably concerned of the effects of tackling. The Physiology of a […]