Defensive Drills

[BallyhaiseMan]

Thats one of the main problems i have when tackling believebelieve is getting my footwork correct,when a player runs with the ball at me,i normaly give him an advantage because of poor footwork...Now being normaly a forward its not that important to my game...But well its something id like to get better at.

[believebelive]

I think most forwards suffer from poor footwork when it comes to tackling - james mccartan was the best forward tackler i ever seen. Another drill i recall is being made to keep our hands behind my back while a player soloed u at about 3/4 pace - I had to back backwards without leeting him past and without crossing my feet - after players had mastered this then you could use your hands and just shadow a player going near enough flat out - then the last drill was full contact with a player going at top speed but encorporating the feet and the shadowing.
Another gem is to count the steps - there is no point trying to dispossess a somebody as soon as they get it when you know they will have to solo or bounce, count how many steps they take and try to get a hand or hit them as they solo or bounce

[DuperDee]

Some good stuff on this. I think that a thread on coaching would be a good thing. MAybe many of the posters here are watchers rather than players or coaches. If any posters have a favourite drill for any skill I think that any coaches looking in would value their ideas. I am involved in coaching and feel I use the same drills over again which is boring for the players. Gratful for any help

[rolloutking]

I know what you mean with the near hand tackle. That is the one i use and i find it very effective. Sometimes you can come running up behind a player and punch down on the ball and knock it out of his hands. The ball will bounce away from him or else hit his feet and roll away. That means it is in front of you and as you are already moving in the forward direction you can get the ball up and away. Sometimes if the ball bounces up you can get it into your hands without even breaking stride. Kieran Hugues from Armagh was a master at it.

A problem that i find i a lot of players have is trying to be like Kieran mc Donald and slice the ball with the ourside or inside of their foot. It is a very hard skill to master and is very frustrating when someone continually messes up a pass by doing it. The way to coach it out of them is to get 2 slalam poles and put them about 2-3 feet apart and place one man on each side just about 5 yards from the poles. They have to kick the ball through the poles to their partner. Its only a 10 yard foot pass but if they dont kick with the laces the ball will go everywhere.