Stay Low & Keep Your Balance to Avoid Football Tackle

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, for Expert Village. What we want to talk about is how to keep our running back from avoiding big hits. He's probably going to take some contact at some point in time but we never want him to get hit hard. And, the main thing we never want to happen is for him to go backwards. We always want our running backs to go forward. The main way that happens is our running backs have to initiate the contact. In order to initiate positive contact and to keep moving forward he has to have good body lean. That means when he takes his hand off and comes through the line he needs to be down low so when he hits he's hitting and moving forward. We never want our running backs to come through the line, take the hand off and stand up straight coming through. They have no balance because they have no center of gravity, they're not low. When they get hit in this direction, usually they'll get hit and driven backwards. You never want to see any football player standing up straight, especially your running back. This is the way it should look when a running back is coming through with a low center of gravity (video demo). He's low, he can work, he can either avoid the tackles or he can take the man straight on. The key is he has to be low, have good forward body lean and get through that hole with good balance."