Tackling

Coach, I just finished an article on teaching tackling here that might be helpful.

As far as open field tackling, make a box. Start out at 5 yards by 5 yards with one player on each side. They just need to get the ball carrier out of the box - if they can redirect him that much then help should be coming. It won't ever be pretty, and early on the success rate will be low, which is why we start with a small area. If you want them to get the ball carrier to the ground they will fail a lot early on and be really frustrated.

Emphasize working laterally when they get within the 3 step area, rather than attacking the ball carrier from that point. The goal is to make the ball carrier break his feet down, not to get a kill shot.

Expand the area of the drill to 7x7 yards, 10x10 yards over time. It gets uglier as you go bigger.