Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Camarillo Stingers First Day of Contact


Monday, August 1, 2022

Finally, the first day of actual body-on-body contact had arrived for the 2022 Stingers.

This is a critical day in the life of any young boy like our grandson Jacob who is in his first season of playing full contact American football.

The key concept here is on having good coaches who completely understand the seriousness of the situation and have a handle on a solid, safe teaching progression of controlled drills.

Fortunately, Jacob's coaches are indeed good coaches.

Groups of three to start

Wisely separated by sizes and experience, everyone started learning to tackle from an up close, kneeling position.

TIMBER!

Jacob, on the far right with his arms up, getting tackled for the first time in slo-mo.

Next step, from a two-point stance

Jacob, with the white towel, tackling and getting more instruction from his coach. I'm not sure that Jacob can lift a ball carrier to the same degree yet.

Jack Tatum's tackling records are safe for the moment.

The Coaching Staffs focus on slow
paced teaching is greatly appreciated

Jacob really needs to improve
on exploding his hips on contact

Now, what was that phrase that Coach Paul Sabolic used to say at Granada Hills H.S. about this concept?

Taking the ball carrier to the mat

In our day, we were taught to place the head in front of the ball carrier. Today the mantra is to attack the man with the ball with your near shoulder thus placing your head behind the ball carrier and, hopefully, more out of harms way.

His form is improving but he
still needs to wrap up with both arms

Another tackling station
with another coach

Again, slow and steady with a safety first attitude was the way.
 
OK, it's a start, but daily
improvement will be a must

After about 45 minutes of work on the much needed tackling stations, the Stingers broke up into Offensive position groups.

Jacob fancies himself to be a Wide Receiver, let's see how it went for him tonight.

Batting down the ball is
really not the idea here

A drop, though not good, is
still a slight improvement

I finally stopped taking videos of his pass routes and he actually started catching the ball.

Jerry Rice slept easier tonight, I'm sure.

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