How to - Soccer Tackling

Soccer Tackling - There are basically two ways you can force your enemy to give away possession in soccer: tackles and interceptions. Tackling is the more common of the two and you'll find yourself performing tackles several times during a match, regardless of your position on the pitch.

However, the importance of the tackle will be higher the deeper you go into your own team's territory, therefore it's more important for defenders and midfielders to have precise tackles than for wingers and strikers.

Tackling is a tricky skill in soccer, because it's harder to train than others. For example, it's always more fun for the players to train shooting, passing or dribbling, rather than tackling, but that doesn't mean it should be skipped from your training sessions.

Since today's soccer game is all about having a high possession of the ball, tackling is your main weapon to disrupt your enemy's possession and hopefully, gain it yourself.

That's why I can't stress out how important it is to focus some of your training on your tackling skills, even if it might seem a bit boring or hard at times.

There are three basic types of soccer tackles that you will be able to use in a match: the block tackle, the sliding tackle and the poking tackle. Let's take a look at what each of them requires you to do and how you should execute them correctly.

Soccer Tackling - The Block Tackle

The block tackle is not so much a means of gaining possession as it is one of disrupting the opposing team's one. You can use a block tackle when an opponent is controlling the ball directly towards you.

Simply rush out in front of him, closing the distance between yourself and the ball as fast as possible and position your feet in a staggered stance, one foot slightly further than the other. Your knees should be slightly bent, allowing you to quickly extend your feet either way, in case the attacker tries to dribble past you. You might want to extend your arms sideways, to gain some balance and always stay on your toes, so you can block the ball with either foot.

In a block tackle, you should choose the moment you extend your foot towards the ball carefully. If the ball is too far away when you do so, you'll lose your balance and the attacker will catch you on the wrong foot and dribble you with ease.

When you decide it's time to move in for the block, keep your foot firm and extend it to block the ball with the inside of your foot. It's important that your leg is firm for two reasons: otherwise you risk injuring yourself and by keeping it firm you have a greater chance of deflecting the ball towards your opponent’s goal rather than yours.

Soccer Tackling - The Poke Tackle

This soccer tackling technique is usually executed when the defender is approaching the ball carrier from the side, or from behind. It's also your only tackling option when the opponent is shielding the ball, forming a barrier between you and the ball. Because the situations you'll be using the poke tackle in may vary, there isn't such a strict positioning set of rules, but for the most part you'll want to keep as close to the defender as possible and focus on where he's controlling the ball to.

The key to a successful poke tackle is knowing when to extend your leg for the steal. Since extending your leg past the ball carrier and poking it will usually throw you off balance, it's important to choose a safe time to do it, otherwise a skilled player will take advantage of your miss-tackle and dribble you with ease.

To reduce throwing yourself completely off balance while extending your tackling leg towards the ball, bend your supporting foot and push yourself forward as soon as you've poked the ball away from the other player.

Since the player you're tackling will try to shield it away from you, you will have to extend your foot either around the side, or through his legs. It's very important that you don't physically contact the ball carrier before tackling the ball, or the referee will call a foul. That's why anticipation and knowing when to choose the right moment to attack the ball are two very important skills when executing a poke tackle.

Soccer Tackling - The Sliding Tackle

Besides being the most spectacular of the three types of soccer tackles, the slide is also one of the most efficient when executed correctly. Unfortunately, it has several disadvantages:

*You could get injured when sliding if the pitch isn't wet enough or the grass dense enough

*If you miss the tackle you might produce an ugly foul that will probably earn you a yellow card at least

*Missing the tackle will get you completely out of play, since by the time you finish the slide and get up, the ball carrier will already have a fair advantage

As you can see, a sliding tackle involves taking some risks, so unless you're fully confident in your skills and on the fact that you can push the ball away in that particular situation, you should resort to a more conservative way to block your opponent.

The actual body movement involved with a sliding tackle requires you to throw yourself to the ground, hip first, extending your upper leg to make contact with the ball. For example, if you start the sliding tackle by going down on your left hip, your right leg will be the one making contact with the ball. Your other leg should be bent underneath you, allowing you to quickly use it as support to get up and sprint. Perfecting this movement will allow you not only to push the ball away, but also gain possession for your team.

If you're attacking the ball carrier from behind, you have to be extremely careful not to foul him. Under the new FIFA regulations, sliding tackles from behind may be punishable with a red card if you don't hit the ball.

If you're going to attack a player from behind, you'll have to use a slight variation of the standard sliding tackle, usually called the hook tackle. This involves you sliding on the side of the ball carrier, correlating your tackling foot to the side you're attacking from (for example, if you slide on the right side, you should have your left hip down and your right foot extending for the ball). Try to push the ball away from the attacker's feet with your instep or front foot and quickly jump up to your feet to try and get the ball.

Lastly, make sure your tackling foot is as low as possible when performing a sliding tackle. If you raise it above ground level, the referee will probably call a foul, even if you don't actually kick the defender and you might even get a yellow card, because a raised foot in a sliding tackle can be quite dangerous to the health of the player at the receiving end.

Training Soccer Tackling

It's basically impossible to train poking and blocking tackles individually, although sliding tackles are an option to some extent. What you could do is position the ball on the pitch, take 4-5 yards distance, sprint and slide down and push the ball away, then quickly get up and gain possession.

Of course, this doesn't fully simulate a match environment, since the ball will usually be moved by the attacker when you'll be performing a sliding tackle, but it's still a good way to practice the actual sliding movement and learn how to hit the ball with your sliding foot.

For blocking and poking tackle practice, I'd say you ask around your friends or teammates for someone that wants to train his dribbling and tackling skills. Your friend can act as the attacker, with you performing the tackles.

His goal will be to dribble past you, while you will have to stop him using one of these two soccer tackling techniques. After a while, you can change places so you both train your dribbling and soccer tackle skills.

If you want to improve your soccer tackling skills, you should also work on your physical strength (good for blocking tackles especially), anticipation, balance and mobility. Work out at the gym for physical strength, learn how to think as an attacker for anticipation, position yourself correctly for balance and use stretching exercises daily for mobility. Combine these factors with hands-on training of the three tackling methods and nothing will pass by you.

Oh and one last thing that's worth remembering when you learn how to tackle in soccer. During your tackle training sessions, you will have a natural urge to perform all your tackles with your strong foot as the one connecting with the ball. Have in mind that in a real match, you won't always have the option to choose the foot you're going to attack the ball with, so you should practice tackling with your weak foot as well.