Tackling in field hockey is essential to having a strong defense, and there are subtleties that a defender must know when attempting to tackle without being penalized. Learn how to tackle in field hockey in this video.
Tackle opponent & lead them away
Jab at ball to distract opponent
Lead opponent away from goal
Sam is the founder and president of the Orlando, FL Central Florida Field Hockey Association. He loves the game and looks forward to spreading the word on the great game of field hockey.
SAMUEL ROBERTS: Hi, this is Sam Roberts, your field hockey coach. In this segment today, we are going to talk about tackling, the different ways you can tackle your opponent as they are approaching you with the ball. Tackling in field hockey, there is a lot of different approaches to it. Again, I keep referring to soccer because there are a lot of similarities in your approach to it. You can tackle somebody or guide them away from where you want them to go by simply having a physical presence. Just running your stick along the direction they are going and guide them away from where you want them to go. There is also a reverse stick tackle, which basically is the stick. This is the forehand stick and that is a reverse stick. So the forehand stick tackle will be like this. A reverse stick tackle will be like that. So those are all different ways of attacking or tackling the opponent. As a defensive player, the different ways of tackling or attacking the forward who is coming with the ball is a jab, where I am going to just be jabbing at the ball, jabbing at the ball to distract him or to just slow him down. The other way--and I can swing tackle, which is actually a swing. I just try to hit the ball away. That is one option. Or if he is coming on my reverse side, I can actually step across. I am going to do that, where I am blocking him that way. If he is coming on my reverse side, I can step over. If he is trying to go that way, I can block him that way. If he tries to pass my reverse stick side, the same thing is go to my right--on the strong side. If he is coming this way, I can attack him that way. That is a regular stick tackle, where I just go for the ball that way, try to block him or hit the ball away from him. And again, if he is trying to go that way, I can jab. That is the jab. You just try to jab the ball off the stick.
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