As you watch this video of a big fluffy dog making an open-field tackle on an elementary schooler, I encourage you to watch not as a fan of football or dogs, but as an evaluator. I understand this is not easy, because we all have our various biases in favor of football and big fluffy dogs, and because those biases can and invariably do color the way we watch sports. But do your best. Watch this, if you can, with the eyes of a coach—objective, unsparing, analytical, informed. Hell, pull on a short-sleeved windbreaker if you think it will help. So:What do you see, here? Yes it's a great athlete making a great play, the sort of play that is the very reason why we watch small children being tackled by much larger dogs. Deadspin named it their Sports Highlight Of The Day, and they're not wrong to do it; it is in fact a pretty great highlight, and undeniably sports. But remember that we are trying to watch this as coaches, not as fans. Look at it that way. What do you see, here?I will tell you what I see: a dog making the sort of reckless, show-off tackle that loses games. However cool it looks, however nice it is to have your buddies at the dog run telling you "yo dog, I saw you on YouTube lighting up that fourth-grader," this is not the sort of tackle that you would teach your dog to make on your child if you cared about doing it right. Our dog plays through the whistle and displays a keen nose for the ball—this statement is very much meant to be taken literally, and with the caveat that this dog almost certainly has forgotten what a ball even is by the time he brings it back to his owner—but he also launches the sort of all-or-nothing, lead-with-the-shoulder, no-wrap-up hit that coaches decry in today's generation of highlight-addled tacklers. The late Sean Taylor could get away with this, because he was Sean Taylor. The dog in this video is not Sean Taylor. It's either a great pyrenees or a samoyed that has recently had a haircut, I am not sure.The good news is that there's a better way. A better way to teach, and a better way to tackle. Please watch this brief instructional video, from USA Football, which shows the proper way to tackle a completely motionless opponent.This isn't rocket science, folks. It's as simple as going through five discrete steps before tackling someone who is just kind of standing there staring at you nervously, waiting to be tackled. It's a safe way to tackle, and not just because of the way it protects the heads of both people involved. It's a finished tackle, one that goes all the way down to the ground. It's not flashy, but it's not a tackler's job to be flashy. It's a tackler's job to tackle. Here's what it looks like when it's done right, in some game footage uploaded by Reddit user 1Voice1Life to the insanely great dog-related subreddit /r/dogberg.What does this dog get right? Everything, basically: it breaks down with a series of shuffle steps, leads with one goofy orange shoulder, shoots its hilarious fluffy body directly into its target for a reason that can only truly be understood by other animals with brains the size of navel oranges, and finishes by wrapping up with its silly forepaws. You don't have to be a coach to appreciate a dog-on-child tackle done right. You just have to enjoy a job well done, and the simple pleasure of a play made the right way.
Advertisement