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Technical Series with Ben Herring

In this series Ben explains how to narrow down skills to their core components

Part 1. Pre Tackle - Closing Down Space 3:53 Member content

Ben Herring looks at one of the basics of the pretackle. Closing space is key for getting players in good tackling positions.

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Part 2. Pre Tackle - Element 2 Dictating Terms 4:54 Member content

Ben Herring discusses the concepts about how you can dictate the terms of a tackle as a defender. Important in effective and safe tackles.

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Part 3. Pre Tackle - Element 3 Keeping Square 6:08 Member content

Ben Herring walks us through the values of staying square in the approach to a tackle. Important for getting in great tackling positions.

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Part 4. Tackle - Head on Correct Side 5:33 Member content

Getting your head on the correct side is the most important thing for making safe tackles. Ben Herring walks us through some ways to teach this important element.

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Part 5. Tackle - Feet in Close & Shoulder on 4:02 Member content

Feet and shoulders are very important to make effective tackles. Ben Herring shows us how to do it well.

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Part 6. Tackle - All Elements 12:11 Member content

This is a comprehensive video showing 6 of the most important elements in the tackle. Put together in a new form.

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Part 7. Post Tackle Drills 6:34 Member content

After a tackle is made it is really important to get up quick and get back in the game. Ben Herring shows us some novel tricks to train this skill.

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Part 8. Breakdown Drills - Core & Lower Body 6:02 Member content

Ben Herring takes you through some simple core movements that help you prepare for getting stuck into a breakdown.!

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Part 9. Breakdown Upper Body & Stealing the Ball 8:05 Member content

This video follows on from the Breakdown Drills – now focusing on upper body. Enjoy!

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Part 10. The Breakdown Counter Ruck 7:25 Member content

Ben look’s at the skill of making the correct action decision at the breakdown.

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Part 11. The Catch - Reaching Out 2:48 Member content

In this video, Ben shows us the fundamentals of catching the rugby ball. Reaching out to catch the ball. Enjoy!

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Part 12. The Catch - Foot Control 3:41 Member content

In the 2nd part of his Catch and Pass Technical Series modules, Ben looks at positioning the feet when catching and passing. Enjoy!

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Part 13. Catch & Pass - Peripheral Vision 6:05 Member content

In this 3rd video of Ben’s Catch and Pass Technical Series, Ben looks at peripheral vision. Enjoy!

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Part 14. The Pass - Switch on the Core 2:32 Member content

This week’s edition of Bens’ technical series, we look at the core of the pass – switching on your core muscles to activate the pass.

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Part 15. The Pass - Ripping the Grip 2:08 Member content

Ben’s latest video features the catch and pass – in particular gripping the ball when passing. Enjoy!

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Part 16. The Pass - Hands to Target 4:22 Member content

Catching and passing is an absolute fundamental of our game. Easy to talk about. sometimes hard to fine tune. Enjoy!

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Part 17. Evasion The Step 7:57 Member content

Ben takes us through the process of learning how to be a great stepper. Enjoy!

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Part 18. Evasion The Fend 8:43 Member content

Watch Ben in his latest video explain The Fend. Enjoy!

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Part 19. Evasion Hitting the Gaps   3:56 Member content

Ben’s latest video on Evasion looks at Hitting the Gaps. Easy to follow as usual from Ben. Enjoy!

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Part 20. Decision Making at the Breakdown 3:46 Member content

Ben takes the next step in the evasion and hits the gap with his Otago ITM players. Enjoy!

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Part 21. Lineout Primer Drill 4:57 Member content

In this video, Ben shows us some low impact drills for the jumper in the lineout. Enjoy!

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Course Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21
Duration 111:42
Topics Coaches Corner
Applicable to Coaches   Players   Others   Supporters and fans  
Languages English

Click on CC button at top left of video for other translation options.

Course reviews

I’ve taken the evasion serie as a first* stage for dueling skills (1vs1 situation) about 2 years ago. And I still recommend it. *2nd stage should be offload skills

Argentina

I’m a rugby league coach and found this site the best I have come across! The detail in the technical drills and the way Ben breaks things down and addresses coaches is spot on. I have learnt some new ways of putting points across. Great. Thank you Ben

England

Cheers Ben, this series has been awesome, im coaching under 12’s this season and the drills and technics have made a lot of difference to my players development, getting kids confident in the contact zone to make the tackle is one of the hardest aspects of the game ive found to coach. Great stuff

New Zealand

excellent videos……very good explained. I´d rather you can use subtitles. Thanks a lot

Argentina

Great drills, work on deferents aspects of the game I love it thank you Ben.

England

Amazing

Singapore

I have found this particular course a rock of my mini rugby coaching this season. For young players we have to preach the gospel that if you can’t or won’t tackle you will struggle to enjoy the game.

England

Great series with content well demonstrated

South Africa

La gran mayoria de videos, is currently unavailable. Alguien sabe como solucionarlo?

Uruguay

La mitad de los videos no estan subtitulados al español. Por favor corrigirlo.

Spain

La mitad de los videos no estan subtitulados al español. Por favor corrigirlo.

Half of the videos are not subtituled in spanich. Please correct them…

Argentina

gracias por subtitular en español

Argentina

Just love this…. Ben breaks it down in such a great way. Will de use some of these methods on Wednesday night at training.

England

Great for step by step intro to tackling form very useful drill set

Canada

This whole set of modules was beyond great. I second the addition of PDFs for these, but I’ve already run through the tackle sessions with my boys. They loved it and I was so impressed on how it 1) gave a whole new look at the tackle for the experienced boys and 2) caught the new ones up quickly, efficiently, and INTUITIVELY. Can’t wait to incorporate some of the breakdown content. Really great stuff.

USA

Thanks Ben .very good explanation and easy to understand.

New Zealand

Excellent

SAMINDA from Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Por favor traducir al castellano

Argentina

estaria bueno que fueran tambien en español o por lo menos con subtitulos

Argentina

The core skills in a concise way – just what I need to help deliver my rugby lessons. James – Shropshire

England

Can’t see the last video Part 16. Ben Herring – The Pass Switch on the Core

Belgium

great series. one of the best i have seen. thanks for benfro shearing his knowige

Georgia

Ottimo esercizio per la valutazione dello spazio periferico e della reattività.

Italy

An interesting video on peripheral vision, with some good points well made. There are things I would take issue with, however. The eye is not a muscle. Any improvements to peripheral awareness would be the result of subtle changes within the neural network of the brain; the eyes would remain completely unaltered. I prefer drills to be as near as possible to what actually happens on the pitch. In these drills the players are static (it would be virtually impossible if they were on he move) and the receiver has to maintain fixation on a point directly ahead. This is not what an expert would do, so I’m not sure about the wisdom of practising it. It may well be true that experts do not watch the ball right into their hands on every occasion, especially if the passer is a regular teammate. They would need to watch the ball very carefully out of the passer’s hands, the pass would need to be not too long or fast, arrive at the expected height and direction, and be caught reasonably close to the line of sight. One of the advantages that experts have over novices is that they are able to “chunk” individual players into patterns. This enables them to spot, for instance, overlaps or doglegs in the defensive line with a quick glance. It comes from many hours of practice in (usually small-sided) game-like situations. It’s similar to the way in which a grand master chess player can spot a pawn out of position. One way of enhancing this ability would be to get the player to vocalise what they see in front of them. To start with they might be quite slow, and you may need to blow the whistle occasionally to stop play to point out what they’ve missed. But they would soon improve, and then they’d be using their vision more like an expert.

England

Part 5 is extraordinary in it’s simplicity. Great into to the shoulder punch. I can’t wait to try this.

Canada

Ben was clear and precise here and offered some great tips and drills, but the video kept cutting out every few seconds to reload which made it bloody hard to watch

Australia

Salut Ben !!! merci pour tes video. F

Canada

Another well illustrated and described basic skill, very helpful.

France

great drills throughout! I loved the post tackle drill so much :-)

Italy

It’s very important for many people the vídeos in spanish. Thank you

Spain

Great drills..Very helpful..Keep up the good work.

USA

Superb really very useful. Please can we have a PDF??

England

Great pre-tackle sequence, which I’m going to try in the first tackle session of the pre-season. Slight anxiety about the lifting element in Part 6. I’m coaching in a Union which is really focused on eliminating tip/dump tackles from youth rugby and the refs are looking at any lift in the tackle as a risk factor.

Singapore

hi,very very good to hear and see that..simple things but foundamental

Italy

excellent break down into mini components ;practical applications for small space/indoor training sessions where contact work is needed;great suggestions for player/partner self coaching;emphasis on muscle memory was insightful : wished there was a PDF to accompany

USA

Hi all, I will always reply to questions and feedback privately however thought Walter raised a good question below and I wanted to expand a little.

Relax is a great word when refering to head position in the tackle. To often in the tackle as soon an attacker makes a move, the defender drops his head and eyes and predetermines where his head will go. The attacker still has time and space to move somewhere else or change direction (and catch our head on the incorrect side) If we can learn to relax for as long as possible and keep our head in a position as neutral as possible for as long as possible, we are in a better place to react to that attackers late change of direction. Ideally we only commit to putting our head on a side when the attacker has no time or space left to change direction.

This takes time to master because on the whole most young players are so tense/nervous/excited that they instintively decide from along way out what they are going to do in the tackle. In answer to your question, The longer you can relax for, and be uncommitted with your head, the less opportunity the attacker will have to be able to change late and catch you out. Your % chance of getting your head on correct side will be significantly higher.

Hope that helps, appreciate the question and feedback.

Regards

Ben@therugbysite.com

Canada

Good series great to have the steps isolated like this. Can pick out the weak parts of a player and correct Technic more easily. I would have head on the correct side in part 5 to minimize confusion of my players . Thanks Ben I look forward to your next session

New Zealand

Great coaching explanation, and he askes the players to feel the movement, creating awareness of the motion in the players body.

Ireland

es la secuencia de aprenizaje del tackle mas importante que he conocido.- Yo le agraria la “secuencia del alpinista”. Comenzaria por la parte 5 y retrocederia hasta la parte 1.- Gracias.-

Argentina

I’m loving these videos from Ben Herring, where he breaks down the tackle into individual small units we can practice.

Ben, can I please ask: In Part 4: are you saying that by relaxing and not filling your head with thoughts about which side to put your head on, one will instinctively place your head on the side of the body that becomes open to you?

Australia

Great job of stressing the feet!!! Most sports begin with footwork.

USA

Excelente la progresión de la enseñanza !!

Argentina

Excelente ejercicio para enseñar a mantener el encuadre

Argentina

Perfect for younger players who weren’t physical growing up!

USA

Good excersise Cesar Uruguay

Uruguay

Excellent instruction, the basics are so important. The pre-tackle is often forgotten about, with emphasis on the tackle itself. Some good drills to work with.

England

Ben is very effective at getting his point across. Basics are often ignored but these tips will make a big difference if practiced regularly.

Wales

Good clear ,instruction and images.

Hong Kong

Really breaks down the ABC of the tackle. Will definitely use it. Cheers.

Australia

the most important element of backs defence.

Australia

a good drill of pre tackle for a positive tackle ,very good video

Argentina

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