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Now, with brain injuries at the forefront of a national discussion surrounding safety in football, a group of Seattle Seahawks coaches, led by defensive assistant Rocky Seto, is looking to popularize a “shoulder tackling” technique that will heed those words and “take the head out of tackling.” And it will do so at all levels of the game. USA Football, the national governing body that oversees amateur football, is collaborating with Seahawks coaches and will rebrand its tackling system as “Shoulder Tackling” in 2017.
The method isn’t revolutionary. It’s as old as the game itself. It’s also not too dissimilar from what USA Football currently teaches. But it’s a method that Seto calls “the future of football,” and one he says will define both his legacy and that of Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.
Seto uses two main selling points when endorsing it. One is safety. The second is effectiveness.
“If it didn’t work, if it didn’t show up on tape, we wouldn’t be here talking about this today,” Seto said at his clinic. “If it didn’t work, I can’t get up in front of the players and say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going to help your game.’”
Since going all in on shoulder tackling in 2012, the Seahawks have been to two Super Bowls and won one. At the collegiate level, former Ohio State defensive coordinator Chris Ash adopted Seto’s technique after tackling struggles in 2013, and the Buckeyes went on to win a national title a season later.
Is it safer? No studies have proven so. Seto claims that the Seahawks have seen concussions drop all the way from “about 15” team-wide in 2010 to only two on defense in recent years. But that evidence is anecdotal, and it’s unclear if such numbers would carry over to the youth game.
“Is it ever going to be perfect?” Ash asks rhetorically. “No, it’s not. But if I can teach someone to have their head behind, and 7 out of 10 tackles it’s behind, and it’s not the first thing that makes contact, them I’m teaching a safer game.”
There is certainly skepticism, though. Ash has received calls from worried coaches questioning the placement of the head and shoulders in relation to the hips.
Tackling guru Bobby Hosea, who has taught his own method for nearly 20 years and helped USA Football develop the “Heads Up” technique, is more than merely a skeptic. He’s a denouncer. And he doesn’t mince words.
“I would never teach that, that’s extremely dangerous,” Hosea says without flinching. “There’s nothing new about the tackle. Arms out, hips back, head down. Whenever your head and your butt are on the same level, you are susceptible to severe injury.”
Hosea argues that while Seto’s method looks safe in principle – on an empty practice field, or in a demonstration video – it leaves defenders susceptible in the fast-paced, frenzied environment of a game.
“Football is very fluid,” he says. “A [running] back will spin, a back will turn, an offensive tackle will fall, a linebacker will jump over a block. And all of a sudden, there’s your head. That’s Russian Roulette … It’s not safe.”
Hosea also worries that shoulder injuries could become endemic. “When you lead with one shoulder, you’re putting all that pressure on one shoulder,” he says. “It makes no sense. It’s like putting all the pressure on one side of your car. … You’re gonna wear down that shock, or that tire. Just disperse the weight evenly.”
The broader issue is empirical data doesn’t back Seto’s tackling. That’s what concerns Tony Strickland, the CEO of the Sports Concussion Institute and a member of the Pop Warner medical advisory board. Strickland says that a soon to be published study, conducted by the Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, found an 87 percent reduction in injuries among players coached by “Heads Up”-trained coaches. But he doesn’t see similar studies supporting other tackling methods.
“When you hear about these various techniques, always ask yourself, ‘OK, that’s nice, where was it published?'” Strickland says. “I’ve never seen such a cavalcade of self-anointed expertise from voices I’ve never heard.
Now, with brain injuries at the forefront of a national discussion surrounding safety in football, a group of Seattle Seahawks coaches, led by defensive assistant Rocky Seto, is looking to popularize a “shoulder tackling” technique that will heed those words and “take the head out of tackling.” And it will do so at all levels of the game. USA Football, the national governing body that oversees amateur football, is collaborating with Seahawks coaches and will rebrand its tackling system as “Shoulder Tackling” in 2017.
The method isn’t revolutionary. It’s as old as the game itself. It’s also not too dissimilar from what USA Football currently teaches. But it’s a method that Seto calls “the future of football,” and one he says will define both his legacy and that of Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.
Seto uses two main selling points when endorsing it. One is safety. The second is effectiveness.
“If it didn’t work, if it didn’t show up on tape, we wouldn’t be here talking about this today,” Seto said at his clinic. “If it didn’t work, I can’t get up in front of the players and say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going to help your game.’”
Since going all in on shoulder tackling in 2012, the Seahawks have been to two Super Bowls and won one. At the collegiate level, former Ohio State defensive coordinator Chris Ash adopted Seto’s technique after tackling struggles in 2013, and the Buckeyes went on to win a national title a season later.
Is it safer? No studies have proven so. Seto claims that the Seahawks have seen concussions drop all the way from “about 15” team-wide in 2010 to only two on defense in recent years. But that evidence is anecdotal, and it’s unclear if such numbers would carry over to the youth game.
“Is it ever going to be perfect?” Ash asks rhetorically. “No, it’s not. But if I can teach someone to have their head behind, and 7 out of 10 tackles it’s behind, and it’s not the first thing that makes contact, them I’m teaching a safer game.”
There is certainly skepticism, though. Ash has received calls from worried coaches questioning the placement of the head and shoulders in relation to the hips.
Tackling guru Bobby Hosea, who has taught his own method for nearly 20 years and helped USA Football develop the “Heads Up” technique, is more than merely a skeptic. He’s a denouncer. And he doesn’t mince words.
“I would never teach that, that’s extremely dangerous,” Hosea says without flinching. “There’s nothing new about the tackle. Arms out, hips back, head down. Whenever your head and your butt are on the same level, you are susceptible to severe injury.”
Hosea argues that while Seto’s method looks safe in principle – on an empty practice field, or in a demonstration video – it leaves defenders susceptible in the fast-paced, frenzied environment of a game.
“Football is very fluid,” he says. “A [running] back will spin, a back will turn, an offensive tackle will fall, a linebacker will jump over a block. And all of a sudden, there’s your head. That’s Russian Roulette … It’s not safe.”
Hosea also worries that shoulder injuries could become endemic. “When you lead with one shoulder, you’re putting all that pressure on one shoulder,” he says. “It makes no sense. It’s like putting all the pressure on one side of your car. … You’re gonna wear down that shock, or that tire. Just disperse the weight evenly.”
The broader issue is empirical data doesn’t back Seto’s tackling. That’s what concerns Tony Strickland, the CEO of the Sports Concussion Institute and a member of the Pop Warner medical advisory board. Strickland says that a soon to be published study, conducted by the Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, found an 87 percent reduction in injuries among players coached by “Heads Up”-trained coaches. But he doesn’t see similar studies supporting other tackling methods.
“When you hear about these various techniques, always ask yourself, ‘OK, that’s nice, where was it published?'” Strickland says. “I’ve never seen such a cavalcade of self-anointed expertise from voices I’ve never heard.
