In meeting the runner on either side the body should be thrown across in front of the legs and the latter pinned against the tackler's chest. If the tackier has made a hard enough drive this will turn his man over and bring his own body on top, at the same time throwing the runner back toward his own goal. The tackler's lunge will have to be longer than in the case of the head-on tackle, to be certain of bringing the body well across the runner's legs. If the tackier be big and powerful and the runner by any chance carries the ball on the wrong side - i.e., on the same side on which the tackle is to be made - it is a good plan for the tackier to strike the runner just where he is carrying the ball, in the hope of causing a fumble. Such a tackle is apt to spin the runner and shake him up a great deal, and, carrying the ball on the wrong side, that arm will be working naturally more than it ought to, and the grip on the leather.

When two backs strike a runner at the same time they should be certain, by means of previous agreement and practice, to thoroughly cover the runner with their double tackle, throwing him as far back as possible. The defensive back must remember that he has the use of his hands all the time, and be sure to use them on any interferer who happens to confront him. It is necessary sometimes to lunge in and carry this interferer off his feet and into the runner if possible, but as a rule the tackier should stand him off with his hands and arms, just as if he were the runner and the interferer a tackier. In case the play has been partly stopped at the line and the runner is surrounded by forwards who because of the press have been unable to bring him down and are slowly giving ground, the secondary defense man should come up fast and tear into the group with his hands and arms to reach the runner. At other times it would be well for him - this especially the duty of the fullback - to drive in low and gather in a double armfull of legs, friend and foe alike. This will topple the mass over and often uncover the runner so that another defensive back can get at him.

Open-field tackling is one of the most difficult features of football. The runner will be at top speed with all the advantage of many yards of field in which to maneuver. He will be able to use change of pace and direction and will have the stiff arm at his service. In such a situation the tackier who comes up too fast will find the runner flitting past him like a ghost, or will easily be tipped over by the straight arm. Some little ground will have to be sacrificed in such circumstances. The tackier may come up fast until he gets within five yards or a little less, of the runner. Right here he should slow down and prepare to lunge directly ahead, or to right or left. This instant's pause will prevent the overrunning of the man with the ball, the commonest fault of ambitious but green players. The action immediately following the pause, however, should be of the hardest description, the final lunge making up in drive what is lacking in actual speed.

Photo, by Paul Thomoson.

A "Long Gainer" In Mid-Career

Sparks, a Princeton halfback, is seen turning Yale's right wing in one of those pretty, open plays, so valuable at times, when used near the middle of the field. The "long gainer" picks up anything from five yards up or practically nothing. This time it is "making good." (X) indicates the runner.

The quarterback, the ultimate defensive player, should be the surest tackier on the team, for he is the man on whom the eleven relies to prevent touchdowns once the runner is clear. The quarter should come up, if possible, a little to one side of the runner, so that the natural course of the man with the ball will be toward the sideline. The tackier in this case can afford to slow up considerably in order to make certain of spoiling any sudden dodge, or of driving the runner across the side line. Five or even ten yards sacrificed to the certainty of the tackle will not hurt the defensive team, since a touchdown has been saved.

In all side- and open-field tackling it is as well to come as near leaving the feet as the rules permit, because there is greater space to cover. One dragging foot slows up the tackier very little, and still keeps him within the boundaries set by the laws of football. All these little but very important matters of individual technique are to be mastered only by practice. The tackling dummy is useful only if it is properly handled. In this sort of work a great deal of time should be spent in teaching the men how to keep from falling over their own feet, a natural tendency of green players. The coach who is handling the bag and directing the practice should have an assistant whose duty it should be to correct the tackle after the bag has been yanked down. No player should be allowed to get up off the ground after a bad tackle until he has been obliged to rearrange himself in the position he would have assumed had the tackle been a clean one. This applies to tackling actual players as well as the dummy. Down-field tackling will be treated in the following chapter.

The technique of line play, so far as the individual is concerned, is as difficult to teach as it is to learn, but tells tremendously once it is really mastered. Its absence spells almost sure disaster. The masters of this department of football always have in mind an ideal, and too often material that never can be whipped into ideal shape must be used. They simply do the best they can, varying their own theories in individual instances and getting their results now by one method, now by another. The forwards are in for a steady grind from the beginning of the season to its close. They have so little conspicuous work to do that the real worth of their services is not appreciated by more than twenty per cent. of the crowd on the day of a big game. This will continue to be the case until the public learns enough about it to criticize intelligently, or until the ranks of the spectators receive a few hundred thousand more recruits from the football field. I know a man who is a splendid all-round coach who is nevertheless much hurt when he is called a "great line coach." As a matter of fact his eminence in line coaching is something of which to be inordinately proud. Indeed, one of the reasons why he is so good an offensive coach for the backs is his ability to read the weaknesses in the opposing line by means of his mastery of line technique.