TACKLING ISN’T JUST ABOUT WANTING TO HIT SOMEBODY HARD. Last Saturday at PAC Defensive Academy, we spent two hours going back to the fundamentals of creating an effective tackle. And for me, it starts with three things: RANGE. SHIFT. LAUNCH. Range is understanding the distance at which you initiate the tackle. Too far away and you give the ball carrier time and space to react. Too close and you lose the space you need to produce an effective strike. The right range helps take away the opponent’s time and angle while giving you enough room to create force. Then comes the shift. This is where we transfer force from the back leg toward the near foot. Your bodyweight moves forward, momentum starts building and you’re putting your body in position to deliver force through the ball carrier instead of simply making contact with him. Then we launch. Once range and shift are right, we can use that position to create the impulse we need to explode through contact. That’s the part everyb...