Greenville Middle School and the Greenville YMCA are the beneficiaries of some new football equipment, courtesy of Greenville High School head football coach Josh McLendon.

Greenville High School donated a pair of Tackle Tubes that the team won during the USA Football 7-on-7 tournament held earlier this summer.

“The winning team got two of these, and we actually already have one that we’ve been using, so we felt that we wanted to donate these to the younger guys and let them start learning the things that we’re learning,” McLendon said.

McLendon added that the gesture was not only a means of spreading the wealth, but also by encouraging safe practice procedure for the city’s younger football players.

“It’s so much now about safety and teaching the right fundamentals, and tackling is no longer about just being the biggest and strongest.  It’s about having good technique and good form.  And I think this helps do that—it helps teach the right way of tackling, plus it helps keep you from being hurt at practice.  Now, it’s specific drills that help you learn the art of tackling, and without banging yourself up too much.

“And not only that, but we want them to avoid tackling the ground and hitting the ground the wrong way.  Hopefully this will alleviate some of that, and at least give them a basis of somewhere to start.  That way, if they’re learning the right technique and right form as an 8-year-old instead of as a 14-year-old, they’ll have that technique down and have some familiarity with what we’re talking about. And doing a lot of the same drills that we’re doing, it’ll become second nature by the time they get to us.”

Tackle Tubes provide football teams with a new way to practice by promoting great body position, tracking and tackling in motion and improving technique and timing.

Though the tubes look about as far from an actual human opponent as possible, McLendon said that they provide real game skills through their multiple applications.

“You can roll it at the player, and they work on breaking down and getting their hips in the correct position.  Basically, you’re just wrapping the tube up,” he said.

“Or they could tackle it from the side in what we call a profile tackle, and then kind of rolling as you wrap.  The Seattle Seahawks were the first to get this rolling.  It’s getting your shoulders involved and taking your head and neck out of the tackle.

You can go online and view these videos, and it teaches you what to do and the proper technique.  And it’s something good for the coaches to learn also, so they learn exactly what they’re supposed to.”