The MHSAA also specified that “thud” contact will be unlimited, defining thud as "full speed but above the waist only, with no player taken to the ground and no winner or loser. Thud contact is not considered collision contact.”
According to Chippewa Valley coach Scott Merchant, these new definitions will allow teams to do more despite the new restrictions on collisions.
“I’m really pleased that they made a differentiation between live-collision contact and thud,” Merchant said. “I think for most of us, very few of us are doing a ton of live or full collision or full-go in practice as it is. Prior to this changing of definitions, basically thud contact was considered collision too ... I think that, with this change, it will allow us to do a lot more in terms of tackling and keeping the head out of tackling and teaching proper form with that.”
Chippewa Valley won the Division 1 state championship last fall and Merchant says he already includes three different types of contact in practices. Along with thud and live collision, Merchant has “tag-off” contact where the players tag the opponent and then stop.
“If anyone is doing live contact for hours upon hours in this day and age, that’s just crazy,” Merchant said.
Detroit Cass Tech coach Tom Wilcher said the MHSAA is moving in the right direction with this new rule. However, he also has some concern when it comes to quality instruction time on how to properly teach athletes to tackle in a game, especially with those new to the sport.
“In order to teach safety, you’re going to have to have drills where you teach them how to hit and tackle and you’re going to spend more time with it," Wilcher said. "That’s the problem. It’s called time on task. If you limit the amount of time on a task, that means that you are limiting the amount of instruction time to teach the kids. That’s the biggest problem I have.”
Clarkston coach Kevin Richardson echoed the same concerns that Wilcher brought up.
“The thing that I hesitate on about this whole thing is that drills are great but you have to have some live contact to teach tackling,” Richardson said.
At the same time, Richardson also mentioned the MHSAA does not have an efficient way to police the collision rules.
“People are still going to do what they want to do,” Richardson said. “How are they going to monitor it? I mean, you take care of your kids anyway. Our amount of contact has dwindled so much from the old days that it’s unbelievable."
According to Freeland coach Kevin Townsend, the lack of proper live collision in practice could have a negative ripple effect for game nights.
“My only worry of the ‘thud’ is kids losing the technique of tackling,” Townsend said. “We do simulation drills, but nothing can replace what a tackle might be like on Friday nights. It will obviously cut down on injuries during practice, but might increase them when kids go full out on game days."
Over at Muskegon High School, however, the Big Reds already eliminated full-speed tackling from practice. According to Muskegon offensive coordinator Brent White, it has not come at the expense of proper tackling in games. In fact, White thinks the new rule will allow for better instruction.
“Essentially, the way that I interpret the rule is the state has actually loosened the practice rules a bit in allowing more team activity, more opportunity to teach kids how to tackle in a safe environment,” White said. “I don’t know how many teams full tackle in practice. I know that the majority of coaches I know and associate with ... none of us full-speed tackled around in practice. It’s just not a very safe practice. It’s not safe so we don’t do it.”
For some coaches, it will be a wait-and-see approach to see what kind of difference the new rules make.
