Learning Hockey:
Jab to the left, tackle to the right, and maintain a strong defence

The last of the tackling techniques – the jab tackle is quite versatile and effective in stopping an attacker’s run and stealing the ball back from him. Think of the motion of a snake striking a target and then springing back immediately. That’s the action for a jab tackle. Jude Felix breaks it down step by step, along with exercises to help you perfect the tackle.

Posture and Grip

The posture is same as that of the previous tackles you’ve read about – upper body slightly bent forward, with a slight bend at the knees as well. The grip for this tackle involves keeping the hands apart, with the left hand placed on top of the handle and the right hand midway through the stick. The front of your stick should be facing the three cones ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’.

Executing the Jab Tackle

Player stands about a metre away from the three cones. Stepping forward with the left leg, he adjusts the grip on the stick by a half rotation with the left-hand. The flat side of the stick should now be facing the sky and the knuckles pointed towards the ground. The player lets go of the right hand. Holding the stick with only the left hand, he jabs at cone ‘A’, steps back and jabs at cone ‘B’, then steps back and jabs at cone ‘C’. The player should practise this tackle by stepping forward with the left leg and the right leg too. Add an attacker with a ball to make it a 1v1 tackling exercise.

There are two important things to keep in mind while executing this tackle. The first is that you should be light on your front foot when stepping forward for the jab. Ensure the back foot is firmly placed on the ground. The other thing is with regards to your elbow. You should not bend your elbow while jabbing; instead you need to stretch and jab. Now that the technique is familiar, let’s look at a useful training exercise for this hockey skill.

Practice Exercise

This involves four cones placed on the ground, to the left and right, forming two makeshift goal posts. The attacker has to try and get past the defender, crossing into either of the two goals with the ball. The defender on the other hand will employ all the different tackles to prevent this, especially the jab tackle.

In case children are the ones doing this exercise, the defender needs to walk and defend while the attacker can run to either of the goal posts. There are some interesting tackling techniques that involve faking your move to confuse the attacker. These are known as the dummy or fake and tackle. Read on to know more.