There’s been a lot of talk in rugby and football circles about the influence of one sport over the other in terms of tackling and converting crossover athletes, and ATAVUS Coach Emilie Bydwell said there are certainly approaches that work best for rugby coaches.

The Rugby World Cup has brought up, yet again, the concept of the need for the USA National Team to attract athletes from other sports. Bydwell said ATAVUS has a specific approach when working with successful athletes from football, track, or somewhere else.

“With accomplished athletes new to rugby, you need to get them comfortable with the ball in their hands,” said Bydwell. “There are so many accomplished athletes who have done only one thing. With rugby requiring skills from any position, we’ve got to get the ball in their hands.”

And you don’t need to sweat all of the rules - such as making sure passes are all backwards.

“You can work on a multi-directional game where they can express themselves in space and maybe don’t have so many constraints on them, but they can also really work on the catch-pass. That’s the most important thing.”

And then there’s the tackling. The Seattle Seahawks gave their nod to how rugby has helped make their tackling better and safer, and that idea has spread throughout football, with many rugby coaches now being asked to help coach tackling.

ATAVUS has brought in Rex Norris to do just that on a more formal level, and ATAVUS Coach Kevin Swiryn, who also coaches the University of Washington, has also worked in this area.

“We are taking the players through the tackle progression,” said Bydwell. “When we do our mental skills work is when, some of the younger men finally admit that they aren’t necessarily confident in the tackle. But we’ve learned that if you break the tackle down to its technical components, it takes away that anxiety around the tackle. It’s a safety thing, but it’s also a confidence in contact thing, and when a player understands the steps he needs in order to make a confident tackle, then he will be a more confident tackler.”

It’s a complex skill, this tackling, and it’s important that rugby coaches be absolutely sure of how they teach it, as the contact area is under more scrutiny than ever, in football and rugby.

It’s not just about safety, either, but effectiveness.

“There are a lot of things that need to happen to make it a positive tackle,” said Bydwell. “Young men will rely a lot on their aggression and their athleticism, but it puts them in a position where they’re very easy to evade. So they need to understand the technical points of track and using both shoulders.”

And finally, if you’re working with crossover athletes, even at the highest level, there’s something else to remember - it’s supposed to be fun.

“I think people seem to get the idea that high performance can’t be enjoyable,” said Bydwell. “But with crossover athletes, and high school or college athletes, if they’re not enjoying themselves, and if this is not the most enjoyable experience they can have, then they’re going to go somewhere else.”