Tackling drill

Bag Shoulder Connection

Build shoulder-first contact and correct head placement at three tackle heights, safely and alone.

Setup

A tackle bag or hit shield propped or leaning on soft ground, with a 3m run-in. This drill genuinely does not work without a bag or shield.

Approach with your eyes up, tracking the core of the bag rather than its base.
Name your target level out loud before every rep - level one is ankle to knee, level two knee to hip, level three hip to sternum - because under the current community law your tackle must land below the base of the sternum.
Power step in and connect with the top of your front shoulder, never your chest, then strike through the target rather than stopping on it.
Wrap, clamp to an iron grip, and squeeze your nearside ear into the bag so your head is out of the collision line.
Drive with active feet, alternate shoulders every rep, and cap it at 3 sets of 10 with full recovery.

Chest-first contact, which leaves you upright, is the highest-injury body position and now risks an illegal high tackle
Getting lazy with head placement because it's only a bag - the head never goes in front