have him hit some one just a little bigger than he is it might hel

hoe it works

-sammie

it will come with time. as he plays more, he will begin to trust his equipment.

I'd recommend you hitting with him. As his father, open up the door to let him know its ok to treat you like the opposing team or team mate. Make him hit with you and don't take it easy on him. Let him win a few times and instruct him along the way. The less fear and more success he has hitting with you, the more confidence he'll have hitting with kids his age/size.

Shaun's right. Give it time. You can rep the proper form for tackling, doing fit freeze. How most good coach's progress is, they start with fit/freeze, going through each step of the tackle, over and over and over and over again. Then they start the live tackling drill from very close - ball carrier and tackler a yard apart. REP that over, over and over again until they do it right almost every time. Then move back another yard. You can not make your kid want to hit, he has to want it.

It's unfortunate that player on player team aggression is still the standard for evaluation. That being said it isn't the sole evaluation have him give 100% on all drills and exercises and display good characteristics and team sportsmanship if he truely wants it he will earn his spot. I have had many players over the years who just refused to hit hard at practice and several are playing in collage now. However the majority are spectators so the evaluation has legs. Noboby knows your son better then you do, and nobody will be as responsable for the man he becomes, so use your judgement, but let him know that the equipment is designed to protect. and Trucking an opposing player is fun for all; except mabie that player.

I had the same issue with my son. It was interesting, he tore up many of the 1:1 drills but come scrimmage and game time would constantly hesitate. I found their were two real root causes 1) Confidence - not in the equipment but in himself to not make a mistake and 2)He would over think the play - looking for cutbacks, blockers, etc.

Once I prodded him to just go make big mistakes, go miss a tackle in the backfield and trust his speed. Once he spots the ball just run straight at it as fast as he could. (I know not great long term solutions - but I had the get the hitting part first). He started popping hard and fast, missing a bunch, taking bad angles - but when he was right he made big plays - then we just had to adjust the technique without messing with the attitude.

He missed more tackles in the backfield than any other player on the team as DE, but he also made more - we are working on improving the techniques and increasing the percentages