Chapter 2: Phase 2: Past Experience
In Charles' eyes, the ball slowed as it made his way to his face. However, just because he could see it moving in slow motion, did not mean he was able to catch it. The ball hit his face with a smack however, as the ball lost its momentum his hands fell into his centre, capturing the ball before it could hit the ground. He allowed himself a few second to regain his composure before he passed the ball off to the last person in the line.
To his relief the last person waited a few extra seconds for Charles to be ready and get his hands up to prepare to receive the ball. This time the ball came to Charles without any spin and landed perfectly in his hands. Allowing him to make a pass with ease back to the boy who had passed to his face. The ball followed the hands of the rest of the boys and did not stop motion as the next group collected the ball from the first boy and continued back. Once the boys had gone to the back of the lines the boy who had passed a perfect pass to his face come up to Charles and said in a very apologetic tone,
"I'm so sorry dude, are you alright?"
"Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine," Charles responded as he wiggled his nose a bit.
"Got to learn somehow," he added. They two boys laughed at this.
"I'm Chuck, by the way. Now any time you have something against me, just remind me what I did to you today," Chuck said as he laughed before I he slowly followed his line shuffling forward.
"I'm Charles," Charles said as he shook Chuck's hand and followed his line that shuffled forward.
The line moved forward and each boy including Arjun ran ahead as they caught and released the ball to each player. Every time Charles was up, he started picking up more and more of the small details that each boy would add to their pass. Some would add a spin, while other would not. It showed the difference between the boys in skill. Thankfully for Charles, he was not the last person to make an error with the ball as there were a few times that the ball was dropped or passed to far backwards so they line was forced to stop and wait for the boy who had missed the catch to pick it up.
Arjun shuddered every time it happened, including when he himself accidently dropped the ball. Some of the boys would keep an eye on Mr. Taylor to see if he had seen the mistake. He always had, but did not say anything, but the look of disappointment that came onto his face said more than a thousand words. The fear in some of the boy's eyes conveyed the emotion and dread they had for the punishment that was given every time.
Once they had completed 10 rotations of the drill without dropping the ball Mr. Taylor called out,
"Alright boys, Tackling practice! Find a partner,"
"Charles, you go with Arjun!" he added as he pointed to the two boys.
Arjun patted Charles on the back as they found some space away from the other boys.
"Alright, since you most likely have never tackled anyone, I'll teach you the basics," Arjun started saying as he waved his arms around a bit.
"The goal of a tackle is to bring the person you're tackling to the ground to stop them from getting to the try line," Arjun continued. He pointed over to the other boys who were practicing their tackling. From the distance it was clear to see what they were doing as they started to get a repeating pattern going. One player had a ball, and the two boys were spaced around 5 metres away from each other. This gave the player with the ball enough space to build up a bit of speed, but not enough if they were on the bigger side to trample through the other boy.
The player without the ball, before the player with the ball ran would get into a low-level stance, with their arms forward and alert. When the player with the ball began running up, sometime with a light pace, the low-levelled player would go forward towards the other, he would approach quickly, but slow their approach as the got closer to the other player. When they got within a reaching distance, the low-levelled player would thrust into the other, shoulder first, with their head on the outside of the other player, hands quickly wrapping around and constricting the movement of the player that held onto the ball.
Each player hit the other at different levels on the other's body. Some would tackle right down and the other's knees, while others would encounter the other player's chest. However, even when the higher hitter would still slide down to a lower level which helped slow down the player that held the ball.
Charles noted the most effective tackles performed where when they player with the ball would be hit around the stomach or solar plexus areas which often forced the player to fall on their back, or if they were unlucky, the ball would leave their arms. Those hits were rare though as people seemed to only do them lightly as to not hurt their fellow player. Charles wondered if this would change in a game when they really wanted to win against the other team.
The other effective method that Charles was able to find was when the initial contact failed, the tackling player would grab one of the other player's legs and lift it off the ground getting rid of their sense of balance as soon toppling.
"Oh, that's sort of like a single leg takedown," Charles blurted out which interrupted Arjun's explanation.
"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you," Charles added apologetically. Arjun just looked up with a thoughtful expression.
"Don't worry" Arjun said. "You're right though, a good tackle can be considered a single leg takedown, but a double leg is better in this game. More likely for the player to lose the ball."
"But that is the basics of the tackle, you ready to try yourself?" Arjun asked.
Charles nodded, he steeled his nerves ready and walked to the point where Arjun pointed to. He was prepared not to mess up as badly as he had with the passing drill. Arjun walked off to the mesh bag that sat next to Mr. Taylor and grabbed a ball from it. He walked back over and stood around 5 metres away from Charles. Arjun nodded towards Charles asking if he was ready to which Charles nodded back.
Arjun then began is approach. He slowly jogged with his weight slightly in front of himself and an upright back like what the other ball carriers were doing. Charles approached as well. He kept his centre of gravity low like the other boys he had seen and arms out, ready and alert.
Arjun sped up a little, but seemed to have no intention of stopping, which caused him to come into direct contact with Charles who had not expected a sudden change of speed. Fortunately, Charles' arms wrapped around Arjun's stomach as he held on for dear life. Arjun had attained a decent amount of momentum before contacting Charles and so he was able to brush past him and continue forward, although now with Charles around his waist it was much harder. For a little while Charles had forgotten everything he had seen and realised about tackling and just held on as Arjun dragged him along. After a few metres Arjun tapped Charles on the shoulder causing him to look up at Arjun.
"Let's try, again shall we?" Arjun said with a sympathetic grin on his face. This slightly annoyed Charles but accepted his defeated and got up from the ground that Arjun had dragged him across.
"Here, let me show you how to do it, just don't step out of the way," Arjun said, now with a checky grin on his face as he handed the ball to Charles and went back to where had had originally stood at the beginning. They faced off once more against each other, Arjun giving Charles a nod which allowed Charles to begin his approach.
As they both approached each other Charles could see Arjun had his weight slightly more forward than he did which forced him to keep moving forward. Charles slowed his approached for a second before he changed into a full-on sprint slightly to the side of Arjun, like what Arjun had done to him. Arjun seemed to be prepared for this however, in which he took a small step to the side and thrust himself forward. Shoulder first and contacted Charles' stomach. This took Charles by surprise despite knowing that it would happen. Charles noticed in that moment that Arjun's arms which had formed around his back had slid down to his legs and were being lifted off the ground.
Charles fell backwards with Arjun on top of him. He hit the ground with a loud thump and started to reel in pain a bit from having the wind taken out of him. Arjun immediately got off Charles and checked if he was alright.
"Don't worry I'm fine. Just didn't expect to go down that easy," Charles replied to Arjuns worried concern.
Arjun held out his hand to help Charles up, which Charles grabbed hold of without any hesitation.
"We'll, that's the most ideal tackle, but you won't always get them that way. Just try and bring them to the ground," Arjun said as he noticed that Charles still held onto the ball.
"Good job holding onto the ball, looks like you've got a good amount awareness on grip on you," He added. Charles looked down to the ball and nodded.
"Guess the grappling training can help with that," Charles said with a chuckle before he handed the ball back to Arjun.
Again, the two boys got into the starting positions, this time with Arjun carrying the ball just like the first time. The approached each other again allowing themselves to get closer and closer. Charles maintained his form, but this time lowered his centre of gravity a bit lower. This time, Arjun charged straight for Charles, but Charles was able to remember everything that he had seen and learnt this time. Almost mimicking Arjun, he took a small step into the side that Arjun charged on and shot forward. Due to his lower centre of gravity, he contacted with Arjun in his stomach as well. This winded Arjun but was not quite enough to bring him down.
Charles got his feet firmly on the ground and pushed into Arjun's body, which caused Arjun to lean backwards and stumble over. It was not as clean of a tackle as Arjun had performed on himself but had still done the job of bringing Arjun to the ground.
Arjun congratulated Charles as he rose from the ground, ball still in hand. Arjun began to talk a little about the different areas that you are able and showed Charles where on the body he wanted to apply pressure to. As they chatted Mr. Taylor called out,
"Alright, Switch partners. You two as well, Arjun and Charles,"
"Jackson! you go with Charles," he added.
"YES COACH!" A voice called out in reply. A larger boy then ran up to Charles. He was leaner than the other boys, but still brimming with muscles.
"Charles, right?" The larger boy said, as he nodded to Arjun who began to wonder off.
"I'm Jackson Lam."
Charles shook Jackson's hand which almost seemed to engulf his own.
"Yeah, I'm Charles," Charles replied.
"Awesome, so Arjun showed you how to tackle?" Jackson asked. Charles nodded in response.
"Cool, do you want to tackle first, or do you want me to?" Jackson asked grabbing the ball of the ground and held it between the two boys.
"I think I'll let you go first, see what it feels like," Charles said, seemingly forgetting the last time he was tackled by someone. Jackson just smiled and chuckled to himself. He handed the ball and walked to around a 5-metre distance away from Charles. Charles got into his position ready to charge.
Once more Charles was on the ground in no time, this time winded even more by Jackson who had gotten him in the stomach. Jackson did not even need to lift Charles' legs to make him fall over. Her just had that much power.
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