CFL's no-contact practice rule highlights ongoing football change
University coach says no tackling, no pads practice is becoming more common
Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI) has been reducing body contact during football practices for the last 10 years, a decade ahead of the Canadian Football League's recent decision to ban all full-contact padded practices during the regular season.
"We saw the writing on the wall for football with the number of concussions and people leaving the sport because they felt it's unsafe," said Frank Tersigni, football manager at GCVI and also for the Gryphons at the University of Guelph.
He said they made changes such as reducing contacting during practices and also learning how to tackle rugby-style, where the head isn't significantly involved.
"We've pushed to have rule changes to take some of the more dangerous plays out of the game, or reduce the numbers of dangerous plays, for example kick-offs," Tersigni added.
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Now there are only two kick-offs in each game for Guelph high schools: one at the start of each half. Otherwise, the ball is placed at a certain yard-marker to begin the next play.
"We've had very, very few concussions over the last five years."
For schools in Waterloo Region, Victoria Ford, communications officer for media and issues at the Waterloo Region District School Board said in an email statement all teachers and sport volunteers receive annual concussion training to "help ensure the safety and well-being of each and every one of our students."
No competitive disadvantage
People may argue not tackling other players during practice puts teams at a competitive disadvantage, but Tersigni said he hasn't seen that happen.
"We're always amongst the top one or two teams in the league, so it hasn't hurt us," he said.
Michael Faulds, top football coach at Wilfrid Laurier University agrees.
"I haven't noticed us having more missed tackles since kind of going to this direction of not tackling in practice," he said.
Since Faulds arrived in January 2013, he said he hasn't seen a single tackle during practice.
"I think it's kind of 'Shock and Awe' for the public to think that football teams don't tackle in practice, but to be honest it's very common now at the professional, high school and university ranks," Faulds said.
Instead, the team runs plays but stops when it gets to the point where two players would normally tackle during the game.
Tersigni's team has the same approach.
"It's kind of like choreography almost," he said, "It's the same thing, except it doesn't end up with players on the ground or players colliding at full speed."
Recent culture change
It used to be that football coaches would teach their players to tackle head-first. Tersigni said with the introduction of the hard helmet, "people felt invincible."
"It was all about not just stopping the opponent, but physically punishing him or intimidating him," Tersigni said, "It was a big component of the game."
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He said when he was a player, there was contact at every practice.
"What we would recognize [today] as concussions were just 'routine incidents' for myself and the guys that I played with," he said.
However, with more information about concussions surfacing and more awareness, the culture certainly is changing.
Faulds said he's been seeing the shift over the years, but now the CFL has focused the public's attention.
"This is kind of how football's been trending for the last several years."
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