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---The Evolution of Goal Kicking---</div>
At this stage in my blog I have written an article about my self taught method of goal kicking as a guide for anyone out there who wishes to improve or start.
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What makes a good goal kicker?
Composure?
Distance?
Accuracy?
Yes, all of the above, but not without the most important element:
consistency and practice.
No goal kicker has ever on the first few weeks of training walked up the half way line and slotted consistent penalties.
What about technique? How do you go about this?
When you have never goal kicked before is there some formula that you can follow that will make you a good goal kicker? Can you watch Jonny Wilkinsons Hotshots on CBBC and then automatically be a good kicker?
The answer to both questions above is no. Atleast, that is what I have found. This is my personal guide to goal kicking and the evolution of my technique to what I now consider as my personal technique which has the highest success ratio.
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I would like to take this moment to deviate and share a life story that has helped me.
If anyone has ever seen the film 'Dead Poets Society', and is familiar with the Robin Williams character, I had a teacher like him at school who was my tutor all the way through school and my A level English teacher. He was such a great teacher and was quite quirky like the film character.
The famous quote he had was "Its not practice makes perfect, Its
perfect practice that makes perfect." This really struck a chord with me and I have taken it into account throughout life. Its this emphasis that you shouldn't settle for the minimum amount of effort to practice, because then you will only practice at being not very good. Get to the point where you are nigh on perfect and practice, practice, practice.
This is the same psychology you should take into goal kicking practice, or any practice for that matter. Practice being great, and you will be come game time.
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Going back 30 years there was only really one style of goal kicking. Straight run up laces kick. Today kicker's techniques are like chalk and cheese. Look at any good goal kicker today. They have an individual technique:
What makes these special? These are the result of endless hours of practice on the training field and the final postion is a position where the player feels calm and focused on the task at hand. This has eventually manifested itself in the prayer position for Wilkinson for instance.
What makes them even more special is that they are unique. The player has found a technique which works for them, and they have practiced endlessly until they are at that level and continue on further.
Is there a correct technique? No. In the next section I will tell you about how I evolved my technique from nothing to what it is today.
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My Guide
There is no easy method to goal kicking that doesn't involve endless trial and error. Forget watching a youtube video entitled 'how to goal kick', and assuming doing exactly what they do on there will be perfect. It is only right for that person. Just like if you watch Wilkinson, Carter, Paterson, their technique is personal and won't necessarily work for you. The 3 steps back, 2 steps left generic routine is a good building block but it should by
no means be accepted as standard.
Firstly before your foot even connects with a rugby ball you need to get yourself a tee. Kicking tees come in all shapes and sizes. I had an advantage coming into the training programme as I knew flat tees were useless for me; I couldn't use them. By flat I mean:
I watch a lot of rugby league and many kickers in that code use telescopic kicking tees. These pose advantages as the ball height can be altered and angle of the ball altered from around 30º to vertical. At least getting one of these covers more bases than the flat tee.
If you have no idea what tee you would be suited to, try several out. Borrow some if you can or buy them online as they aren't too expensive. If you can borrow one and you know if it doesn't suit you they you can believe the other sort will probably work. Just experiment until you are comfortable.
Next you need to get several good quality (or closest quality to the balls you will be using in matches) balls to train with. Why several? So you don't have to keep walking to pick up the same one over and over. I bought 3 Gilbert balls (see second post for info) and they are brilliant quality so I would recommend them.
So...
No.1. Buy a suitable kicking tee and balls.
Ok, so you have the kicking tee and balls and the question that should be in your mind now is: where the hell do I start? The mistake here is to just go over to the posts, whack the tee down a short distance out, place the ball down at any angle and height, walk 3 steps back and 2 to the side, run up and kick it.
Why? I bet a lot of people reading this now would say that is the best way to start. Sure the ball may go over, but the technique is flawed in the fact that you have not got a basic routine or technique yet. This is a recipe for massive variation and inconsisteny. I should know, this is the way I started and it was rubbish as looking back, the first 3 weeks of my programme were worthless from a goal kicking perspective. I thought my technique was going to be similar to James Hooks after watching lots of footage of him in the build up to the training programme. Of course eventually it was evident that his routine was not suitable for me.
Everyone has an amount of natural kicking skill and this 'generic' kicking technique will work, and you will feel great about it. But unless if you are naturally very talented it will deteriorate as you change the angle of the kick or distance.
What should you do then?
Experiment. Like in a science lesson, you want to know the outcome of a test. So experiment. Find a flat peice of land with a straight line such as the touchline of a pitch (I use the lane of a grass running track), aim the ball down it and just experiment. Try the ball at different angles and heights. Not getting much height on the ball, raise it up or make your follow through higher.
With the run up, don't try and do the whole 3 steps back or any similar routine. Just walk to a comfortable distance away like you would see a footballer do with a free kick. Only when you find a good technique should you take note of how you get to that position with steps back and to the side for purposes of limiting variation. If you think about when you see a footballer take a free kick or a goalkeeper taking a free kick, they usually just turn around and walk diagonally back a few paces and then run up on the ball. This is what you should do when starting out to keep it as simple as possible.
Do not overcomplicate it. You should be saying this to yourself. It is the worst thing you can do. At this stage the only thing you should be thinking about is getting the ball going straight. The point of having the kick on a straight line is to aim down the line. Try and get the ball landing as close to the line as possible. Accuracy is the name of the game, not distance. Distance will come with practice so there is no need to worry about it now. Just get that ball going straight.
That makes No.2 and 3:
No 2. Experment
No 3. Accuracy over distance
Once you have found a comfortable run up that gives you the highest accuracy ratio you should try and replicate the routine as much as you can. This is the time to start pacing out the kick run up. I found, if you read the previous post, after experimenting that a short powerful run like Percy Montgomerys worked very well for me. Though the distance was not vey long, the accuracy was brilliant. Every time I went to collect the balls they would all be in a 5 metre radius of each other, where as before they were all over the place.
Now is the time to move to the posts. Again don't jump in at the deep end; start out as if your team had scored under the posts and do exactly what you were doing before. Pretend the posts aren't there and get technique going well. Aim down the imaginary straight line from the tip of the ball and hit down it.
Now the key is to just keep practicing. Progression should happen. Move the tee further out and the side also. Just be comfortable with what you are doing.
No 4. Kicking at the posts and progession
If the technique is going well and you are consistent and comfortable then carry on practising just as you are doing. However as I found and some may also, modifications have to be made. My 'Montgomery technique', as I called it, was feeling slightly unnatural. I added another short pace back and a short sideways step in the run up. Along with this I put the tee up another inch allowing me to get underneath the ball more.
Now this technique I have is, I would say, nigh on perfect for me. Of course my kicking isn't perfect, but that will come with practice, but the overall technique feels comfortable and I feel my technique is efficient. For me now it is just perfect practice to make perfect.
So lastly...
No 5. Perfect practice and modifications
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I hope this helps any budding kickers out there who are thinking of practicing the art of goal kicking. As I have already said this
my personal guide to goal kicking from personal experience, and not a definitive guide. There is not set guide but these are the guidelines I have followed in training that have worked for me.
If you would like to comment or ask questions it would be appreciated. Thank you
