The Secret to Straight Kicking

[Scottee]

I have absolutely no idea.

Anyone else got any ?

[erica]

Dangle a coke can in the centre of the goal posts? :-)

[Cheer Squad]

Dangle a coke can in the centre of the goal posts? :-)

Precisely. Whoever thought of attaching it to the goalposts for target practice should be taken out and shot for every sitter that we've missed this year.

[Triple B]

DrJ's brother screamed after the second poster in the final quarter "For @@@@ sake, we're not filming another @@@@ing Coke commercial here"...

Even the Bomber fans chuckled.....

[Big Al]

Fine them 10 grand for any miss. It'll be fixed overnight.

[stellation]

I think it's pretty clear that the Swans need to get some Auskick coaches in for a few sessions!

[stellation]

Fine them 10 grand for any miss. It'll be fixed overnight.

Kieren would never take another shot on goal!

[Hartijon]

Kieren would never take another shot on goal!

Being serious for a moment the Swans have had some great accurate kickers and goal kickers. Plugger and Nic Davis were superb kicks for goal. Schwass and Williams were great passers smacking the chest from 40 metres.

The first point is that it is not easy! Particularly from 50+ metres one slight error in your drop or follow through and you will kick ofb on the full. You can forgive a miss from 50 metres. The two goals that Goodes missed during the game were dead set easy goals that any schoolboy could have nailed. When you are running into an open ,unprotected goal a short no risk stab at the ball will see it run through.It was incredulous that he missed these whereas his after siren miss was a much harder shot particularly with the pressure on him.

I thought he showed good preparation for that shot. He deep breathed and swung his leg through visualising the kick. Hard to see on TV but I think he missed that shot because he did not lean back on the kick (like Melcho does) and his follow through was not complete enough. Basically after the kick has left your boot your foot should be pointing to the middle of the goals if you have kicked well.Even Buddy does this after his crooked run up.

I don't like Goodsey's habit of flipping the ball around as he runs in.Too easy to get the drop wrong if you misstep or get off balance.His shot after the siren was a fair attempt but his two earlier misses were unforgivable and his after siren opportunity was his chance to make redemption.

Within a 30 metre arc good technique will secure accurate kicking ,within a 50 metre arc you need to use your natural style. Each player requires fine tuning from a specialist coach who are few and far between and obviously not on the Swans staff. Great players nail match winning goals. Malcolm Blight,Plugger, Leigh Mathews ,Gary Ablett sen. Dunstall, would all have been certainties to win that game for us if they were taking the kick. IMO Goodes erratic goal kicking seriously undermines his chance of being one of the all time greats.

[robamiee]

i found when i played and taught the same to others is to pick a point beyond the goals and kick to it.
Dont think about it too much as in general play kicking to a target.

The big thing is consistnacy in your natural kicking action and knowing how the flight of the ball flies over the different distances but always trying to kick the same power of about 90% of your capacity no matter the distance (except for the real long ones on your limit, they are just a hit miss really, but again know how the ball flies when you try harder).
BUddy has that ability on the angles, but tries to kick it different when more squared.

I reckon Nick Davis was our best kick for a long time..

More than happy for the swans to fly me over and assist.

[Mr Magoo]

Aim for the goal umpire , dont aim generally at the posts. They are generally standing in line with you and the centre of the posts.
Dont think too much about it, just practice a rythym and follow it.

[Nico]

The Auskick quip by Stella is not as silly as it sounds. As Auskick coaches we taught kids right from prep and grade 1 level to hold the ball in one hand over the kicking leg and let it go. This way you are teaching them not to wave the ball around as so many players do. Fevola changed his technique with a grip that resembled this method with his left hand held high on the ball and his right hand low down. It looked awkward bad he straightened his kicking up markedly.

He like Plugger, Dunstall and Davis kept their head over the ball at all times on their approach, after they had lined the kick up. The absolutely critical point is to have a low drop of the ball to prevent the ball falling off it's drop line. It takes practice but we are all made differently and learn good and bad habits. The bad ones are very hard to break. The 4 players mentioned had a natural and practiced abilty to kick straight from all angles. When Hall played for us he often let the ball drift to the outside of his foot as did MOL with the frustration for supporters being watching the ball drift off line at the last instance for yet another , "just missed".

I think Cloke has improved because he seems to now have more like Fevola grip. As left footers he and Franklin swing their foot across their body instead of kicking straight through the line. Franklin particularly seems not to be able to change. Sam Reid has a high drop of the ball and swings his foot across his body also. Goodesy's problem is he can't get consistency with kicking straight through the line. Sometimes he hits them so sweetly that you just wonder why he can't do it more often. When on the run he maybe doesn't steady enough when clear as he seems to drop the ball squewiff and hooks it , whereas Davis would take that last steadinging step and drill it most times.

Goodes also seems to roll the ball over in his hands a number of times when running in on a set shot, so he naturally has inconsistency with his grip.

[Chilcott]

This is my observation and more than likely it's probably rubbish, but here you go:

I don't think our run ups help. Many of our players seem to go too far back off the mark and by the time they kick it their coming in a bit fast. You do not want to get too close either.

I recall Nick Davis never went that far back. He seem come off about 10 paces and let his technique do the rest.

[Dooloo]

I have absolutely no idea.

Anyone else got any ?

I dont know if any one is old enough to remember, but years ago there used to be shoes called Barter Scouts, they had a compas in the the heel.Now if they turned them around and gave them to the players on match day, maybe , just maybe this could be the solution to our kicking woes.Couldn't be any worse than we are now

[Dan]

I'm not the greatest at Aussie Rules but I can kick straight (just not very far). Pretty much if you drop the ball on it's point kick your leg straight and time it so you connect with the ball just as you swing through the ball will go straight. It's simple physics, the ball won't go sideways unless a force pushes it sideways! It's so simple and easy, I don't know why professional athletes can't kick it straight.

[Big Al]

I'm not the greatest at Aussie Rules but I can kick straight (just not very far). Pretty much if you drop the ball on it's point kick your leg straight and time it so you connect with the ball just as you swing through the ball will go straight. It's simple physics, the ball won't go sideways unless a force pushes it sideways! It's so simple and easy, I don't know why professional athletes can't kick it straight.

Has a lot to do with game pressure. Coaches will always say the guys hit 9/10 at training but miss the same shots in the game. We address the mental side of things and our accuracy will increase.The. fact that it's been such a problem this year actually adds to the pressure because it's always at the back of the players minds.