Analysis Our set shot kicking accuracy: what is going on and how to improve it?

[Finnishpie]

Honestly, I don’t know how the powers that be at the club and in the football department can stick their heads in the sand and sit on their hands anymore. Whether or not they think that the “foot” part of “football” is just a quaint and antiquated relic leftover from the game’s origins, the reality is that you don’t win games unless you kick the ball through the big sticks more times than the other team. And we have a real serious problem with kicking. Kicking straight, kicking the distance, kicking and hitting a target, even just the confidence to kick the bloody ball at all instead of doing a panicked pissy handball that 3/4 times will turn it over...how do we arrest this insidious erosion of foot skills before it becomes an endemic rot? Geelong has one, Hawthorn & Essendon have them, even bloody Carlton has one who outrageously is our own Sav Rocca, so why don’t we? For the love of God we need one, is it simply a hangover from that ex-high-performance coach’s irrational & pathological fear that goal kicking practice led to hamstring strain and injuries (funny that cutting that from the training program didn’t appear to lessen our injuries sustained in training?), or is it perhaps more of a psychological issue now?

Whatever it is, someone needs to do something NOW about it because we would have to have one of the - if not the - highest number of F50 entries in the league with one of the lowest conversion percentages, and I’m no footy coach by any means but surely that’s the kind of stat that should be of concern when club considers themselves contenders for the flag?

You mean a psychologist?

 

[FrakturedHalo]

You mean a psychologist?

I’m asking what everyone’s thoughts are, it’s clear we have an issue with our kicking that has slowly but surely gotten worse year after year from I think probably 2013 onwards? Yeah sure Trav had the couple of years of yips but I don’t remember feeling as if it was a team-wide problem back then: we still actually kicked the ball and to my memory for the most part they hit their targets. I know the game has changed of course between then and now, but from the trenches of M33 it just seems like every week our kicking gets progressively worse. So I’m asking do people think it’s simply a confidence thing, or should we simply start bloody practicing kicking? Like the old days picking up a footy and moving around the 50m arc kicking for goal and practicing?

 

[Pragmatic Shill]

I’m asking what everyone’s thoughts are, it’s clear we have an issue with our kicking that has slowly but surely gotten worse year after year from I think probably 2013 onwards? Yeah sure Trav had the couple of years of yips but I don’t remember feeling as if it was a team-wide problem back then: we still actually kicked the ball and to my memory for the most part they hit their targets. I know the game has changed of course between then and now, but from the trenches of M33 it just seems like every week our kicking gets progressively worse. So I’m asking do people think it’s simply a confidence thing, or should we simply start bloody practicing kicking? Like the old days picking up a footy and moving around the 50m arc kicking for goal and practicing?

I'm all for discussion but I feel like you should have had a sleep before you posted this.

 

[FrakturedHalo]

Yes I post/type exactly the same way as if I were talking, so what it’s the weekend I’m not at work writing a dissertation. I’m trying to give my own reasoning behind why I’m posting the opinion/s I’m posting, I find on bigfooty it’s more conducive to facilitating productive discussion than just posting random claims and have others pile on you disagreeing

 

[sirlothie]

Our coach is the best kick of all time but once you are at professional level your kicking is ingrained, I've never heard of someone stripping down their field kick and starting again like a golfer might redesign his swing... you can try a new goal kicking routine but the fundamentals of your kicking style are either healthy or unhealthy and hardly anyone goes from being a good kick to a bad kick or vice versa... they kick exactly the same through their careers.

 

[ottoman]

A kicking coach would be good but it would probably be cheaper to invest in 22 compasses.
Every player could carry one with them to guide them as to which direction is forward.
This sideways and backwards crap does my head in.

 

[FrakturedHalo]

A kicking coach would be good but it would probably be cheaper to invest in 22 compasses.
Every player could carry one with them to guide them as to which direction is forward.
This sideways and backwards crap does my head in.

 

[Bad Horse]

We have one, allegedly.

Jamie Cassidy, training and skill development coordinator

Or more accurately, that is what we have instead of a kicking coach

 

[FrakturedHalo]

Our coach is the best kick of all time but once you are at professional level your kicking is ingrained, I've never heard of someone stripping down their field kick and starting again like a golfer might redesign his swing... you can try a new goal kicking routine but the fundamentals of your kicking style are either healthy or unhealthy and hardly anyone goes from being a good kick to a bad kick or vice versa... they kick exactly the same through their careers.

I’m not advocating for a wholesale lets change every player’s individual technique and make them all like cyborg clones. To get to the level they are they’d already have acquired that fundamental kicking ‘technique’ you’d assume (as I’m not sure talent scouts would tend to earmark juniors who routinely spray every kick out of the park), so perhaps it’s just something as simple as practising and hitting a target, stationary or moving? Or learning some mental visualisation techniques to enable them to focus their energy better so that we’re not consistently missing set shots at goal that, again at their level, shouldn’t be happening at the rate they are?

Ok the last suggestions a bit out there, but ANYTHING is better than just doing nothing? There’s no point doing all the hard work getting it down the ground into our forward 50 only to kick a point from 15metres out straight in front, the supporters can’t take much more of this. I already fear the old bloke in front of me in M33 row K is going to go into cardiac arrest any game now next time we spray it from a set shot right in front

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

The issue is a systemic problem across the league. It's not a Collingwood issue per se.

Most players just aren't good kicks these days compared to at least 20-25 years back.

 

[sirlothie]

The issue is a systemic problem across the league. It's not a Collingwood issue per se.

Most players just aren't good kicks these days compared to at least 20-25 years back.

I think you can blame it on a change in society and how kids spend their time... back in the day all kids would do is kick footballs over and over all day long, there was nothing else to do so some of them gained freakish skills. Whereas nowadays kids are glued to their devices and rarely go outside so will not put in the hours required to become 'masters' at their skills... it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill.

 

[FrakturedHalo]

I think you can blame it on a change in society and how kids spend their time... back in the day all kids would do is kick footballs over and over all day long, there was nothing else to do so some of them gained freakish skills. Whereas nowadays kids are glued to their devices and rarely go outside so will not put in the hours required to become 'masters' at their skills... it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill.

Well maybe the club need to mandate to players a little less slothing about on beanbags playing Fortnite in your spare time and a bit more hauling your arses down to your local footy oval and kicking through sticks practice??

 

[Anzacday]

can stick their heads in the sand and sit on their hands

The mind boggles.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

I think you can blame it on a change in society and how kids spend their time... back in the day all kids would do is kick footballs over and over all day long, there was nothing else to do so some of them gained freakish skills. Whereas nowadays kids are glued to their devices and rarely go outside so will not put in the hours required to become 'masters' at their skills... it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill.

Hence so many are expert wan....s

 

[sirlothie]

Hence so many are expert wan....s

Bruce Lee level...

 

[TKiL]

You mean a psychologist?

I'll need a psychologist if I have to watch the atrocious set shot kicking much longer

 

[TKiL]

I’m asking what everyone’s thoughts are, it’s clear we have an issue with our kicking that has slowly but surely gotten worse year after year from I think probably 2013 onwards? Yeah sure Trav had the couple of years of yips but I don’t remember feeling as if it was a team-wide problem back then: we still actually kicked the ball and to my memory for the most part they hit their targets. I know the game has changed of course between then and now, but from the trenches of M33 it just seems like every week our kicking gets progressively worse. So I’m asking do people think it’s simply a confidence thing, or should we simply start bloody practicing kicking? Like the old days picking up a footy and moving around the 50m arc kicking for goal and practicing?

I've posted previously - to no avail (yet again) - it's psychology (clear the mind before each kick, each kick is unrelated to previous kicks) and physics - the ball goes where you kick it - use straight line execution..

FMD but it's frustrating to watch

 

[TKiL]

FrakturedHalo said:
can stick their heads in the sand and sit on their hands

The mind boggles.

Think that's the 1st reference to the Kama Sutra on this site...

 

[FrakturedHalo]

The mind boggles.

what are you talking about, this is a common Japanese ritual one may find themselves having when visiting the hot springs in seaside towns dotted all along the coastline of Kyushu.



Felt more to me like my worst nightmare of being buried alive, but it no doubt appeals to many.

Anyway too many sand onsens clearly for the footy department, concentrate on poaching the big savaloy back from his seditious position over behind enemy lines and put him to work fixing the existential threat that is our kicking

 

[Yidaki]

Checkers kicking of late is of concern. What has happened to him? Nerves?

 

[Roverjg]

Dunstall in an interview last week stated goal kicking accuracy has dropped away because players don't practice it anymore. He said it was due to players not playing in set positions anymore. But indicated the lumbersome types such as Hawkins, Kennedy, who play the one position would be higher than the average forward (who played multiple roles).

Heard Jack Riewoldt on the Hall Of Fame tonight say the same thing in that players don't practice goal kicking as much any more

The Pies have the lowest goal kicking accuracy of teams in the Top 8

Pies: Elliott 12/60%; Mihocek 16/48.5%; Thomas 11/45.8%; Stephenson 18/43.9%; De Goey 22/43.1%
Cats: Duncan 12/80%; Rohan 20/71.4%; Hawkins 31/64.6%; Miers 12/60%; Ablett 20/52.6%
GWS: Himmelberg 18/64.3%; Finlayson 24/63.2%; Conigilo 13/56.5%; Cameron 38/49.4%
WCE: Cripps 14/73.7%; Darling 25/64.1%; Sheed 11/61%; Kennedy 24/57.1%; Allen 12/57.1%

 

[Maggie5]

BT made a comment recently where he said a player at a club stayed back after training and was going to practice goal kicking. After three shots at goal, the sport fitness person came onto the ground and told him to stop.

 

[jackcass]

Checkers kicking of late is of concern. What has happened to him? Nerves?

As with most of them, the issue is between the ears.

 

[TKiL]

Check Gary Rohan's technique (no twirling etc), also Hawkins' technique - check their stats too - our problem is fixable - need to see the need to change stuff then implement some straight forward techniques... oh dear

 

[TKiL]

As with most of them, the issue is between the ears.

That's the psychology bit - then fix the technique - actually not hard