How would you fix the yips?

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The weird thing is that if they were just randomly bad, you'd figure statistically they'd kick one occasionally.
while some were just shockers, I'd love if someone can work out how many are bad kicking and how many are because we are taking more difficult (angle, rushed) shots than "average"
 

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while some were just shockers, I'd love if someone can work out how many are bad kicking and how many are because we are taking more difficult (angle, rushed) shots than "average"
That's usually my point.

This week however we were demonstrably bad, because we were having set shots more often and from shallower angles than normal.
 
I've finally worked out what I'd do.

I'd encourage them to spend a bit of time over the break kicking some set shots blindfolded. So set themselves up 10m out, pop a sleep mask type blindfold over their eyes and take the shot. Once they've mastered that position, they can move to another spot and nail it. Sounds really stupid, but it means they would be totally focused on the technique and feel of the kick. Then in a game they know they can kick blindfolded and confidence shoots up.

Feel free to tell me why you think it's a stupid idea, but please add your suggestion at the same time.

SEN had one of their one off topics a few months ago. It was about weird coaching techniques in footy. Inviting callers to tell the listeners about them.

Anyway, this guy calls in and says he once had a footy coach who employed that exact technique to cure goalkeeping yips.

They were blindfolded first, led around in circles to totally disoriented them,then given a verbal discription of how far they were from the goals and on what angle Reckoned the theory was that the players would have to concentrate solely on technique and balldrop and not on sight perception.

They guy reckoned it worked

On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
SEN had one of their one off topics a few months ago. It was about weird coaching techniques in footy. Inviting callers to tell the listeners about them.

Anyway, this guy calls in and says he once had a footy coach who employed that exact technique to cure goalkeeping yips.

They were blindfolded first, led around in circles to totally disoriented them,then given a verbal discription of how far they were from the goals and on what angle Reckoned the theory was that the players would have to concentrate solely on technique and balldrop and not on sight perception.

They guy reckoned it worked

On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app

Lol they can send my coaching contract to me any time they want.

seriously for a moment - I’ve not coached afl but I’ve been coaching middle distance running gut 25 years ( holy s**t I’m old) and it’s always the weird stuff that ends up connecting with the athlete. Maybe using ridiculous things helps them put everything in perspective.
 
We actually did the blindfold thing.

Used to be say 25-30 out.

You line up facing middle of goals.

Blindfold on.

Handed ball take 10 steps and kick.

Makes you concentrate on your ball drop and kicking through the ball over and over and over and over.

Watch Plugger highlights........ man was a robot with repetition.

Then watch Eric.... no set routine.
 

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Years ago I was doing an AFL Coaches course at Kardinia Park and we had a session with Malcolm Blight who was, amongst other things, talking about the mental process involved when taking a set shot. It was interesting because the process was all about closing out the sound of the crowd and before you had your shot slowing your breathing and visualising the ball drop, connection and the sight of the ball going straight through the middle. Made perfect sense in terms of concentration and focus in that moment. It is a different sort of training, because most of the other skills rely on instinct and reflex. This is something we should increase our focus on, because the players are looking defeated before they have even had their shot. I think dlanod might have made the observation, but it is not just that they are missing, but how horribly they are missing from close in. When you have a key forward(s) regularly splitting the goal and point posts instead of the big sticks from 25 - 30 metres out you have a problem that won’t go away by itself. Perhaps it’s time to address the psychological aspect, because you would have to think they have tried the bio-mechanical components already.
 
the players are looking defeated before they have even had their shot.

This has been abundantly clear for a few weeks now when guys are having a set shot. Their first instinct a lot of the time is to pass it off because they don't want the responsibility and secondly, their faces are the look of sheer terror a lot of the time.

Another tell tale is how their body lines up with the goal when they are running in. Our primary school footy team was lucky enough to be coached by Bernie Quinlan for half a dozen games or so (his daughter went to my primary school) and one of his tips, which so many of our players break is the angle you run in as you kick the ball. In the past month, I reckon I am right every time one of our players lines up and misses because you see as they run in for a set shot that the angle they run in is not square with the middle of the goals. Hipwood for example most of the time has his right leg facing the right behind post and more often than note, that is the direction the ball goes.

Routine and where you drop the ball are the other factors. Even Eddie said the other night that he saw Brian Taylor have like 10 shots at goal at the local park (not as far out as he used to) and nailed everyone because his technique had changed. I was also a very accurate shot at goal when I played footy and it all came down to Bernie's coaching and I recall when I used to line up for goals, I would think what Bernie taught me and it was like he was there reminding you of the steps and you just kicked the goal, which still works today when I have a kick for goal.

I just don't buy that our guys are having the right coaching because there are way too many deficiencies in their routines for them to be supposedly coached the right way. It aint rocket science.
 
Blighty also says the technique is simple, for a right footer line up your right shoulder withe the right goalpost and run straight (obviously the reverse is true for a left footer. Couldn’t be that simple could it?
 
Yeah sports psychology is simple. If you can do it in the park you should be able to do it in an AFL match after having run 15km in a couple of hours
Watch the angle a lot of our players or when players from other clubs that miss sitters run in. Their flaws are glaring.

To simply justify that they have run 15kms or because they are playing in an AFL match is an excuse for their misses, then you are ignorant.



There was also a good segment on one of the footy shows in the past week showing the likes of Dunstall, Quinlan, Lockett and one or two other beautiful exponents of the set shot and every single one had a simple, fluent set shot routine under similar conditions that you are providing excuses for modern players, none better than this example at 2:17 of this clip:

 
Watch the angle a lot of our players or when players from other clubs that miss sitters run in. Their flaws are glaring.

To simply justify that they have run 15kms or because they are playing in an AFL match is an excuse for their misses, then you are ignorant.



There was also a good segment on one of the footy shows in the past week showing the likes of Dunstall, Quinlan, Lockett and one or two other beautiful exponents of the set shot and every single one had a simple, fluent set shot routine under similar conditions that you are providing excuses for modern players, none better than this example at 2:17 of this clip:


A lot of snaps on his non preferred left foot in this compilation too. Quinlan was a master. The club needs to get someone like him in to work with our forwards.
 
I got the yips trying to watch our game against the Saints. I was planning a footyalmanac piece but I couldn't stand our kicking for goal and the commentators saying "He's not kicking through it. He's leaning back', every time we missed. Lining up with the goals, dropping the ball on the central part of the foot and kicking straight through the ball sounds simple.

This should go on the over 50's thread but are we kicking the wrong kick? Peter Hudson used to kick flat punts and I heard him say that the flat punt meant much more of the ball hit the foot and gave him a greater margin of error than the drop punt where only the point of the ball hits the foot. He had (IIRC) a slightly better accuracy rate than Peter McKenna who had a lovely kicking style.

Maybe the boots are part of the problem. My old footy boots very quickly used to look like steel capped work boots but the had a large flat area where the ball could hit but I do remember kicking the last four points of a match at North Bendigo.

They don't kick flat punts so a change now could be disastrous but our kicking for goal could be disastrous anyway but it is interesting to try to work out why the kicking for goal hasn't improved, despite professional players and wonderful surfaces.
 
A lot of snaps on his non preferred left foot in this compilation too. Quinlan was a master. The club needs to get someone like him in to work with our forwards.
And get the players into some old school Puma footy boots, the boot of choice for many 80 and 90's players.

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Worth noting that the Saints also missed some very gettable shots yesterday in the third and fourth - its just not as obvious because they had far less shots. I don't think the gap in goal kicking prowess between us (1 vs 18) is much more than shot location and confidence. We did well to stop them from running the ball in and kicking it from the square and their scoring dried up substantially.

We do have some players who are poor set shots which brings in more concerns regarding technique etc - Eric, Dan and Charlie are all at best 50-50. Even a 10% improvement in conversion from those 3, noting that Charlie and Eric will generally have the most shots in the team, would make a big difference.
 

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