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Feature

Dr Jodi Richardson

FINISHING SCHOOL!The art and science of goalkicking

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A general perception in football is that despite the everincreasing focus on skills, set-shot accuracy is declining.skills is important in amateur levels of football so that players are better prepared coming into the AFL. The AFL is working hard to develop coaching skills down the ranks; coaches should keep an eye on the AFL website for resources that are in production. Its important for coaches to know what to teach and how to teach it, Dr Ball says. The AFL has also endorsed a company called Draftstar to develop and deliver skills programs to junior and senior players. Dr Ball says the basics of good technique include a good ball drop, the more consistent the better; upright posture, balance, a strong support leg, straight follow-through with the kicking leg and maintaining a strong kicking foot so that the players ankle remains rigid throughout the kick. If the player has a weak or floppy kicking foot, they absorb a lot of the force of the kick, reducing the power and distance of the kick. This often changes the direction of the kick in the process. Boot contact on the ball should be with the laces. Dr Ball says the set shot is a self-paced skill where players have time to think. Traditional (explicit) coaching practices where a player is verbally told what to do can result in a player overthinking his setshot, a skill which should essentially automatic or unconscious in its execution. Research shows that the use of implicit coaching techniques, where the skill is taught using analogies, metaphors and related drills, is the best approach for selfpaced skills, especially those performed in stressful situations. Effective mental preparation for set-shot goalkicking goes hand in hand with good technique. Its not enough on its own, but together these attributes can be the difference between good and excellent kicking accuracy. A useful technique that most AFL clubs use is developing set-shot kicking routines with their players, Dr Ball said. The routine begins with the mark and ends with the kick and can be very individual for players. Some players like to move in quickly for the kick, others like to take some time to compose themselves. Some players use a physical trigger such as pulling up their socks or looking at the ball. Matthew Lloyd famously threw grass in the air before each set shot; this was all a part of his mental preparation. Visualisation is another important aspect of mental preparation recommended by Dr Ball. In its simplest form, it involves picturing in your mind the kick and the ball going through the goal before you

HIT OR MISS: Nick Riewoldt is one of many specialist forwards to have had trouble with that finishing kick.

HE game has changed, thats for sure, so in light of its increasing speed, player fatigue and modern tactical approaches to defence, can fans expect conversion rates to continue to fall? It may come as a surprise to learn that since 2000, overall set-shot kicking accuracy hasnt actually declined much. Although the Champion Data statistics reveal a slight fall, in the past 12 years average set-shot accuracy across all teams varied between 60.2 per cent (2010) and 64.3 per cent (2000). To put this in perspective, one of the games greatest full forwards, Matthew Lloyd, a kicking freak with iconic preparation, recorded set-shot goalkicking accuracy of 83.3 per cent in 2006. We may consider this the outer limit of possibilities. Clearly most players dont come close to Lloyds consistency and precision. Dr Kevin Ball, a lecturer in Sports Biomechanics at Victoria University and the leading authority on the biomechanics and skill acquisition of kicking in Australian football, explains that there are competing issues around goalkicking accuracy. In the past the full forward sat close to the goal and took the predominant amount of shots, he said. They performed a lower volume of work and took shots closer to the goal. These days, a far greater number of players are taking shots at goal. Many of them, like the half forwards, are playing like midfielders and doing a lot of work and so are more fatigued. These are some of the issues clouding the numbers. In the current AFL physiological climate of high-speed running, large distances covered by all players and shorter rest intervals, players need a certain volume of kicking practice each week to maintain their accuracy under fatigued conditions. However, Dr Ball has found that the amount of kicking practice in most clubs is low. From a training point of view clubs are managing a big range of loads including fitness, strength, skills and strategic workloads and fitting in the necessary volume of kicking is becoming increasingly difficult. Dr Balls experience with kicking in the AFL is second to none. As the Australian Institute of Sports AFL kicking coach, consultant to a number of AFL and NRL clubs and a member of the AFL kicking skill acquisition group, he knows just about all there is to know about kicking technique. He stresses that good technique is essenX tial and that improved coaching of kickingSummer Special, 2011-12

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