Problems With Accuracy? Address Your Non-kicking Side.

Tall Posture, Eyes on Contact, Hips Square, Opposing Shoulder Closed. Quality.

I want to take a look at the role and importance of our non-kicking side during both punting and place-kicking. So often I see kickers young and old whose non-kicking side seems to almost fall asleep when executing a kick. When the kicking leg side dominates and takes over the body it results in a loss of control, balance and energy transfer to the kick. I can’t stress enough how important a role it plays in producing successful kicks from both an accuracy and distance perspective.

Punting and place-kicking require stabilization and dynamic balance on one leg, which is challenging enough itself, while coordinating a sequence of rhythmical and explosive movements derived from the core/hip region through to a long and strong leg swing.

The first point I want to make is that better athlete’s always make better kickers. An athlete can be defined as someone with good body coordination and balance, good eye-hand and eye-foot coordination, good agility, good running speed, good strength, good mental concentration, and the desire to be competitive and succeed.

A well-conditioned athlete should display little in the way of muscle imbalances from one side of the body to the other and exhibit good stability and mobility through the core/hip region.

Looking specifically at kicking technique now, firstly from an energy transfer point of view, we need to understand that our plant leg plays an important part in transferring our body’s energy (that has been partly gained through taking approach steps) into our leg swing and contact. ‘Pushing’ off our plant foot during contact allows us to:

·         Kick with our body and leg, rather than just our leg.

·         Direct our body (energy) toward the intended target.

·         Combat our leg swing coming across the body by keeping the hips closed or square on to the  target.

When considering our upper body and accuracy, our shoulders and chest seem to share a direct link with our hips (sprinters will know the affect the arms have on speed mechanics!). If during contact our non-kicking shoulder ‘opens up’ from the intended direction, it tends to pull our upper body with it, and so opening up our hips causing our body to fall away from the kick to our non-kicking side. This has obvious effects on our leg swing which translates into a loss of directional control over the kick.

So… keep your upper body (shoulders) ‘square’ to ‘closed’ in relation to the target and watch you accuracy steadily increase!

Less straight contact time with the ball will also result in a loss of distance. As we know from making contact with the sweet spot, in order to optimize distance our contact point needs to allow a leg swing path that travels through a mid-point in the ball. Often an abrupt leg swing that comes across the body reduces this contact time and directs our energy transfer away from the intended target.

Some exercises that will improve your strength and stability are:

•        Single leg squats

•        Single leg reaches

•        Single & double leg directional jumps w/stabilization

•        Single & double leg jumps w/rotations

•        Hip Circuits

•        Hurdle mobility drills

•        Lunges – Overhead/Twisting/Directional/Combo’s w-balance/Iso holds

*Please note. You will be best served to consult with a trained professional before undertaking some of the exercises mentioned above as they are potentially harmful if performed incorrectly, and remember, it’s important to perform all exercises with proper technique appropriate to your level of ability.

As always, please share any thoughts or comments below!

Happy Kicking!