Some Thoughts on Session Structure

 

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”, “Quality over Quantity” and “You get out of it what you put in to it”.

Ok, so I try not to make a habit of throwing around the clichés but, with regard to improving your performance as a kicker they all ring very true indeed! Yet so often we choose to forget about developing a blueprint, that progressive course of action specifically designed at making small continuous improvements to our technique and mental skills, or we decide to have a blowout and kick for hours on end with little regard to our physical condition no matter how much our body is telling us to stop (I use to kick for up to 3 hours at a time 3-5 times a week! Up to 15 hours kicking a week!). Or lastly, we choose to skip a session because of the weather, shorten our warm-up time so we can start kicking sooner, or head straight out to the side line looking for that ‘winning’ kick. Any of this sounding familiar?

There is no denying that a well-developed plan will put you on the road to both athletic success, and gaining mastery over the punting and place-kicking mechanics. In this article we’ll take a closer look at ways of structuring a session so you are guaranteed to walk away from it feeling confident and satisfied with your progress.

What you think about, you bring about. The attitude with which you approach training, your thoughts and feelings, WILL influence your actions out on the field and determine how much you get out of the session. So right from the word go it’s important that you are in a positive frame of mind, believe the kicking session will be a good one and visualize success in everything you do!

Whether a warm up exercise, kicking drill or flexibility exercise, aim to perform everything with perfect execution. To ensure you are heading toward achieving this it’s important to have an understanding of why something wasn’t performed properly, from this you can recognize what needs correcting in order for the next one to be performed better. This is a critical part of the learning process and ensures continued improvement.

Every session should begin with a warm up. There are many different thoughts regarding best practice and warm ups and how one is structured relative to the activity being undertaken. My guidelines when warming up for a kicking session are as follows…

Exercises progress from general to specific – meaning, spend the first part of your warm up performing general, multi-joint movements then shift to movements that closer reflect and target the actions/areas you will be performing during drills.

Be progressive – meaning, exercises should progress from low intensity to higher intensity. This allows the muscles to warm up progressively, gradually increasing the range of motion at given joints. Avoid performing high intensity exercises straight off the bat as this increases the chance of injury.

Correct execution – meaning, aim to perform every repetition with perfect technique. You will further reduce the chance of injury, target the desired muscle groups and warm up more efficiently.

Make it moving – meaning, all movements should be dynamic or moving. Warming up muscles through their range of motion will better prepare the muscle in terms of its elasticity and power/energy output for the dynamic and explosive action required during kicking drills.

Repeated execution of a drill or skill enables us to reaffirm and solidify that movement upon our central nervous and muscular systems, so when called upon to perform the task it becomes autonomous, or natural. Time spent practicing with incorrect technique results in undesirable habits forming which become harder to change or break the older one gets (e.g. swinging the leg across the body to create spin on a spiral punt). This highlights the importance of having an understanding of the punting and place-kicking mechanics that allow you to work towards repeated correct execution of the skill. This is where we can think of our “quality over quantity” saying, and the need to learn from each kick.

Drills are used to isolate certain parts of the overall kicking motion that can be worked on separately. Progressive drill work (the ‘part’) that builds into the full motion (the ‘whole’) enables you to master every part of the kicking motion and execute with consistency. Selecting drills to work on requires you to identify the parts of your kicking technique are not quite up to par, then find the appropriate drill that permits corrections to be made. More time should be spent on drills that influence the essential variables of kicking. Don’t underestimate the importance of drill work and think that all you need to do to get better is kick a ball; drill work improves consistency, confidence and your performance!

When selecting and creating drills it’s also important to challenge yourself. Adjustment of variables such as distance, target size, approach steps… bring different dimensions to training and create a fun and challenging environment. Remember that even when the drills change the focus must remain the same; repeated correct execution.

A great drill for place-kicking is the one-step drill. It focuses on plant foot positioning which is critical for making good contact, requires good forward momentum and body position through contact and a strong push off the plant foot. Simply start from just in front of where your drive step (last step) would be for a normal kick, push off your kicking leg, plant and kick. With proper execution of this drill conversions can be made from 40m plus!

Don’t rely on the numbers; listen to what your body is telling you. Too often players will continue kicking or performing an exercise just to complete the prescribed number of reps or sets. Think about this: what happens if you are performing a set of ten reps, but when you reach five you are unable to maintain proper technique and are now executing incorrectly, learning bad motor patterning plus increasing the risk of injury (in the case of a strength/flexibility exercise). Do you continue performing the remaining five because you were supposed to complete ten???

My advice is a categorical NO. You want to be able to perform as many of the prescribed exercise as possible whilst maintaining correct technique. Take feedback from your body as to how its feeling and base decisions on that. Even the best players in the world will agree that its not advisable to ‘train through’ to the point where only the mind is willing but the body just wont follow (I’m thinking of Jonny Wilkinson here who is famous for his 3-4 hr long kicking sessions, I think his injury list is testament to the above advice!).

My final piece of advice with regard to training is that each kick is a new kick. This is where the mental side of kicking comes into it. Advanced level kicking is predominantly mental, the thoughts and feelings with which you approach a kick and how you choose to react to a missed kick or shaky punt. The level of success you achieve as a kicker will largely come down to your mental approach to training. Aspire to be successful and maximize your potential!

Happy kicking!