The Anatomy of Kicking

Kicking is the most basic skill of football so how can we improve it?

I am going to focus on training the movement and the muscles involved to improve your kicking power and distance.

Let's break the skill down into phases.

Phase 1 is the back swing phase.

Phase 2 is the transition phase.

Phase 3 is the contact and follow through phase.

Dustin Martin is one of the most penetrating kicks for goal that we have in the game right now whether it be on the run or from a set shot. He also possess what I think is the most powerful kick, along with Daniel Rich of the Brisbane Lions

During the back swing phase the muscles involved most are the hips and glutes which both require mobility and stability to give the powerful kick you need.

The glutes perform hip extension which is the action of the leg going back behind you. The biggest problem here is that when your glutes can't perform this movement (the one it's supposed to) then your lower back will go into hyperextension to get the range of motion for the hip that the glutes can't give it. As the lumbar spine is built for stability (to resist movement, not produce it) this is going to cause some lower back trauma over time.

So what we need to do is to activate and strengthen the glutes in hip extension on the back of the body, and strength the hip flexor and quadricep muscle groups to allow this same hip extension range of motion on the front of the body.

I suggest using deadlift variations for glute strength as I believe I have increased my kicking length 5 - 10m since I incorporated deadlifts into my training and I was already a 50m kick.

During the transition phase we will now be holding the our full body weight on the one leg which is going to require a ton of stability at the ankle and hip joints. I suggest using single leg exercises to build this stability such with high box step ups and single leg deadlifts being your best options here.

For the contact and follow through phase you'll need great core stability right upon contact of the footy as you basically want the body to "stiffen' up so that there are no power leaks from other parts of the body and all your power is being put through the foot and into the footy.

The further you can follow through, then the further your kick will go so that will require some psoas activation and strengthening as well as hip mobility.

By strengthening these muscles and the actual kicking movement in isolation and then integrating it all into kicking during training and game time, you'll be getting extra distance and a more powerful, Dustin Martin type kick in no time.