3v3 KICK TO KICK

Players Required: 6

Balls Required: 1/group

Space Required: 60 x 30m

Drill Level: Easy to Moderate

I took part in the AFLHP Coaching Advanced Certificate in Coaching Fundamental AFL Skills course this week and Austin who ran the course, agrees with my view of just how poor a drill lanework is but if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem so here is a solution, a drill you can use as extended part of your warm up as it can be performed at any intensity.
The biggest disappointment of lanework is that it's a pre-determined kick to a pre-determined and stationary player in a perfectly straight line - it couldn't be further from actual footy if you tried really.
I designed this drill for players to:

• Be provided opportunities to use different kicks
• Have to identify the leading player as quick as possible
• Have players practice different leading patterns
• Have players be put into situations where they need to make correct starting positioning so that they're leading pattern can be the most effective

Here it is...
If you would like to access this training drill and plenty of others then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

KICKING WITH CONTEXT TRAINING SCENARIO'S (6 VIDEOS)

Yesterday in part 3 of this series of posts on the development of kicking skill I laid out a progression of kicking through providing different varieties of context to work through.

Level 4 of that progression was progressing via decision making and here is a progression of scenarios that do just that.

I didn't mention it in the videos but I should add that you can have to blue offensive/kick to players either be stationary like they are in the videos or you can have them come from the middle, like a huddle I suppose, where the defender/s come from.

I'd roll with something like:

Progression #1 - stationary blue/offensive players v active red/defenders

Progression #2 - blue and red players are huddles together and 1 sinfgle blue/offensive player leasds out from the huddle in any direction and the kicker needs to find them and hit them up

Progression #3 - blue and red players again huddle in the middle but you'll have an offensive outnumber come out from the middle atthe same time like a 2v1, 3v2 or based on the scenarios laid out in the 6 scenarios below.

SCENARIO #1...

If you would like access to these kicking sceanrios and many more then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

CONTEXT KICKING PROGRESSION

So far we've had 2 posts in this kicking series:

THE KICKING MECHANICS RABBIT HOLE

KICKING MECHANICS KINOGRAM METHOD

Today is part 3 with the final part 4 tomorrow.

Today I'm going to quickly lay out a very general progression of kicking constraint drills which will provide game simulated context to kicking mechanics and skill and it's here that you'll see that a lot of kicking programs don't go anywhere near far enough down the "rabbit hole" for full transference of kicking skill acquisition into actual games.

Within each of these categories you could branch off many different ways and use many different methods as well but I'll keep that up to you for now so this post doesn't get completely out of control.

LEVEL #1 - KICKING TO DIFFERENT LEADING PATTERNS

This is the easiest scenario to train and thus is the most commonly trained way to improve (?) kicking in most team settings.

A player gets the ball at cone A and kicks to someone coming off of cone B in a premeditated direction.

This requires zero decision making, there is zero opposition and thus zero context.

Essentially you're not improving anything but rehearsing a current level of skill already attained by the kicker.

LEVEL #2 - USING DIFFERENT STEP PATTERNS GETTING INTO YOUR KICK

I'm seeing more of these drills being used currently which is a step in the right direction as at least there are different constraints being imposed on the kicker where they must self organise themselves a "foreign" step pattern while still being able to display their own personal attractors of their specific kicking style.

I've even posted a bunch of these in the training drills section last year here and here.

That be said, in a game you don't always have the affordances to straighten up so to only focus on this can again leave your players lacking a little on game day.

LEVEL #3 - INTRODUCE DECISION MAKING

OK, now we're getting to the good stuff by adding decision making.

What will happen 99 times out of 100 is that at training coaches will use something from the level 1/level 2 area above then go straight into game simulated action, if they even get that far.

The issue there is that players will go from total non-pressure kicking to 100% pressured kicking, without a bridge in between to prep them for what's coming and it's this gap that gets exposed on game day.

In level 3 I would introduce decision making by using games/scenarios using outnumber advantages to kick to and work down to even numbers.

By starting with outnumber advantages for the kicker, the coach can build confidence in the kicker while still challenging them at their specific level and once success has been achieved, then the outnumber can gradually be decreased until hopefully success can then be achieved with even numbers.

I just want to reiterate that each player will have their own comfort level but as the coach you need to find the level, scenario or game that pushes them just outside of their comfort zone, but still provides a sense of achievment.

They make some kicks and fail at some kicks but that's pretty much the sweet spot where skill acquisition occurs.

Throwing lower level players into high level player drills will not simply force them to "rise to another level" if it's simply to hard for them to do - all that serves to do is to demotivate them and you'll get poor compliance and output from them because of it.

LEVEL #4 - PROGRESS DECISION MAKING

At this point you would add further constraints and create more game specific scenarios for the players to work in.

My post tomorrow will have drills specifically for this level but it's where you want to introduce defenders and increase the stress placed on the kicker.

Check back tomorrow for these.

LEVEL #5 - GAME SIMULATED ACTION

Players will now have been through a progression of kicking, decision making and oppositional constraints which hopefully create better game simulated action at training.

Whether it's a full ground non-contact possession/tempo footy drill, or a scenario where you need to make 10 kicks in a row in a designated are and/or in a designated direction, with players having now be exposed to a wide variety of kicks in a wide variety of situations, anything they see in game simulated action will have been seen, or an action very similar to this, in the previous levels.

Players will already be familiar how to self organise around different situations and what kicks they are good at which speeds up decision making as well as making the situation less stressful, requiring less psychological resources, and improves that now faster decision making as well.

Couple this with a solid game model that all players know inside and out and I cannot see any team not improving greatly from this from 1 season to the next.

KICKING MECHANICS KINOGRAM METHOD

My previous post titled "The Kicking Mechanics Rabbit Hole"  looked at how I've seen kicking mechanics taught by various coaches and what the potential shortcomings could be of those various methods.

In a nutshell too many internal cues (hands here, leg does this, arm goes there etc) serves to only overload the kicker with information and making what should be an instinctive action into a robotic one that has little, if any, variability to it, meaning in a game situation where there are opposition and many, many moving parts, the time to think isn't there in 99% of decisions are made instinctively.

This results in low transference from training to games.

What I'll propose here is something I've picked up from track and field areas called the kinogram which is a series of images showing the different stages of a movement, allowing you to see what shapes are made at those different stages that can help provide context to an otherwise low context situation.

It also decreases the information to the kicker, essentially getting rid of the noise and focusing on the big rocks which will clean most, if not all deficiencies one might have.

It's critical that kicking actions will vary from person to person and there is definitely not just 1 model to fit everyone so the images also provides the coach an insight into what shapes a kicker makes in the action, and then they can design kicking drills around that, not force them into a shape or action that isn't right for them.

Here's my kicking kinogram from video's I took the other day with the top 5 images being a regular kick for height and distance and the bottom 5 images being a low and hard stab pass.

Image #1 - Taken just as the ball leaves your guiding hand

Image #2 - Taken as the plant foot is flat on the ground

Image #3 - Taken just as both knees are parallel to each other

Image #4 - Taken as the ball makes initial contact with foot

Image #5 - Taken at the top point of the follow through

Now it's not that these specific points in the kicking action are the most important, it's that they occur in all kicking actions regardless of technical/mechanical variability.

From here you can now see what micro differences there is between a long/high kick and a low/hard kick - can you list them?

I would encourage you to get out in the next few days, take some videos of both kicks and then put them through Instagram and make a 3 image photo and a 2 image photo, then chuck them through Canva to make the finished product I have above, and post them in the comments below.

I'll be very interested in seeing what shapes are common among different kickers and what changes from person to person.

THE KICKING MECHANICS RABBIT HOLE

There's so many kicking mechanics programs out and about these days which on 1 hand is great that there's options for players of all ages and abilities to go to improve their football in a individualised setting but on the other hand I'm still not sure about them either for reasons I'm still to decide on.

I've seen how a few different coaches go about teaching kicking mechanics and a lot of it is not really in line with what I've read about on that subject - not that it's necessarily wrong though.

I'm known at my footy club (I assume so anyway) for being able to kick quite well, especially the low and hard stab pass which I think is the holy grail of kicks in football as that kick can be put into a spot that doesn't seem to be there and thus opens so many more options off the back of it.

Growing up in country Victoria in the 80's there was no Auskick or anything and the youngest grade of footy was under 14's.

At 8 years old, about 125cms and 25kgs I started playing and training under 14's with my brothers, having been asked to come over join by the coach 1 night when I just tagged along for something to do.

I'm not sure if I was still doing it at 8 but definitely at 5 or 6 I was that kid who would push the ball down onto his foot when he kicked.

Now I don't know where I picked that up from so why did I do it?

From what I know now it was probably just a matter of my body self organising itself to get ball to foot in the most efficient way possible but at some point I developed the correct way to kick.

No coaching.

No cues.

No hands here, foot here, hip this, balance arm that - my brain self-organised again based on my environment of watching my brothers train, playing with them and the neighbourhood kids in the park around the corner and watching the then VFL on TV.

Not an ounce of coaching.

So today I got tagged in a Facebook post that asked the question - "...Why does pointing the toe towards the target make the ball go lower?..."

Good question I suppose, I don't know, but then I thought I'd video some of my own kicks while I ran the dog after school drop off this morning.

Here's a normal go back and kick for distance kick on top with my stab pass kick on the bottom:

Here's a still image of my ball contact, as wonky as it is from trying to not kick it straight into the dogs mug who has to stand right in front of you and follows the ball like a hawk, and is why she normally is not allowed to come when the footy is out:

As you can see on both kicks my foot is pointed down, although it looks like I'm pointing a little bit more on the left/stab pass kick but I want you to look further then that.

Look at the position of my left leg in both images - it's more out in front of my body'smidline in the right side/distance kick but way closer in towards my body's midline on the left/stab pass kick.

What you really need to look at is the lower leg limb and then the foot angle which now looks very similar to each other.

So back to the question - "...Why does pointing the toe towards the target make the ball go lower?.."

I'd say it doesn't because I've shown here that both high and low kicks can be done with a pointed foot BUT it does stop the ball from going too high and loopy but I'd also put out there that the kickers body angles will also be playing a large part in that too as I'll discuss later this week.

I also want to touch on to about what I don't believe these new kicking programs offer is enough focus on manipulating constraints to almost force the kick you want the kicker to do.

You can manipulate constraints quite easily through altering the task, environment or the task which is the Constraints Led Approach to skill development and is a whole different topic for another day.

Then I would like to see some context thrown in to see if what has been taught has been learnt in a game simulated environment where decision making under pressure and thus the psychological co-active becomes the limiting factor, not the skill which has already been demonstrated adequately in closed skill settings.

The use of internal cues like "make sure you point the foot" has very little carryover to performance as I've not once in my 27 million kicks thought of that during the action of kicking - I would find some form of external cue to use like that uses some form of context to what they're doing like maybe "aim to have the ball hit your laces when you kick" but even then I'd much rather try and find a constrained training drill to teach keeping the ball low during kicking, of which I have a few drills for in my arsenal.

Finally no 2 kicks are the same nailing down specific internal cures might just be a huge waste of time because in an uncontrolled seting like a game, a) you simply do not have the time to think them all through while you have the ball and b) you'll be kicking off different angles and to teammates moving in all different angles so that straight ahead lead and kick at training might look great but it's 1 kick out of a plenty that you need to master.

This could go forever so I'll leave it here but I'm open for further discussion if you want further clarification over on my socials (Facebook, Twitter).

GOAL KICKING KINGS TRAINING DRILL

Players Required: You can make whatever number size you have work here

Balls Required: 1/group

Space Required: Forward 30 - 50m arch

Drill Level: Easy

Here it is...

If you would like access to this coaching/training drill then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

QUIET EYE - THE CURE TO GOAL KICKING WOES?

Everyday life for everyone is busier than ever with instant gratification at the tips of our fingers and the never ending news and information cycle we live in, making quiet eye almost something of the past.

Quiet eye can be described as an enhanced visual perception that allows you to eliminate distractions as you plan your next move and is crucial in times of stress (David Robson).

I'll even touch on some tips from the greatest goal kicker there ever was Tony Lockett.

WHAT WE USED TO SEE...

If you would like to access this coaching/training article and many more then register for a level 1 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

FOOTY FOCUS COURSE WEEK 1

With the Footy Focus Course kicking off next week, if you're on the fence about joining up then I'm not sure what to tell you but here's a quick look at week 1 anyway if your eye sight is good enough.

There's really not a lot to the course as I've said as it's designed to compliment everything else, not replace it.

As we're following the rule of "5mins of Focus" unlike 99% other football programs out there it's not the quantity of the workload that we're focusing on, it's the quality, and quality beats quantity every time.

So just to recap here's the program all wrapped up:

- 12 - 18 year old footballers

- Male or Female

- 8 Weeks

- 4 objectives to complete per week

- Complete each objective 2- 3 times each

- Week 4 consolidates the objectives from weeks 1/2/3 and week 8 consolidate the objectives from 5/6/7

- The objective catergories are psychological, skill development, physical and personal development

- Most objectives will layer from the previous week to keep a constant challenge on the participant.

- The program is delivered fully online.

- The cost of the entire program will be just $45 per participant

At the completion of the course hopefully each participant will be more self-aware of themselves and their surroundings and also possess some skills to self-regulate themselves in stressful situations in the future, as well as improving skills and functional movement in the process.

After the 8 weeks, in some format I'll probbaly keep this course ongoing so this is probably just the entry level course.

You can sign up here.

THE TEENAGE BRAIN AND HOW YOU CAN COACH THEM

Tim Watson made his VFL/AFL debut at the tender age of 15 and 305 days - truly astonishing for how rough footy was those days and something we'd never think of happening these days even if it could happen.

As good as Whispy was he is definitely a part of the .01% of teenage footballers and we coach the other 99.9%.

With the initial release of the Footy Focus Online Program (click the link for more information and to sign up), here are some points I took from an article by Katrina Schwatrz.

I first read this article years ago but had the notes stored away in my files (I have many, many files) and it has a lot of valid points, many that I have included in the development of the Footy Focus Course.

• Plasticity is akin to the first 5 yrs of life
• Adult plasticity involves the rewiring of existing circuits, not the wholesale development of new ones or the elimination of others
• Adolescence is the last time in your life that you can change your brain dramatically
• Is exquisitely sensitive to experience which is why you can remember the most mundane things from when you were a teen compared to later in life
• With puberty happening earlier these days and young people taking on adult roles later in life, this window could be lengthening from ages 10 – 25
• Teens are risk takers because part of their brains are more plastic than others creating an imbalance
• The prefrontal cortex which controls planning, thinking ahead, risk/reward and logical reasoning is the most malleable during teen years
• Meanwhile sex hormones released during puberty affect brain functioning by adding more dopamine to the system
• Every time a teen feels good about something they get a dopamine hit hence why they seek out pleasurable experiences despite the risks
• Nothing will ever feel as good to you for the rest of your life as it did when you were a teen
• The imbalance between an aroused dopamine system and a still developing pre-frontal cortex which could inhibit some of the risky pleasure seeking behaviours, is why adolescence is such a dangerous time and while they are extremely healthy, mortality rates increase by 200 – 300% due to risky behaviour
• Reward pathways are activated when in a group of peers which is why they take extra risks in those times compared to being alone
• The prefrontal cortex is strengthened by challenge/novelty
• Provide them with work that is slightly more challening then their current level to keep them engaged
• Don’t confuse more challenging work with more volume of work
• A plastic brain is also more vulnerable to the wrong influences so you need to make sure that you only stress them at the right level at the right time
• Adolescence is the most likely time for mental illness to develop and substance abuse is 10 x worse if a student starts using before age 15 which again occurs from dopamie as they want more to get the same hit again
• Mindfulness can improve self-regulation which is the single most important quality to leading a successful life
• Statically the 4 things you need to do to lead a good life are to graduate high school, get married before having children, don’t get in trouble with the law and don’t be idle

The takeaways from this article in regards to youth football are:

1. In a single youth football team of all the same chronological age, the various levels of development from player to player can be huge so you need to be patient and not expect everyone to be at the same level at the same time - hell a single player will be at all various levels at diferent times so multiply that x 22!
2. What constitutes a sensitive experience will be also vary from player to player so a quick chat to find out why each player plays and what their expectations are can assist you in creating individual player outcomes that added together can develop great team outcomes as well.
3. Risk taking during games will happen so it's important to not get caught up in them as a coach and to create an environment where mistake swill happen and are actually encouraged because that's when learning takes place.
4. Dopamine hits come from instant gratification so that makes how you teach and have them learn footy critical because if you start at a level that's too hard and there is no success, you'll get no buy-in and motivation will decrease dramatically. By starting a spot that ensures immediate success straight away, they'll want to be successful as much as they can going forward to get that hit again so each step only needs to be slightly above the last one in initial learning stages.
5. Once some sustained success has been achieved then they'll now need training outcomes that are currently slightly out of their grasp so they are challenged with something new but also perceived as attainable in the short term. 
6. Mindfulness can improve self regulation which is the single most important quality to leading a successful life and is one of the driving themes through the entire Footy Focus Course which aims to give youth footballers the tools to do this.

THE FOOTY FOCUS COURSE IN DETAIL

Yesterday I posted a short introductory video to the Footy Focus Course and here is some further information on it:

Who is the program for? Male/Female Footballers Aged 8 – 18 years

What will the program do for me, my child or my players? Improve the ability to focus on a singular task via the development of quite eye, an elite sports term where you are able to attain enhanced visual perceptual allowing you to eliminate any distractions going on around you  

How long will the program run for? 8 – 10 weeks

How much time will the program take up? The program will only require 10mins of your time per day

“...You don’t need more time, you need more focus...” – James Clear

As a society, our state of normal existence these days is “always buys”. Having the ability to clear our minds enough to focus on a single thought or intent is hard enough for an adult, but for teenagers, it's even harder because, by and large, they have never been taught how. They have always existed in a time where they are switched on or plugged in. The ability to clear one’s mind and focus on a single task is becoming a lost art.

The Footy Focus program is a complementary course that can fit into your existing schedule of school, sport and other extracurricular activities and family requirements.

Each week you’ll receive a short checklist list of objectives to tick off as you do them. You’ll receive a list of 4 categories, each with 4 activities to choose from. Concentrating on the mantra “5 minutes of focus”, you will pick 2 activities per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The aim is to enable you to get into a state of mind of singular focus, and to try to hold that for the entire 5 minutes.

Every 4 weeks the program combines the previous 3 weeks activities to consolidate the skills you have acquired in that time. Each activity has been carefully chosen to form a progression that will continuously build your abilities in each category over the 8 week program. Each activity is accompanied by an instructional video so you’ll know exactly what to do.  There will also be a private Facebook group where you can post videos of your completed activities, ask questions and engage with others in the program.

The mental health activities will focus on clearing the mind of all outside thoughts and distractions to prepare you for the challenges.

The skill development category looks at perfecting ball drop technical ability but through using implicit learning activities and environments. This eradicates the need for an overload of internal cues that only confuse the player and cloud their brain leaving them unable to focus on what they’re actually doing.

The physical activities focus on isometric exercises that require great concentration as well as a small mental challenge.

The final category is personal development where we use life lesson activities to lay a foundation for leadership, both on and off the field, improving decision making skills in tough conditions whether that be on the field, at home or in peer group pressure situations.

The program aims to put players into a variety situations within these 4 categories that pushes them ever so slightly out of their comfort zone, however, just enough that they recognise a challenge ahead, but not a challenge that they cannot conquer.

This is the real secret to developing in any area in life and being equipped and empowered to do the right thing at the right time is crucial, thus being one of the main drivers of the program.

FOOTY FOCUS ONLINE COURSE

Here's a short video on the all-new Footy Focus Online Course I want to run focusing on using an holistic approach in regards to long term athletic development to improve your child/player's performance on and off the field.

If you're an Aussie Rules Football coach or a youth football player parent then this program could help you tremendously, especially in this time of lockdown if you're here in Melbourne.

Check back tomorrow for a more in depth post on the program and what it's all about but you can register your interest at this link right now and I'll be in contact very shortly as I'd like to try and start it next week if possible.

WAS THIS ESSENDON GOAL A PRODUCT OF POOR JUNIOR COACHING LANGUAGE?

Over the weekend I posted a clip from the Essendon/Collingwodd game on some of my socials with this message -

"...Coaching Language Fails‬

‪“Push over and help” when you miss a kick.‬

‪Drummed into players very early and works at training as the drill/play is all in front if you but in a game it looks like this.‬

‪Coach Better..."

Here's the video from the Essendon/Collingwood game in question along with my follow up video:

If it was indeed a past coaching laguage fail we'll never know unless we get to ask Varcoe directly but this just shows exactly how the use of language in coaching can have a strong affect on game outcomes, both positive and negative.

For years coaches have used the "push over and help" thing at training which is a controlled environment against zero opposition but when there is opposition such as during a game then are you expected to leave your man and push over and help?

I sure hope not as you're now making a single problem many problems with far worse consequences.

I have another video below with what "I" think should have happened but does that matter going forward?

Not really because unless we can see what Varcoe saw at that particular time, then we'll never know why he reacted in that way.

As a coach you need to ask him "what did you see there?" and only from that answer can then you start to breakdown what happened and how to help him see more information and thus react differently next time.

Simply telling him what he should have done does nothing because it does nothing for the way he processes information. 

So make sure that you are using the correct language as often as you possibly can which will be hard with all the "filler" footy talk that goes on but it can have far greater implications on your players then you'll even know.

To access this training/coaching article and many more then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

POSSESSION + COMPACT DEFENSE TRAINING DRILL

Players Required: 12/group

Balls Required: 1/group

Space Required: 30 x 30m

Drill Level: Medium

This drill provides a scenario that requires both defense and offense to work through it making it a very efficient drill in that regard...

To access this training drill then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.