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.