KICKING ASSESSMENT STUDY

I read a study summary on kicking assessment which led me to this older study on Aussie Rules Football specifically titled "The Development of a Field Based-Kicking Assessment to Evaluate Australian Football Proficiency". 

It challenges the current kicking test used at the AFL Draft Combine and provides an evidence-based alternative assessment.

I posted about this all the way back on just my 8th post of this blog way back in January of 2010!

Here are the notes I took from reading the full study to this bad boy.

• Greater performance suggest greater ball possession/kick proficiency v the opposition have greater influences on match outcomes
• Winning teams have a reduced physical output but an increase in skill involvements (possessions) suggesting skill is more crucial to winning
• Effective kicking, specifically kicks over 40m is crucial to team success
• Successful kicks over 40m increases a team’s winning % by .99 of a point (the most important skill in the game) whilst an inaccurate kick of any distance to the opposition reduces winning margin by .62 of a pt
• Game demands show that there are more kicks over 40m, more kicks performed from a stationary position, more kicks to moving targets + various kick types
• To assess field kicking you also need to assess action fidelity
• The test required players perform 85% of kicks over 40m, 57% from a stationary position, 43% on the move, 15% receiving stationary, 85% receiving on the move + tac-based kicks (play switch etc)
• Drop punts only
• Dominant kicking leg only
• No opposition
• No handball’s
• The test is not fully representative but does balance controlling constraints to develop an open and dynamic test

• 1 kick to 2 on the lead to 3 and so on
• Go to where you kick
• Perform at game speed
• The last kick is a shot on goal with a defender running at them from the goal square
• Do all 7 kicks from 1 side of the ground then perform the mirror image for 14 kicks total
• Each kick was scored based on accuracy/execution (5-1) except for kick 7/14 which are shots on goal and are scored on the kick result accordingly (0/1/6)
• On average players increase kick proficiency by 9.29% from u14's to u16's then a further 2.77% from u16's to u18's at club level
• At sub elite level it’s 1.22% from u16's to u18's and 6.18% at elite levels
• u14’s run a lot less (meters per min) then u16's and u18's but there's little difference between u16's to u18's
• Kicking skill development at club level may be most evident between u14's and u16's and may highlight an important time frame where kicking acquisition may be most susceptible to technical change
• 1 other alteration I would like to see included is the use of players on the mark which can be done by using players from the surrounding groups to man the mark then head back to the group they came from