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- Oct 30, 2014
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Goal kicking 90% mental. Especially when it’s a set shot because time is frozen and nerves kick in. The nerves ‘kick in’ when the goal opens up for them in general play too. But these goals are kicked at training with nothing riding on them. A good psychologist may help? The future of professional sports is mental improvement.Our goalkicking accuracy is a joke. What are we doing about it? If I was Brad Johnson I would be concentrating on set shots from inside 40 metres with a number of our regular goal scorers. The biggest issue I can see is the ball drop. Take Jamarra for example. He is a very good accurate field kick where it is more a of a reflex motion. However, he has an inconsistent ball drop with the slower more mechanical set shot and misses regular left and right chasing a poor drop.
Look at other sports where the release of the ball and hands are critical. For example, the ball toss is critical for a good accurate tennis serve and in golf the interlocking grip helps to move the hands together.
So, what I would do is to get a rubber band to wrap around the wrists allowing the hands to open to hold and release the footy but at the same time keeping the hands a lot more rigid and moving together. I firmly believe this will lead to a more consistent ball drop for Jamarra and others like Sam, Astro, Bont and others and significantly improve accuracy.
The band could also be legally used in a game by wrapping it around the wrist a few times. Then positioning it on both wrists when setting up for the shot. Plenty of time within the allowable for 30 seconds to do this.
Stupidity is to keep practicing the same thing with the same technique and expect a better result. You need to try something different to see if it works.