AFL set shots are an art, not a uniform problem

Nailed it, Ian. There are countless examples (especially in tennis and golf) where athletes have completely remodled their stroke/swing/kick/whatever action. They've gone against their natural tendencies because they have the drive and desire to put in the work to achieve the results. Is too simplistic to say "players won't take it up". If that was true Centrelink would be overrun with former coaches, physios, and rehab professionals.

Spot on Whit - muscle memory they call it. Its why guys like Mike Hussey have spent thousands of hours in front of a ball machine.

I'd take it a step further, Matt, and suggest that one thing sticks out among professional golfers - they very rarely hit a shot too far away from their intended spot. The main reason is this - they spend hours practicing their techniques, swing, stance etc, unlike today's footballers. If a player spent the necessary time perfecting his technique (holding the ball, guiding the ball onto the foot not dropping it, straight leg & taut instep etc) they would improve out of sight within a season. The old adage of practice makes perfect is not restricted to golfers.

Saw this off BigFooty: "the biggest reason for the goal kicking not improving is the amount of running the players do. Try kicking a goal from 30m out, then try and do it after 4 x 100m sprints. You'll notice a bit of a difference in you're ability to nail the shot."

Interestingly, Brad Wing the punter for LSU and is revolutionising punting on the college scene, was a Sandringham Dragons boy who got the chop because he wasn't much for the running and athletics side of the game.

Well, at Subiaco part of the problem is the crowd... But you know, its really random, because you see some of the near-impossible angles (I mean, when you're attacking a 6m wide goal from an acute angle you're often only dealing with an aperture of like two degrees) a lot of them go in. But also important is that they call play on for set shots if you go off the line of the mark, so you can't go around the corner like most other code's kicking does. As a result, I often find players to be more accurate when going on the run or making snapshots. On the other hand, when the Eagles were playing in their first three games (ignoring that wet-weather aberration from last night) we were routinely slotting shots from outside the fifty metre arc. Possibly its also the fact that players taking set shots have usually either been in a marking contest or been fouled in some cruel and unusual way and have to take the kicks themselves - possibly they're disoriented when they go for it.

Repitition is the key to a new technique being comfortable - in other words, they do refuse to be coached.

What I do not get about goal kicking in football is that it is in a way similar to a golf stroke. Now, in golf, you WATCH the ball as you go to strike it. You DO NOT watch the flag stick as you attempt to strike the ball. In our game, the kicker should be watching the ball onto his boot. But they all appear to be looking at the goals or someone to palm the ball off to. In order to get the alignment correct in the first place, he should be working out the direction of his kick beforehand. Make the mark, pace back and take aim, then watch the ball onto the boot, not the goals or elsewhere and watch the improvements come. Another thing I notice is the players can have shocking techniques, they do not run straight. They sort of swing around, which is not conducive to accuracy. Technique and a repeatable method is the answer to improvements.

Kennedy of the Eagles has quite an unorthodox approach to set shots, but is remarkably accurate, especially from distance. Speaking of distance, both Rocca brothers were very accurate with set shots from distance, it's as if their natural range was around 55mm out, but would often miss shots they shouldn't have missed - which lends some weight to it being a mental problem, Sav Rocca was a very good kick too, as evidenced by his NFL career after retiring from AFL footy.

For what it's worth, I think AF defences have improved enormously over the past 10 years. Not only is the space for a kicker being reduced, but his time to 'line-up' a kick as well. The combined compressing upon space & time is forcing good kickers to hurry their shots. Consequently, a loss of accuracy is the trade-off. As for kicking styles, some players can change to another style, while some players might totally lose their natural feel being asked to try something else. There's no "one style suits all" policy here. The great Don Bradman had a batting style that didn't satisfy the purists. But it worked for him - & how!!!!! If Franklin has a maverick kicking style, I can live with that. I don't think this is Franklin's REAL problem. His problem is between the ears - he often makes rash decisions leading to hurried &/or ill-conceived kicks. For Franklin, it's less a question of style or accuracy, but decision making.

I've always thought that a set shot for goal is alot like putting in golf. The pro's will slot them at will during practice but put them on the 18th green at Augusta on Sunday, or 30m out on a slight angle with the match on the line, and the chance of them missing increases significantly. I really do think that it's more of a mental issue then a technical one. You hear constant stories about how players will slot them from anywhere at training. The only difference between them at practice and during the game is the pressure. Like a putt in golf players have a long time to line up their set shots and thus have a long time to think. Unlike kicking a goal on the run, which is more instinct based where players execute their skills in a split second without really thinking about it, they have 30 or so seconds to stress over a set shot. That's not to say that all players techniques are perfect, Lindsay Thomas has a shocking technique for example, but I do believe that it is mainly a mental issue.

stabpass very good point, there has definitely been a trend of recruiting athletes that has quickened in the past 15 years or so, and is likely to continue unabated but this is the great dilemma that all footy clubs have always faced: balancing the ability of players to get to the footy often (favouring athletes), with the need to have players who can actually use the footy, but who might be incapable of getting near the footy.

As a RL fan i have a honest question. Alot of the hype & stories of kicking skills which surround AFL players is the ability to kick well 'Myth". How can these players who we are told can put a ball on a moving mans chest from 50 mtrs away,on the run,& kicking with either foot,yet cant kick it straight through 2 giant sticks (stationary,& 50 times bigger than a man.)from in front with no pressure. Am interested to see what the reasons could be.

Pete Hudson would not be drafted today, he would not have been athletic enough, and therein lies one of the problems, recruiting athletes like Tippett and the expecting them to also be dead eyed dicks like Lockett, Hudson and Mckenna etc is not going to happen. Was Tippett drafted because of his goal kicking prowess, or his all round althleticicm, was Lockett, Hudson and McKenna signed up because of their athleticism or goal kicking ability. Cattery touched on some other issues, mental or otherwise, but this is also a big one IMO.

While I agree that a "natural" kicking technique may be better IF IT WORKS I would have to disagree with your premise that a correct kicking action cannot be taught. If you look at the players who are missing easy shots you will find, in almost every case there is a reason (apart from psychological) that is causing them to miss. (High ball drop, not running directly toward goal, etc.)

It's certainly remarkable the players like Peter Hudson and Peter McKenna, from the late 60s/early 70s, had goal kicking accuracy rates that have never been bettered, in fact, hardly anyone has ever got near them - so with everything in the game getting faster and better, including passing around the ground, and even snapshots on goal, set shots have been stuck in a bit of a rut for decades now. It's certainly something that warrants examination. A few suggestions have been made, and most probably the answer lies in a combination of these: 1. A big change that has occurred since 1971 has been the mandating of drop punts, such that all other forms of kicking were rapidly dispensed with. These days you'll see a few welcome torps each game, but otherwise the drop punt rules, especially kicking at goal. But Hudson, and probably McKenna, used a flat punt - no one kicks with a flat punt these days, it's viewed as kick that is used only by those who cannot kick. There's no doubting that for general kicking around the ground, the drop punt is king in the modern game, but perhaps we have to be a bit more open about allowing players to experiment with flat punts at set shots - it's no coincidence that most snaps are a variation on the flat punt. 2. As mentioned in the article, goal kicking practice is actually discouraged because coaches limit the amount of training for each player right down to the last minute these days. This also partially explains why we are unlikely to see a return to the flat punt at set shots because there is no time to practice it, so players fall back on what they do in all their other training drills, without time spent on set shots. 3. Lastly, it's a mental thing. It has always been a mental thing. Goal kicking is a very different skill to passing the footy, and it's made worse by the fact that in aussie rules, there is actually no target to aim for, it's a big open space, literally. This helps explain why a player like Chris Grant was inch perfect of both feet passing the footy round the ground, but 20 metres dead in front of goal, and all of a sudden he's get no where near it. The other thing is that training drills accentuate the need for quick, sharp decision making, relying on the intuition of players, and so some players can snap a goal from the impossible angle, not even thinking about it, but put them in a situation where they have 30 seconds to line it up, and it's a different ball game - that's a mental problem. So I think the answer lies in a combination of all three, and as Malcolm Blight used to say: it helps if you enjoy kicking goals, but if you're somone who shuns the responsibility - don't play forward!!

Is the author actually arguing that a player cannot learn a new kicking style, or in other words, because they refuse to be coached ?

I went to hit the cheer button but remembered the roar has done away with it. Very good article though. Well written and thought provoking.