How To Kick A Football
My first year kicking was in the eighth grade when my soccer coach, who conveniently was the football coach as well, asked me to come out to kick some field goals. I played soccer since I was four years old and thought to myself "how hard can it actually be to learn how to kick a football."
I learned very quickly that kicking is not as easy as it looks, even with a soccer background. You will find a lot of people that say, "I can kick a 40-yard field...it's easy to learn how to kick a football." After dealing with enough of these guys I found out they are telling the truth, at least partially. At ONE point in their life, they kicked a 40-yard field goal and now they think it's easy. The hard part comes from making those kicks consistently.
Okay. Okay. But how do I kick the ball?
Everyone has a different kicking style, but the fundamentals remain true throughout the best kickers. Breaking it down into sections of how to kick a football...contact, steps, swing path, and consistency.
The first, and most important aspect of learning how to kick a football is contact. If you cannot make good contact with the ball, there is no point in learning the rest of the fundamentals...yet. Making good contact comes from turning your foot "down and out." Picture your kicking foot like a putter in golf, but turned slightly forward. The goal is to kick the football about 2 inches below center with the bone on the top of your foot. At all points throughout the kick, you must keep your foot and ankle locked.
The second piece of learning how to kick a football is steps. Some people may tell you you are supposed to take three steps back and two over, but how big are those steps? After kicking for years, I found that the most important part of finding your steps is first finding where you are most comfortable. When you do that, figure out a consistent way to get to that point.
Finally, the swing path wraps up the kick. The swing path consists of the pulling your leg back, like a backswing in golf, swinging it forward to make contact, as mentioned above, and following through upfield toward your target.
Sounds pretty easy, right? Trust me, it's harder than is sounds. Keep an eye out for other tips and drills at http://www.fieldgoalkicker.com as we try to help you win the job and play at the next level.
I learned very quickly that kicking is not as easy as it looks, even with a soccer background. You will find a lot of people that say, "I can kick a 40-yard field...it's easy to learn how to kick a football." After dealing with enough of these guys I found out they are telling the truth, at least partially. At ONE point in their life, they kicked a 40-yard field goal and now they think it's easy. The hard part comes from making those kicks consistently.
Okay. Okay. But how do I kick the ball?
Everyone has a different kicking style, but the fundamentals remain true throughout the best kickers. Breaking it down into sections of how to kick a football...contact, steps, swing path, and consistency.
The first, and most important aspect of learning how to kick a football is contact. If you cannot make good contact with the ball, there is no point in learning the rest of the fundamentals...yet. Making good contact comes from turning your foot "down and out." Picture your kicking foot like a putter in golf, but turned slightly forward. The goal is to kick the football about 2 inches below center with the bone on the top of your foot. At all points throughout the kick, you must keep your foot and ankle locked.
The second piece of learning how to kick a football is steps. Some people may tell you you are supposed to take three steps back and two over, but how big are those steps? After kicking for years, I found that the most important part of finding your steps is first finding where you are most comfortable. When you do that, figure out a consistent way to get to that point.
Finally, the swing path wraps up the kick. The swing path consists of the pulling your leg back, like a backswing in golf, swinging it forward to make contact, as mentioned above, and following through upfield toward your target.
Sounds pretty easy, right? Trust me, it's harder than is sounds. Keep an eye out for other tips and drills at http://www.fieldgoalkicker.com as we try to help you win the job and play at the next level.
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