While it is neither advisable nor necessary that a kicker be prevented
from attempting to kick hard until he has mastered every detail of the
swing and brought it to the same point of perfection that a finished
oarsman does his stroke, it certainly is best, in his practice, to
subordinate power to method until he acquire good form.
[Illustration: KNOWLTON L. AMES.
Princeton.]
The coach should take his man in hand by watching him make a half-dozen
kicks in his own way. Then he should select the worst of his faults, and
show him why it is a fault, and how to correct it. He should keep him
upon this one point for a few days, until he is convinced that there
will be no backsliding, and then begin upon the next. In this way a few
weeks will serve to make a second-class man a good one, and open the way
for his becoming something out of the ordinary run in another season.
In judging the faults of a kicker, the coach should note just where he
gets his power on, what is the position of his leg and foot upon the
swing, and what part of the foot strikes the ball. These are the
principal points, and deserve the first attention. Regarding the first
of these, his power should be put on just as his foot has passed the
lowest part of the arc in which it swings, and it should meet the ball
in the upward sweep very soon after passing this point. The position of
his leg and foot is to be next noted, and the "snap the whip" phrase is
as good a one to convey the idea as any that can be adopted. As the leg
begins to swing the knee is bent and the body pitched a little forward,
so that the weight of the kick seems to start from the hip and travel
down the leg as it straightens, reaching the foot just as it meets the
ball, as above mentioned. As for the third point, the ball, when
punted, should be struck between the instep and the toe, impinging most
upon the former. In a drop-kick and a place-kick the ball is met by the
toe, and the sweep is made with "a longer leg," as the expression has
it; that is, the foot swings nearer--in fact, almost along the ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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