Tilman Fecke Kicking Video

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 3:07 pm

I did a video ! please tell me if you see any mistakes I am doing or what I could do better ! I will try to slow some videos down so its better to watch. THANKS ! Very Happy

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsOKzv8m83k

Punt

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:50 pm

I noticed on the first kick that you did not kick and skip. On others you did. You need to be more consistent with that motion, to give you a more detailed answer I have included a excerpt from my kicking manual:

KICKING AND SKIPPING

Another element of the soccer style kicking is kicking and skipping. You will notice with about ninety percent of kickers on the professional level, will kick and generate a skip after contact. This does not happen with every kicker as they will kick and leave their plant leg on the ground. Thatâ€™s fine as long as they finish on balance and square to the target. Most of the soccer style kickers usually donâ€™t have a problem with this technique as it will come naturally. The key point is for the kicker to make contact with the ball, the plant leg should skip off the ground (6-10 inches) and then the kicking leg comes down. This is also called a sweeping motion. The skipping motion allows the kicker to utilize his hips and core into the kick therefore increase his distance and height. It also moves the kicker past the point of contact downfield. The kicker must keep his balance as he kicks through the ball and skipping downfield.

John Matich
The Kickin System

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:03 pm

Just by looking at this video and the pics I found few things which might work . Still it would be better if could see you in person.

Field Goals:
- Same thing as automatich stated you don't skip aka you don't follow through your kicks. It seems that you stop as soon as you have kicked the ball.
- You lift your head too early which might make you inconsistent
- From the pics I can see that your knee on your plant foot is too much in an angle meaning you are sitting down on the point of impact (makes you lose power) -> try to be more upright
- Because you are sitting down your shoulders are behind the ball when they should be directly on top of the ball at the point of impact. Also what has happened is that your abs have already contracted before the kick so you lose the extra power you could get from your ab muscles.

So in theory the best that could happen is that your plant foot is almost straight from the knee(like a javelin throwers plant foot), your hips would be slightly behind the ball and your shoulders on top of the ball (and hips and shoulders should be squared to the target). At the point of impact your abs should help your kick and the motion after the kick should be towards the target (the kicking foot toes should point to the target).

For practise tips read the post written for Gabor.

Punting:
I noticed in the video that you are bit stiff, look after the ball too soon and fall backwards after the kick.

You get more height and power to your kicks when you follow through and don't look after the ball so soon.

The good thing compared to the video and the pic is that in the video your kicking leg stays on the right side of your body. In the picture your kicking leg has travelled across your body which is not good in punting. the perfect punt would have your kicking leg travel from down up in a directly and staying on the same side of your body.

Dropping is then only a comfort issue. If you want to drop it with two hands that is fine. Personally I use one hand since it gives me more freedom motion wise on my body. The drop should happen little bit from outside your kicking legs hip and coming down so that the nose of the ball is just below the middle of the ball (so that the bounce is to the back and outside). This opens up the sweet spot.

Hopefully this helps in the start since i could go on and on Smile

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:57 pm

Thanks guys I will try everything you told me tonight @ practice !
Very Happy

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:15 pm

Well I tryed some things u guys told me. It didnt do to good for my kicks, I kicked better when I kicked like I did on the video. I will not change anything before this season is over since we only have at most 3 games left and I am doing pretty good so far ( as you can see on my kicking.com profile) comparing that this is my first real season. But I am sure all the things yall said will help me improve. Hopefully I can learn all that stuff in March in Cologne.
thanks again !!!

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:07 am

That is one thing I forgot to mention which you actually realised.

Don't change your technique in the middle of the season since it takes some time to get your body to accept the new kicking motion. Usually it will take some time to get the new technique to work and most likely you will lose some distance at the beginning.

Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:16 am

You will lose distance but it will gradually come back.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:14 am

hey everyone, im the kicker for my jv football team but ill be varsity next year, i was just wondering if theres any way i can get my running steps more fluid on kickoffs, because mine are slow and i dont always connect with the ball right, and i was wondering whats the best way to kick PAT's, because i only tilt my body a little bit and im wondering if i should lean more and have my planter foot more forward. if you can get back to me thatll be cool, add me on myspace if you have one or get me on aim, ryanransdell2613 but im not always on. one last thing, i noticed most of you guys live pretty far away from me, whats your practices like and do you have 2 a days?? we have 2 a days all summer from 645 am to 2 pm, and once school started we have it from 3 to 7, is anyone elses like that?

Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 7:01 am

Hey Ryan,

Here are few tips for you to use hopefully they will help:

Kickoffs:
In general the best approach is a one where you accelerate all the way to the ball. You might start of by walking and the jog and the last two steps (or last step) are the ones where you generate the power to the kick. Remember you cannot have any stutter steps on your approach. To find the perfect spot for you is hard to say through text conversation but here are few pointers.

Start of by measuring your normal FG steps (3 back 2 over) then work your way away from the ball so that you get to the ball in good pace with acceleration (to work away go 5back-3over then 7-9 back&4-6 over). one good way to measure the starting point is by doing it reversed so that start your runoff from the ball and run away in the most fluent way (or the way you would like to approach the ball). At the end check the spot where your plant foot is and that is your starting point.

For the point that you don't connect with the ball. There might be several pointers why but the main factors why this might happen are: 1) you don't look the ball all the way aka you lift your head too early 2) plant foot is too far behind from the ball 3) you don't go through the ball

Field Goals:
There are several tips allready pointed out in this site but some that might help you.

Your plant foot should be placed so that the point of the ball and the ball of your plant foot should be parallel to each other.

For the lean it comes with time & practise. Repetition is the key and a good lean would be where the shoulder, that is on the same side as your kicking foot. Is over the ball all just inside (depends on the kicker). If your lean is too much you tend to hook it and too little you'll lose power.