Advantages of Soccer-Style Versus Conventional-Style Place-Kicking
There are several reasons most college and professional place-kickers (in American football) use the soccer-style approach over the conventional, straight-on style popular many decades ago. The soccer-style kick, while more difficult to learn, is more kinematically efficient for power, distance, accuracy, and control.
One of the reasons for this is that the instep, the arched, medial portion of the foot, provides a larger surface area than the toes. This gives the kicker more room for error on contact and provides a larger “sweet spot”. Secondly, the soccer-style kick incorporates torque, or turning of the hips and shoulders, which generates more leg speed and explosiveness and lengthens range of motion.
The conventional kick occurs through a single-plane, which limits range of movement. Because of the limited range of motion on the backswing of the conventional kick, the kicker must have greater muscular strength in the legs and above average flexibility of the hamstrings for a high follow-through. This partially explains why, historically, most of the successful straight-on kickers were larger individuals (i.e. Lou Groza) with more muscle mass and/or individuals with great flexibility (i.e. Mark Mosely) to enhance range of motion.
In addition, the ball of a conventional kicker tends to rise more quickly, which reduces distance when kicking into the wind. The soccer-style kicker has more control over the trajectory of the ball, because more of the foot strikes more of the ball. This makes wind adjustments and specialty kicks, such as squib and onside kicks, easier to execute. The onside pop-up kick that is used so effectively by most professional and college kickers today is practically impossible for the conventional-style kicker to perform.
While learning the conventional kick tends to be easier for beginners, athletes will have the above-mentioned performance limitations and limited potential to kick past the high school-level. Below is a checklist that coaches can use to help beginners learn the fundamentals of the soccer-style place-kick.
Learning Checklist for Soccer-Style Place-Kicking
- The stance is comfortable, relaxed, and ready.
- Short steps are taken for body control.
- The plant foot is placed six to twelve inches from the ball.
- The plant foot is pointing toward the target.
- The heel of the kicking leg swings like a pendulum upward toward the buttocks.
- The downswing should be explosive but under control.
- The kicking knee travels over the ball.
- The kicking foot contacts the ball with the foot extended, providing a rigid surface for ball contact
- The contact point on the kicking foot is the medial aspect of the first metatarsal bone (between the 2nd & 4th laces).
- The left arm (right-footed kicker) swings out wide for balance, then crosses the body to prevent the hips and shoulders from turning to the left.
- The plant leg should be rigid and fairly straight.
- The plant foot should remain firmly planted for as long as possible.
- Follow-through will have little impact on the kick, but the kickers should feel as if they are kicking through the ball, finishing as high as possible.
- The kicking foot and body should finish square to the target.
- The kicker’s eyes are always on the ball.