“THAT’S BETTER,” THE voice barked from over my shoulder. “Make sure you keep the weight on your kicking side.”
“I’m being watched,” I chuckled to one of my media colleagues as I turned to make sure that yes, Dave Alred’s words of encouragement were in fact aimed at me.
And then I skewed another drop-kick horribly off the outside of my boot.
Just to be clear, under normal circumstances I can kick a ball reasonably well, as well as you’d expect from somebody who played schoolboy football for 12 years. I just never put a huge amount of thought into the mechanics of it.
Line it up, pick your target, plant your standing foot, follow through — that was the way I was taught once upon a time and that was the way it has been.
Dave Alred is a man who has spent a lot of time thinking about how we kick and earlier this week the man known for his role as kicking guru to some of rugby’s top players, including Jonny Wilkinson and Jonny Sexton, tried to teach me a thing or two.
Alred was in Dublin this week for a session on “The Science of the Boot”, linked to the launch of the new adidas Predator Incurza.
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He explained how tiny little details, such as a 5mm heel raise, can actually make a difference in how foot, boot, ground and ball all interact.
Yes we’re talking about fractions of 1% here but Alred has done the maths and quite often, that is the difference between a shot drifting just inside or outside the post.
(L-R) Eoin Cadogan, Jonny Sexton, Dave Alred, Paddy Jackson and Paul Flynn at the adidas kicking masterclass. Pat Murphy / SPORTSFILE
Pat Murphy / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE
Faced with a handful of journalists of varying ability — and I put myself firmly towards the bottom end of that bracket — Alred took us back to misspent youths in pool halls as he tried to explain how a subtle change in how we use our body weight when kicking can lead to a massive difference in power and accuracy.
Take Cristiano Ronaldo for example. Even with a short run-up he can get the power he needs on a dead ball and that, Alred said, is purely down to body shift.
And then he threw down the gauntlet. “I want you to get a genuine appreciation of what it’s like to kick a ball under pressure.”
After all, journalists are the quickest to point out when a player misses an “easy kick” or one they “should have scored.”
I cast my mind back to the microscopic analysis of Sexton’s missed penalty in Ireland’s defeat against the All Blacks last autumn. The out-half, back in Dublin on a flying visit as part of his promotional duties, sat a few rows behind me and listened to the man with whom he has spent hours and hours refining his routine.
As we warmed up with a few drills out on the pitch, it didn’t go well. For every sweetly-struck kick, there was a horror show that sent my training partner half way across the pitch on a search and retrieval mission.
I had no problem remembering the two or three key points that Alred had told us to concentrate on. It was putting all three into practice at the same time that was causing difficulties.
Sportsfile
Sportsfile
When it came to competition time, my expectations were suitably low. The challenge was, on the face of it, easy. Two rugby balls, 22 yards out and directly in front of the posts, one for a drop goal attempt and the other for a place kick.
Score both and you were safe; miss and you were out.
Bravely I tried to melt into the middle of kicking order to see how the rest of the press pack fared first. A couple of successes, a couple of near-misses, and then my turn.
Drop goal first, the one with greatest potential to go horribly wrong. I remembered Alred’s advice to focus on the follow through and watched in pleasant surprise as it sailed straight over the bar.
(“Sailed” might be a bit of an exaggeration but work with me.)
Confidence back, I skirted the place kick over the bar and jogged back to the pack with a half-smile, safely through to the next round.
To cut a long story short, I didn’t win — but I didn’t lose either, and I certainly learned a few things about the mechanics of kicking correctly.
I won’t be quite so quick to slam a pro for missing an “easy” one the next time.
Jonny Wilkinson's kicking guru tries to teach TheScore.ie a thing or two
“THAT’S BETTER,” THE voice barked from over my shoulder. “Make sure you keep the weight on your kicking side.”
“I’m being watched,” I chuckled to one of my media colleagues as I turned to make sure that yes, Dave Alred’s words of encouragement were in fact aimed at me.
And then I skewed another drop-kick horribly off the outside of my boot.
Just to be clear, under normal circumstances I can kick a ball reasonably well, as well as you’d expect from somebody who played schoolboy football for 12 years. I just never put a huge amount of thought into the mechanics of it.
Line it up, pick your target, plant your standing foot, follow through — that was the way I was taught once upon a time and that was the way it has been.
Dave Alred is a man who has spent a lot of time thinking about how we kick and earlier this week the man known for his role as kicking guru to some of rugby’s top players, including Jonny Wilkinson and Jonny Sexton, tried to teach me a thing or two.
Alred was in Dublin this week for a session on “The Science of the Boot”, linked to the launch of the new adidas Predator Incurza.
He explained how tiny little details, such as a 5mm heel raise, can actually make a difference in how foot, boot, ground and ball all interact.
Yes we’re talking about fractions of 1% here but Alred has done the maths and quite often, that is the difference between a shot drifting just inside or outside the post.
Faced with a handful of journalists of varying ability — and I put myself firmly towards the bottom end of that bracket — Alred took us back to misspent youths in pool halls as he tried to explain how a subtle change in how we use our body weight when kicking can lead to a massive difference in power and accuracy.
Take Cristiano Ronaldo for example. Even with a short run-up he can get the power he needs on a dead ball and that, Alred said, is purely down to body shift.
And then he threw down the gauntlet. “I want you to get a genuine appreciation of what it’s like to kick a ball under pressure.”
After all, journalists are the quickest to point out when a player misses an “easy kick” or one they “should have scored.”
I cast my mind back to the microscopic analysis of Sexton’s missed penalty in Ireland’s defeat against the All Blacks last autumn. The out-half, back in Dublin on a flying visit as part of his promotional duties, sat a few rows behind me and listened to the man with whom he has spent hours and hours refining his routine.
As we warmed up with a few drills out on the pitch, it didn’t go well. For every sweetly-struck kick, there was a horror show that sent my training partner half way across the pitch on a search and retrieval mission.
I had no problem remembering the two or three key points that Alred had told us to concentrate on. It was putting all three into practice at the same time that was causing difficulties.
When it came to competition time, my expectations were suitably low. The challenge was, on the face of it, easy. Two rugby balls, 22 yards out and directly in front of the posts, one for a drop goal attempt and the other for a place kick.
Score both and you were safe; miss and you were out.
Bravely I tried to melt into the middle of kicking order to see how the rest of the press pack fared first. A couple of successes, a couple of near-misses, and then my turn.
Drop goal first, the one with greatest potential to go horribly wrong. I remembered Alred’s advice to focus on the follow through and watched in pleasant surprise as it sailed straight over the bar.
(“Sailed” might be a bit of an exaggeration but work with me.)
Confidence back, I skirted the place kick over the bar and jogged back to the pack with a half-smile, safely through to the next round.
To cut a long story short, I didn’t win — but I didn’t lose either, and I certainly learned a few things about the mechanics of kicking correctly.
I won’t be quite so quick to slam a pro for missing an “easy” one the next time.
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Adidas Can You Kick It? Dave Alred Editor's picks Jonny Sexton Jonny Wilkinson Kicking