KICKING OF GOALS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 14

KICKING OF GOALS

mm BY OU) PLAYER TOLLOW THROUGH " AS IN GOLF Hints on Wcking as given by the late Dr, Irwin Hunter, ex-Otago University player, Otago representatlve and coach of the University team for many years, in his hook "New Zealand Rugby Foothall: Some Hints and Criticisms," are well worth the study of footballers. Here is some of his advice:— . Remember in drop-kicking that the long drop-kicker gets his back into It and goes clean througb the ball. Look at what you are doing and not where ypu hope the bail is going, especially at first. Practice kicking into the wind. Practice with each foot till pne is as good as the other. A twofooted kicker is hard to stop, a onefooted easy. I do not recollect anyone stopping a punt or drop kick of that wonderful line kicker J. B. Thomson, of Otago. I never knew which leg was going, and I always found it Was the other. In drop-kicking for touch use the foot away from the touch line; face up the field and bring the ball across witli the swing of the leg, so that the ball is always running touchward. From All Angles Get your left leg going properly, You will never make a back if you don't; you will never be more than half-baked. Run and kick, run fast and kick iri stride, pick up and kick, catch and kick quickly. Have the ball thrown to you, kicked to you from all sorts of angles and kick on a mark on the touch line. If you do this with assiduity, by and by, on a new ground, in all sort'u of weather conditlons, you will in a few minutes know what you can ou on the day; your'klcks will travel in the field of play and just make .the touch, instead of crosslng the touch line and landing on the other side of the fence, or worse still, never Teaching the touch at all. Don't drop-wick when you should punt. Kicking into opponents is a common vlce nowadays; learn to form a better judgment, and don't just kick and take the chance. t Art of Punting No one knows where a punt is going to nowadays. In big matches you often see it go back over the kicker's head when he intended to place it where the forwards could go after It. The punt must be controlled like everything else. Practise the short, high one, the long, low one, the punt to the centre, using, as a rule, the foot away from the centre, the one over your head, very useful for a half-back when his hands are very full at the back of the scrum and a punt that is hard to stop. Remember you have an ankle joint; learn to use it in punting. In place-kicking, kick under service conditlons — i.e., with a placer, as much as possible. First, turn on your heel and cut a smooth cup out of the turf . The ball will always lie motionless in such a cup, whereas it often rolls in the rough depression made by hammering the heel. The placer lies down on the side of the kicking foot. With a right-footed kicker the placCr has his right hand in front and above and his left hand below and behind. When told to put the ball down, he does so and immediately takes his hands away horlzontally. He must he especially careful not to lift the left hand, which may get in the way of the view of the kicker. If the ball rolls he supports it with the front hand, which lies below the ball and supports it as on an inclined plane. Never put the ball doym with the hand held on top — a goal under such conditions is a miracle! For short place kicks many kickers stand. I think the balarice is better if one step is taken, but here, as elsewhere, experience must guide the individual, as also in the tilt given to the ball. I think, howeVer, that the kicker sees best what he is doing when the top of the ball is f arther from him than the bottom of it. For long kicks that position ls certainly best. It is so easy to spend all your power on merely rotating the ball in the vertical, or better than vertical position. Jack Thomson was a very long place kick. He placed the ball almost flat, the far end just slightly raised.

I Risk of Stabbing The foot off which you kick Should not quite reach the level of the ball, so that the toe of the kicking foot has just cleared the ground as it reaches the ball and the risk of stabbing the toe into the ground in front of the ball is done away with. Try to get a straight ball with no hook in it. Let the boot go clean through the ball with an even swing; don't stab at it. A good plan is to make up your mind, after making allowance for wind the direction of your kick. Then kick out a mark a foot in front of the ball on that line. Get your foot, the axis of the ball, and that spot on a line, cut out the goal and pin your eye on the spot on the ball on which you intend to put your foot. Don'1 hurry, but go clean through the bal] with the foot and be sure to keej your eye fixed on the ball. Many kicks in football are mullec because at the last moment the playei lifts his head, thus disorganising his whole movement. Half the trouble Ir this world has been said to be due tc taking the second step before takinj the first. Here is a good instance: see you: foot go into the ball — the first step The referee's whistle will, I hope, an nounce the successful second step.

Footrunning in the Snow. Miss A. N. Halstead (Radcliffe Lancs.), has retaihed the title s o: northern women's (Eng.) cross-coun try champion at Leeds. There weri 25 runners, and Miss Halstead finishet first over a three miles course througi lUuh and snow in 19min 23 2-Scse.