Steven Poacher – Can you kick it?

The kick pass needs to be taught correctly

IF you go to a coaching course now looking for ideas on developing the punt pass, you will be extremely disappointed.

There is very limited material or ideas for coaches regarding the punt pass. If you go to a coaching course or witness a sample session you will see multiple games and drills that use the hand, it’s certainly not the same for the foot.

I read a very interesting article last week regarding the statistics in last year’s All-Ireland quarter final between Tyrone and Monaghan. It was reported that Tyrone, during that particular game, had kick passed the ball less than 20 times.

If we consider in that game there was approximately eight minutes of injury time at the end of the game that is a ratio of one kick pass approximately every four minutes. A phenomenal yet scary statistic in the direction the game is going.

If you were to watch Crossmaglen play, for example, you might see over 20 kick passes in the first 20 minutes.

Obviously, the volume of kick-passing will be determined by the system or style you as a coach feels best suits your team but at underage level there should be no excuse for not encouraging younger players to kick the ball more.
In the modern game the average ratio of hand pass to foot pass in a game is approximately 3:1, so for every three hand passes you are likely to see a foot pass although in some games this ratio is probably much, much greater as identified above.

Instead of complaining and moaning about too many hand passes in the modern game and coaches feeling too much of the modern training sessions are spent hand passing, it is up to us as coaches to try and change the mindset, especially that of the younger generation.

I always use the simple advice to the young of a “wall and a ball” all they need is a wall and a ball to practice their kicking and first touch.

How though can we implement punt passing into a whole training session? I thought it would be difficult, but after running a number of successful sessions in the last few weeks on punt passing, I have changed my mind.

Over the last few weeks I have been doing some coaching with the emerging talent programme within Down, on Saturday past we had 32 outfield players and the large majority of the session revolved around kick-passing and good movement.

Two things are very important in a kick-passing game, the quality of the pass but also just as important the quality of movement, particularly from your forward line.

I started my sessions in the warm-up by focusing on touch by replicating some really short foot-passing just to gain a feel for the ball, encouraging players to keep their heads down and focus on the pass while also emphasising the importance of a good first touch when receiving the ball.

After the warm-up I ran a number of kick-passing drills with a shot incorporated into it, we then went into groups of eight players working on four cross field-games of a 1v1 and a 2v2 nature on each side, with four players working on movement and four working on the delivery of the pass before swapping roles.

This perfectly accommodated all 32 players in the panel before moving into two larger sided games of 6v6 on two halves with a score being awarded for a 30m punt pass.

Finally into a 15v15 full pitch game with two goalkeepers with the emphasis on delivery from the middle third to the inside line, trying to get players to concentrate on bypassing lines with their kick passes.

Remember, coaching the kick is not a quick fix, it will take patience and time, but the younger you start with your players the easier it will be to integrate them into a more confident kicking approach at senior level.

A top university coach recently told me that the volume of elite footballers who arrive at their university from all over Ireland who can’t efficiently kick pass the ball is very concerning.

So we have work to do with the next generation if we want to see our games return to a more kicking approach than a basketball type approach. Take a chance when coaching the kick pass and don’t forget to tell the young players, a bad ball early is sometimes better than a good ball late.