‘Side On’ means success in (almost) every sport

Welcome back from the extended Easter break! We hope you had a good one!

To kick off Term 2, an overarching concept that is applied will improve student performance in almost all sports!

Is this little guy front on or side on?

There are a few fundamental improvements that apply to almost every sport. Over the coming months we will address some of these to help you improve not just your teaching and coaching in one sport, but in many.

The first we will touch on is the overwhelming benefits of the side on body position in almost every sport.

As a beginner most players, child or adult, will use very little of their body to perform the task of hitting, kicking or throwing a ball. Watch a young child kick a football (soccer or rugby) and observe how many stand toes facing forwards, left or right foot swinging from the knee, zero weight transfer and the resulting lack off power and distance on the kick.

Effectively, the only area the player is drawing power from is their spindly little calf muscle, ankle and toes. Hardly heavyweights in the biomechanical department.

Watch the transformation and associated increase in distance and power when you ask the player to approach the ball side one and to effect some movement of weight from their back foot to their front foot.

Click for animation

Similar improvements will be witnessed when it comes to accuracy. What would happen if you stood front on and tried to hit a golf ball? You’d never try it so don’t do it for (almost) any other sport.

By addressing a ball side on it allows the swing of the club, bat, racquet, foot or arm to start, contact / release and follow through, all in the direction of the target. This gives the player a much better chance of hitting the ball where they want to.

In all drills, games and activities the side on position should be reinforced, and if done consistently more effortless power and accuracy will be achieved.

What sports is being side on not the best approach for? There are a few (but not many) out there. Why not leave a comment?

Aussie Rules Coaching Tip – Improve the Basics

Winter sports season is approaching and for most schools this means, amongst other sports, Aussie Rules.

Two of the fundamental skills in Aussie Rules, hand-passing and kicking, can be made a lot more effective by tweaking the way most kids execute these two skills.

Hand Passing

More distance and power:

• The key point to emphasise here is the use of the hand that holds the ball. Most kids keep their ‘holding’ hand stationary and punch the ball.
• Have the players swing both their arms back and forth as if they were mimicking a swing found in a park.
• Explain that the way to achieve more distance is for the ‘punch’ to occur when the ball is already moving forward by the ‘holding hand’. The job of the hitting hand is to ‘catch up’ to the holding hand, eventually punching it away to a teammate.
• When this is done well and the hitting hand connects with the holding hand that is swinging forwards at the same time, the ball should go considerably further than when the ball is punched from a static position.
• To progress this skill, encourage players to adopt a side on position and to have their front foot pointing towards their target to increase accuracy.

Kicking

Accurate and consistently good connection of foot and ball

• The common error here is that the ball is dropped from too high a position, causing it to not land accurately on the foot and making it very hard to time the kick correctly.
• It is important to remember that a well timed kick will always create more power than a powerful kick with poor timing.
• Encourage your player’s / student’s to bend slightly forward, with their head looking at where they want the ball to be dropped.
• Most importantly, only release the ball from waist / thigh height (no higher).
• To progress this skill and add more power combine the above with a few steps forward prior to the kick. Both power and accuracy will improve rapidly.