Tom Boyd 2016

[Bulldog4life]

Whilst it's important that he practices such that he is comfortable with is technique he also has to pay attention to what is happening with the flight of the ball.

In a previous life (pre-kids) I was a pretty handy golfer and through my practice I got to a stage where I could stand over the ball and know if I put a reasonable swing on it which shape of shot I would hit.

When watching Tom kick at present it's clear that he is moving the ball right to left in the air, but other than one kick against Freo he has made no allowance to this and is continuing to aim centre and miss left.

Yes I agree with this. His high ball drop doesn't help either.

[westdog54]

Whilst it's important that he practices such that he is comfortable with is technique he also has to pay attention to what is happening with the flight of the ball.

In a previous life (pre-kids) I was a pretty handy golfer and through my practice I got to a stage where I could stand over the ball and know if I put a reasonable swing on it which shape of shot I would hit.

When watching Tom kick at present it's clear that he is moving the ball right to left in the air, but other than one kick against Freo he has made no allowance to this and is continuing to aim centre and miss left.

To put a slightly different spin (no pun intended) on this, I'm a semi-automatic pistol instructor.

Its generally fairly easy to diagnose what is happening with a shooter's fundamentals if there's a common area of the target they are hitting when they are aiming for the centre. From there, we can work on their fundamentals to get them shooting straight.

Whilst kicking a footy and firing a pistol are vastly different endeavours, and I have no expertise on kicking a football, I can only imagine there's a biomechanical reason that some players have a 'bend' in their kick (Jon Thurston and Buddy Franklin come to mind) and others can simply hit it straight (Tory Dickson says hello)

I'd like to think that this is something that VU can explore deeper with Tom, so that the simplistic 'aim it left to hit the centre' approach can be avoided.

I got an A+ in year 12 English giving an oral presentation on how shit of an umpire Shane McInernay is.

Whilst its probably not what the Like button was intended for, this is one of my favourite posts of the year.

[LostDoggy]

Three from free kicks from the first 5.

And there's the game done right there.

[jeemak]

A lot depends on which part of the foot the ball makes contact with. For a right foot player right to left swing can be more prevalent if the footy comes off the outside of the boot. Off the instep it's more likely to go left to right.

i haven't watched closely enough to see whether he points his toes to the left exposing the outside of the boot, it might be a simple matter of working on that - plus he needs to drop the ball closer to his boot.

[ledge]

Interesting how a player walks in when having a shot at goal .. I was with an ex player on weekend and Boyd was having a shot at goal and we were right behind him . He pointed out look at his shoulders one is lower than the other as he walks in, went on to explain what would happen and why when he kicked it and it happened..
He has a lot of corrections to make, which is a good sign he has a lot of improvement to come.
I remember hearing once that players at training don't actually practice goal kicking as such and focus on game plan, positions etc.
if that's true it's silly,no wonder players are terrible in front of goal.
Has anyone ever watched training and saw players actually with a kicking for goal coach next to them, showing them the right techniques one on one ?

[1eyedog]

Tom has a lot going on with his action. Everything discussed above, shoulders, head position, area of the foot the ball lands, being balanced when you walk in, where you hold the ball, how high the drop is, where you are mentally perceiving the ball is going to go are all contributing factors. He doesn't actually look like he's going back far enough as he sets up, but that may be his thing. No doubt about it though his timing is off which affects a number of components from the last step to when he releases it to where and when the ball hits the boot.

It's definitely confidence and no doubt its down when kicking for goal. It may be nerves, he can't keep everything tucked away and he knows he is expected to nail em and when you don't drill them consecutively it becomes more of a mental challenge.

[Stefcep]

A lot depends on which part of the foot the ball makes contact with. For a right foot player right to left swing can be more prevalent if the footy comes off the outside of the boot. Off the instep it's more likely to go left to right.

i haven't watched closely enough to see whether he points his toes to the left exposing the outside of the boot, it might be a simple matter of working on that - plus he needs to drop the ball closer to his boot.

How many years and kicks does it take to work that out, seriously? We learned we could bend a torp to the left by kicking with the outside of the right boot in the under 11's at Wembley Park.

You want it go straight, you need a vertically plumb kicking motion, and guide the drop on to the centre of the boot, and follow though with the kicking action dead in front. Its not rocket surgery.

[ledge]

Rocket surgery ?? ;-)

[hujsh]

Rocket surgery ?? ;-)

Very hard. Especially when the rocket's in flight

[1eyedog]

Rocket surgery ?? ;-)

Love it!

[bulldogtragic]

Don't want to argue the point, but Tom is actually an excellent goal kicker, in play and set shot:

2012 & 2013: TAC he kicked 71.25 (73%)
2014: (GWS) 8.3 (73%)
2015: AFL 16.6 (73%) & VFL 14.6 (70%)
2016: 5.3 (3 games)

4 year average 72% - Tony Lockett career averaged 69.74%

[Ozza]

Don't want to argue the point, but Tom is actually an excellent goal kicker, in play and set shot:

2012 & 2013: TAC he kicked 71.25 (73%)
2014: (GWS) 8.3 (73%)
2015: AFL 16.6 (73%) & VFL 14.6 (70%)
2016: 5.3 (3 games)

4 year average 72% - Tony Lockett career averaged 69.74%

I like it BT....but the asterix on this season is that he's kicked also kicked 1 on the full and 1 that went nowhere for no score. He isn't kicking well at the moment - but agree that historically he has been a solid kick at goal.

[bulldogtragic]

No scores don't factor into Lockett or Dunstall's percentage accuracy either to be fair. 73% accuracy over 4 years in three competitions, with three clubs is absolutely elite. 3 games into the season so far and he's also been rucking more and would be heavier in the legs - isn't worth too much worry for me and reinventing his technique seems a little over the top only from my perspective. For what it's worth, his kick from the boundary on the weekend went through the middle despite the goal umpire not paying it. I didn't see a touched all clear so I assume he was just robbed.

[bornadog]

. For what it's worth, his kick from the boundary on the weekend went through the middle despite the goal umpire not paying it. I didn't see a touched all clear so I assume he was just robbed.

Is this true?

[KT31]

Is this true?

Posted about this earlier, we thought it was a goal at but they never showed a replay.
If it did it is a shocking mistake in a 3 point ball game.