A Kickin' Compilation

"wimpy soccer players who couldn’t cut it in Europe"?

Phtt. I'm 6'3" and weigh 285 pounds. I bench 250, squat 485, and dead lift 425. I'm also 32 years old. I'm willing to wager I can kick your butt in a New York minute.

Wimpy soccer players my you know what....

It's narrow minded neanderthals like your self who continue to perpetrate this false image that soccer players are somehow "inferior" to American Football players. I'm every bit as strong as half the players playing in Division I football, in fact I've lifted with many of the players who play have played for Ohio State's teams over the years. Soccer players are every bit as athletic and strong as any other sport, and to denigrate one athlete over another is pathetic. I'm wagering you're probably one of those beer chugging NFL fans that hasn't seen their belly in 5 years, and probably look in the mirror and see a severe resemblance to Chris Farley and the Chicago "Super Fans" from Saturday Night Live.

You owe every soccer player an apology for making such an asinine comment.

njz
ha! looks like the author hit his target! he loves to stir it up, and he did!
go back and read some of the other articles by this former soccer player and life-long fan (and, also, i think you meant that he couldn't see his feet over his belly, which, by the way, has never been a problem).

LOL Moo Strength... sounds like a real meat head. Lay off the steroids buddy chill out.

First I just want to address the first commenter. Now I’m 5’10” and weight 170 lbs. I played D1 college football being both a place-kicker and punter. I have to totally refute you saying that you are every bit as strong as half the players in Division 1 Football players, actually I outright crack up. I would say that you are as bit as strong as half the kickers and punters in D1 football AT BEST. I bench 255, squat 375, dead lift (didn’t do since most kickers already have enough back problems), 40 yard dash- 4.5 laser timed. I also knew many more kickers and punters at big programs and they were bigger and even more stronger than me(Mike Nugent-OSU- benched well over 300 easy when I asked him) I was also a soccer player so please save me your nonsense of being strong. I will have your back that soccer players are not wimpy though, but to say they are as strong as football players no way.

Laces In – There is somewhat of a truth to it, but no really. Some kickers might obsesse about the laces out, but I’ve never met any. They usually just tell holders to have laces out, but if not it usually does not matter that much. Some say the laces impacting the hard part of a kicker’s foot will cause the ball to go another way then intended because we want to kick the smooth flat surface of the ball, not the hard irregular shaped laces. But I’ve kicked with laces in to test this and found nothing significantly different, maybe just in 45+ range.

The K-Ball – Yes they do exist, I coveted my K balls. The thing you have to know about normal game balls are that QB’s usually pick out the balls for the game that they have been practicing with all week. They usually are balls that started the week as brand new balls that are worn in throughout the week. Kickers do not like to use these balls because new balls can sometimes be harder and have like a point(triangular shape) where the sewing is. We kickers usually make contact were this sewing is so we don’t want to hit this point because it 1)hurts and 2) doesn’t allow for a solid contact with the ball. So kickers use either really old balls they have been kicking around with for awhile. These so called K(kicker) balls are usually really broken in balls that are softer since the leather has been worked in and that are more rounded so that when we kick them there is greater contact. Some high school’s don’t allow using K balls sometimes because they are so worn that there is no grip on the ball, but kicker’s don’t worry about the grip at all. That’s why veterans or QB’s would never even touch our balls. I don’t know what the rest of the paragraph was dealing with in the article. Weird (butter?)

Rugby – Rugby is really only popular oversees, not too much in the United States, plus they usually would rather play something they love and still be just as popular where they are at. I’ve seen a lot of former rugby players in the college ranks so we might see more in the NFL later who knowns, but usually soccer players are the pool the U.S. picks from so get used to it.

Barefoot – PURE, there was nothing pure about this, that just hurts. I’m sure most kickers saw the old timers kicking barefoot and tried it once to see what it’s like. Let me tell you what I found out, it is simply painful. Unless you hit the ball perfectly you could easily just kick your foot straight into the ground. Plus when it’s cold that’s really going to hurt. Also, there are no barefooters anymore because of the technology in shoes. Kickers really look for tight fitting shoes that have the least amount of material between the ball and the hard spot on their foot. Because of the advances in shoe wear there also isn’t any less compression loss compared with the older shoes. So these are the reasons you probably don’t see bare footers anymore.

Warmup Net – Well kickers both kick into the net and just kick the air to warm up. But an important part of kicking is making sure you hit the sweet spot. Also it keeps kickers warm since we are usually just sitting on the sidelines not doing anything. We use the net just to really go through the motion and get a feel for the ball. If you were at a golf course that had a net on each tee box wouldn’t you take a couple swings of the ball into the net just to warm up and make sure you are making good contact. I would.

It’s Good? – It’s called instant replay, but most of the trouble with seeing if it’s good usually is the angles because different angles make the appear like it’s good even though it’s way off. But usually instant replay resolves any controversy.

As an Australian working and living abroad, the drop and punt kick equals Aussie rules football. The punt kick was and still is a wow factor of our precious game. Now and then a kick from the center line can hit right between the three goals. Oh and how sweet that is seeing the oval ball flying through the sky!

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