Big Man Kicking Contest
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As someone who's played soccer his entire life, and has tried kicking field goals in Michigan's field house, it is amazing players just kicked dead on with their toe.
It I probably similar to when kids first playing soccer. I've coach U7-U12 and when players first start off they use their toe. More power and less technique needed. As they become more skilled though "soccer style" kicking is better in just about every way.
Was soccer such a foreign thing all of those decades ago that no one even thought to try to kick a football that way?
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That those using the old, straight-on technique look "funny" shows how much the kicking game changed in my lifetime.
Yep, you are old if you can remember that Pete Gogolak was the first soccer-style kicker to come into the league with the Bills near the end of the Jim Brown era-1964.
Of all places you would never expect, he was a Cornell grad.
Yep, you are old if you can remember that Pete Gogolak was the first soccer-style kicker to come into the league with the Bills near the end of the Jim Brown era-1964.
Of all places you would never expect, he was a Cornell grad.
I forgot about Gogolak.
I think it was Jan Stenerud that really got the attention for his long distance soccer style kicks back in the day.
At least he got my attention.
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Yup... and Moseley, who had a cup of coffee with us at career's end, was the last straight-on...
Can't believe that was almost 30 years ago.
Yup... and Moseley, who had a cup of coffee with us at career's end, was the last straight-on...
Can't believe that was almost 30 years ago.
Au contraire-just give this boy a shot! He's had 3 years since to perfect it.
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As someone who's played soccer his entire life, and has tried kicking field goals in Michigan's field house, it is amazing players just kicked dead on with their toe.
It I probably similar to when kids first playing soccer. I've coach U7-U12 and when players first start off they use their toe. More power and less technique needed. As they become more skilled though "soccer style" kicking is better in just about every way.
Was soccer such a foreign thing all of those decades ago that no one even thought to try to kick a football that way?
Was soccer such a foreign thing all of those decades ago that no one even thought to try to kick a football that way?
Who knows? Maybe it was the shape of the ball. I well remember the days when ALL kickers were straight on & thought the soccer style kickers looked weird, thought more kicks would get blocked, more wind effect, etc, etc......Boy, was I wrong!!!
BTW, how about Shelton's follow through on his attempt? I love the way the kid does stuff...all in, all the time!
Mike
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That those using the old, straight-on technique look "funny" shows how much the kicking game changed in my lifetime.
Yep, you are old if you can remember that Pete Gogolak was the first soccer-style kicker to come into the league with the Bills near the end of the Jim Brown era-1964.
Of all places you would never expect, he was a Cornell grad.
Yep, you are old if you can remember that Pete Gogolak was the first soccer-style kicker to come into the league with the Bills near the end of the Jim Brown era-1964.
Of all places you would never expect, he was a Cornell grad.
And I go to his alma mater on Friday!
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As someone who's played soccer his entire life, and has tried kicking field goals in Michigan's field house, it is amazing players just kicked dead on with their toe.
It I probably similar to when kids first playing soccer. I've coach U7-U12 and when players first start off they use their toe. More power and less technique needed. As they become more skilled though "soccer style" kicking is better in just about every way.
Was soccer such a foreign thing all of those decades ago that no one even thought to try to kick a football that way?
As someone who's played soccer his entire life, and has tried kicking field goals in Michigan's field house, it is amazing players just kicked dead on with their toe.
It I probably similar to when kids first playing soccer. I've coach U7-U12 and when players first start off they use their toe. More power and less technique needed. As they become more skilled though "soccer style" kicking is better in just about every way.
Was soccer such a foreign thing all of those decades ago that no one even thought to try to kick a football that way?
Yes, it was. No one played soccer. High schools didn't have it. I don't think colleges had it until the 60s...and only then it was popular at unknown schools. Here is a link. I see that the NCAA only started soccer championships in 1959.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_Men%27s_Soccer_Championship
And see this: it appears that Ohio High Schools didn't have a championship tournament until 1999:
http://ohsaa.org/sports/so/boys/pastresults.htm
Err...yea, I didn't think that was right. Maybe that is just DVD availability. Here is the actual list. Soccer tournament was not held in Ohio until 1975:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ohio_High_School_Athletic_Association_championships
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People were aware of other countries though, right? Any of those countries could have suggested the best way to kick a ball
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People were aware of other countries though, right? Any of those countries could have suggested the best way to kick a ball
People were aware of other countries though, right? Any of those countries could have suggested the best way to kick a ball
Nobody saw much of nor cared about what people did in sports in other countries that much.....except when they had the Olympics. Remember, they didn't have the kind of satellite TV broadcasting then they had now. You never saw sports in other countries except in the Olympics and sometimes on the Wide Wide World of Sports.
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It really started because college and HS teams started recruiting soccer players to kick....then they did well and evolved to the NFL...
I dont think there was ever an intentional change of style, just a change in how younger players learned to kick(soccer)
and now, so many kids play soccer, its just evolved to be the way to kick.....
I do think the toe gets you more distance, but less control......those special square shoes they used to wear added a lil too....
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The toe doesn't get more distance. If it did, players would take some kicks in soccer with their toe. No one does. It only gets more distance if you don't have the correct, soccer style technique down. Kicking with your toe messes up the natural swing of your leg and your run up. It also is bad for the health of your foot.
There had to be people living in the US from another country that knew about soccer and watched a football game. I'm guessing the Americans just said "What do you know about kicking? This is a man's game! Unlike your pansy soccer!" and ignored the suggestion. I bet you could have closed your eyes, grabbed a player off of an EPL league, and found a better FG kicker (after some practice) than the majority of FG kickers at the time.
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The toe doesn't get more distance. If it did, players would take some kicks in soccer with their toe. No one does. It only gets more distance if you don't have the correct, soccer style technique down. Kicking with your toe messes up the natural swing of your leg and your run up. It also is bad for the health of your foot.
There had to be people living in the US from another country that knew about soccer and watched a football game. I'm guessing the Americans just said "What do you know about kicking? This is a man's game! Unlike your pansy soccer!" and ignored the suggestion. I bet you could have closed your eyes, grabbed a player off of an EPL league, and found a better FG kicker (after some practice) than the majority of FG kickers at the time.
The toe doesn't get more distance. If it did, players would take some kicks in soccer with their toe. No one does. It only gets more distance if you don't have the correct, soccer style technique down. Kicking with your toe messes up the natural swing of your leg and your run up. It also is bad for the health of your foot.
There had to be people living in the US from another country that knew about soccer and watched a football game. I'm guessing the Americans just said "What do you know about kicking? This is a man's game! Unlike your pansy soccer!" and ignored the suggestion. I bet you could have closed your eyes, grabbed a player off of an EPL league, and found a better FG kicker (after some practice) than the majority of FG kickers at the time.
Did you read what I said? NO, there was no one prior to the 60s here to teach soccer style kicking. Even European and South American soccer players often used the toe kick when playing rather than the instep kick.
There was no cable TV in the 50s/60s. No satellite TV. No cell phones. No video games. No computers. No soccer style kickers
You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
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The toe doesn't get more distance. If it did, players would take some kicks in soccer with their toe. No one does. It only gets more distance if you don't have the correct, soccer style technique down. Kicking with your toe messes up the natural swing of your leg and your run up. It also is bad for the health of your foot.
There had to be people living in the US from another country that knew about soccer and watched a football game. I'm guessing the Americans just said "What do you know about kicking? This is a man's game! Unlike your pansy soccer!" and ignored the suggestion. I bet you could have closed your eyes, grabbed a player off of an EPL league, and found a better FG kicker (after some practice) than the majority of FG kickers at the time.
Did you read what I said? NO, there was no one prior to the 60s here to teach soccer style kicking. Even European and South American soccer players often used the toe kick when playing rather than the instep kick.
There was no cable TV in the 50s/60s. No satellite TV. No cell phones. No video games. No computers. No soccer style kickers
You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
Also... Lou "The Instep" just doesn't have the same panache...
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You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
Also... Lou "The Instep" just doesn't have the same panache...
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What am I supposed to be noticing here? I watched that and saw plenty of soccer style kicks, but no apparent toe kicking...
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The toe doesn't get more distance. If it did, players would take some kicks in soccer with their toe. No one does. It only gets more distance if you don't have the correct, soccer style technique down. Kicking with your toe messes up the natural swing of your leg and your run up. It also is bad for the health of your foot.
There had to be people living in the US from another country that knew about soccer and watched a football game. I'm guessing the Americans just said "What do you know about kicking? This is a man's game! Unlike your pansy soccer!" and ignored the suggestion. I bet you could have closed your eyes, grabbed a player off of an EPL league, and found a better FG kicker (after some practice) than the majority of FG kickers at the time.
Did you read what I said? NO, there was no one prior to the 60s here to teach soccer style kicking. Even European and South American soccer players often used the toe kick when playing rather than the instep kick.
There was no cable TV in the 50s/60s. No satellite TV. No cell phones. No video games. No computers. No soccer style kickers
You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
Did you read what I said? NO, there was no one prior to the 60s here to teach soccer style kicking. Even European and South American soccer players often used the toe kick when playing rather than the instep kick.
There was no cable TV in the 50s/60s. No satellite TV. No cell phones. No video games. No computers. No soccer style kickers
You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
I was replying to Mudfly, not you...
Yes, a toe kick as a shot can make sense now and then. It all depends on the situation. You will for a fact though have LESS power and LESS accuracy than if you were to use an instep kick.
Here is footage from 1901 showing a match, and some goal kicks with the instep style kick. Watch the dribbling, passing, shooting, and most importantly, the goal kicks.
I understand many of the methods of communication used today were not around then. But people were coming over from Europe to the US, correct? These people carrying knowledge of a sport called soccer? Knowledge on how to kick a ball, possible that they could have shared with people kicking field goals? That was the point.
Maybe someone more informed on the history of soccer could fill me in, but was there ever a time when everyone went around kicking with their toes? And if so, when did the switch to more "modern" style kicking happen?
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Did you read what I said? NO, there was no one prior to the 60s here to teach soccer style kicking. Even European and South American soccer players often used the toe kick when playing rather than the instep kick.
There was no cable TV in the 50s/60s. No satellite TV. No cell phones. No video games. No computers. No soccer style kickers
You want to make a call....use a land line or pay phone. You want some information? Go to the library and look it up. You want to kick a football....even a soccer ball? You do it with your toe.
I was replying to Mudfly, not you...
Yes, a toe kick as a shot can make sense now and then. It all depends on the situation. You will for a fact though have LESS power and LESS accuracy than if you were to use an instep kick.
Here is footage from 1901 showing a match, and some goal kicks with the instep style kick. Watch the dribbling, passing, shooting, and most importantly, the goal kicks.
I understand many of the methods of communication used today were not around then. But people were coming over from Europe to the US, correct? These people carrying knowledge of a sport called soccer? Knowledge on how to kick a ball, possible that they could have shared with people kicking field goals? That was the point.
Maybe someone more informed on the history of soccer could fill me in, but was there ever a time when everyone went around kicking with their toes? And if so, when did the switch to more "modern" style kicking happen?
I was replying to Mudfly, not you...
Yes, a toe kick as a shot can make sense now and then. It all depends on the situation. You will for a fact though have LESS power and LESS accuracy than if you were to use an instep kick.
Here is footage from 1901 showing a match, and some goal kicks with the instep style kick. Watch the dribbling, passing, shooting, and most importantly, the goal kicks.
I understand many of the methods of communication used today were not around then. But people were coming over from Europe to the US, correct? These people carrying knowledge of a sport called soccer? Knowledge on how to kick a ball, possible that they could have shared with people kicking field goals? That was the point.
Maybe someone more informed on the history of soccer could fill me in, but was there ever a time when everyone went around kicking with their toes? And if so, when did the switch to more "modern" style kicking happen?
Really? Have you read this thread? Instep kicking started with Gogolak in the NFL in the 60s. In fact, I think the Gogolak brothers were the first to do it in college in the 60s. That is when it started.
People were coming over from Europe before that, sure. War brides like my mom. Regugees.....but not soccer kickers....because no one cared about soccer or played soccer here until then.
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