An (open) eye on the ball!

Further to our previous post focussing on Nick Riewoldt’s new goalkicking routine, we had the chance to watch him at fairly close quarters on Friday night — great effort, Bombers!. He only had one (or perhaps two?) set shots during the game, but we were watching closely during the Saints’ warmup before the game.

We think he’s basically on the right track, but the follow through action of the leg is somewhat exaggerated — as it would be for someone who is embracing a ‘non-natural’ action.

The additional area that might still need focus is to ensure that his eyes are actually open at the point of impact. We noted that the set shot taken during the game missed the target by a considerable distance.

To return to the golf analogy we used in the previous post, we find that we have an instinctive reaction to blink right at the point of impact of the golf clubhead and ball.

When we blink, our success rate is way less than 50%, however, when we can convince our eyes to stay open right through the impact, our success rate (the ball flying straight and true in the intended direction) is approaching 100%. It goes without saying that even this incentive does not keep our eyes open!!

We also made the point about open eyes to Matthew Knights last year when the Bombers had the ‘yips’ in front of goal.

There’s some pretty interesting research just waiting to be done here.

We’ll take a hefty punt that current Bomber and ex-Hawk, Mark Williams, renowned for his sharpshooting, has his eyes firmly open and on the ball as he kicks for goal.