The Lindsay Gilbee Elite Kicking School was established in 2009 to provide additional kicking development for youth players aged 13-17. The program involves twelve hours of coaching and tuition over four sessions. Players are being coached on a variety of kicking techniques, using drills and coaching strategies used at AFL level.

AFL Victoria was able to provide two members of the 2009 Youth Girls Academy with the opportunity to fine tune their kicking skills in the first program. Representative players, Tess Butler and Nicola Stevens, are the first recipients of Lindsay Gilbee Elite Kicking School Youth Girls Academy scholarships. Below is a report from Nicola Stevens on her experience in the program.

By Nicola Steven (2009 Youth Girls Academy, Victoria)

Eight weeks ago, myself and Tess Butler were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to accept a scholarship to attend the Lindsay Gilbee elite performers kicking school. The program was open to both boys and girls aged 13-17, in the hope to improve the most important aspect of the game-kicking. Lindsay Gilbee, while playing for Western Bulldogs, along with various staff from the Western Bulldogs Football Club, have worked together to provide  their knowledge and skills of the game to us to help young emerging talents  understand the importance of executing the correct kicking technique.

At  the first training session, Tess Butler and I attended as representatives from the 2009 Youth Girls Academy. This was a daunting experience to begin with, although, we soon warmed up to the welcoming boys attending the program. The first session began with an introduction by Linsday Gilbee, followed by a warm up and video analysis of our kicking techniques. Individually, each member of the program was asked to kick with their  preferred foot and non-preferred foot, on the run and from a standing start. It was at  the next session that  we received feedback and were shown the parts of our technique that needed improvement. The majority of the group needed to improve on reducing the movement of the ball across the body while kicking on the run, having a firm foot on impact to gain more power in the kick and emphasising the non-guiding arm moving up, back and under to create more balance. The main focus of my technique was to strengthen my core stability to ensure my support leg doesn’t collapse on impact, more back extension in my leg to create more power and speed, and to finish in a forward position to enable the next stride to occur almost immediately.

The training drills  we performed were ones that Lindsay and his teammates do frequently at the elite level to maintain the correct execution of the kicking technique. One involved a player  receiving a handball from the coach, then running on and kicking at a hoop. We had to concentrate on executing the correct kicking technique, interpreting the information given to make a quick decision, and hitting the target. Although the main focus was to improve the technique on our preferred kicking leg, we were also given the opportunity to improve our technique on our non-preferred foot.

I really improved my technique as did others in the group.. Between each training session we were asked to keep a diary recording what types of kicks we practiced, how many times, and feedback from our partner. The kicks we  focused on  were kick to self both sides, long kick, pole kick, one step quick release, kick to advantage, decision making kick and the trajectory/weighted kick.

 I have noticed significant improvement in my kicking technique by attending the course and training in the correct technique. Being able to execute an effective  kick almost every time will subsequently allow me to become more consistent in my kicking ability and game skills overall. The skills that I have acquired will certainly be beneficial to myself and my teammates as I will be able to bring my knowledge of the game to another level to improve the fundamentals within our team. This opportunity myself and Tess Butler have been given is one definitely worthwhile and I have learnt things that I will remember throughout my football career.