Where is kicking?

One of the new elements in the international women’s game is the increase in kicking.  At the Nations Cup there was a game that had over 50 kicks in the game.  This is a natural evolution of the game as defenses become more effective field position is more important. However in the domestic game there is still very little tactical kicking.  With a generation of rugby players in the US who grew up playing soccer, the fundamental skills are there, so the question is “Where is kicking” in the US women’s game?

There are three potential answers to this question; technical, tactical and tradition.  The tradition one is really about change.  The coaches or players are not adapting and still playing the same style or approach that they always have.  This can be difficult to over come.  The tactical question is more interesting.  Some teams at NASCs seemed to determine that keeping possession of the ball was more important than gaining territory – even when they were in their own 22.  Both SoCal and MARFU consistently tried to play the ball out of their 22 at NASCs and suffered because of it.  Perhaps they feel that defenses are not good enough to hold them back, but you need to have an extremely high level of execution to be able to make that work.

Both the traditional and tactical challenges are relatively easy to change.  The technical question is perhaps more difficult.  While there are now many women who grew up playing soccer in the game, the technical level of kicking is actually very poor.  Kicking execution is poor and along with hooker throwing the most poorly executed individual skills.  The WNT is going to begin to build some expertise in kicking with the appointment of a kicking coach who will begin to share some the basic fundamentals to improve the technical aspect of the game.

Ironically the challenges we have in hooker throwing should encourage more kicking.  With a good kicker, and a good defensive line out, teams could kick the ball out safe in the knowledge that they would have a 50-50 chance of winning the ball back.

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