Who bares the most blame?

[tiers 2,840]

I was once considered to be a very reliable shot for goal in my admittedly very, very low level suburban league team. I never trained goal kicking and took my kicks quickly in matches. I had a very simple kicking action - I was as good off 1-2 steps as off more. It's all in the balance at the point of kicking and the ball drop. 

I have watched goal kicking ever since with an interested eye and the standard of goal kicking has neither improved nor declined. The length of the run ups is irrelevant as the player needs to be balanced only at the point of kicking the ball. The ball drop is critical and that is the area in which I would focus the training.

The angle of the run up for a set shot can make a difference eg Maxie should always run out to the right and use his natural hook to kick straight (a la Buddy reversed). When he run straight in he hooks. Any coaching must address this issue and how to abandon the 30 second rule. If the technique is right, who needs 30 seconds to stuff a mouth guard in a sock or jocks.

So there are the key coaching principles - balance at the point of kicking, controlled ball drop and direction of run up. All can be readily  implemented in a coaching regime. Confidence will flow from adopting these principles.

One last comment - any player running free within 40m of goal should be encouraged and supported to shoot directly at the goals. Better to at least have a shot from a free position than to screw it up by short passing to a team mate in a worse position (recall how often this has happened and the opportunity for a score is lost).

[Coq au vin 755]

You mean who bears the most blame. Bare means naked or to expose, such as a bare bum or to bare one’s bum.