Bones Used In Kicking A Football
I’m going to revisit a topic we first brought up in our blog back in December because I just had a student ask at a recent clinic AGAIN, what are the bones used in kicking a football?
Lots of students struggle with this concept when beginning to kick a football using the soccer style technique.
Most know enough to figure out that we aren’t using the very end of the foot as the old school toe ball kickers used to do. That style of kicking didn’t much use the foot at all, but relied heavily instead on the shoe itself. In fact, there were kicking shoes made especially for the toe ball kicker.
The soccer style technique doesn’t relay on a shoe at all. In fact, the soccer style kicker can kick a football with no shoe at all (see barefoot kicker). It all comes down to feel with the soccer style kicker. I’ve tried barefoot kicking and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy…it’s painful.
So, if we don’t rely on a certain type of ‘hard plastic’ on our kicking shoe with the soccer style kicking, what’s going on? What hard surface is making contact with the football while kicking the darn thing?
Bones Used In Kicking A Football: It’s All Navicular
The answer is a particular bone in the foot called the ‘navicular’ bone. Wikipedia describes this bone (which is more commonly known among horse lovers) in the following way. “The navicular bone is a small bone found in the feet of most mammals.”
In humans, the navicular is indeed small, but among the other small bones surrounding it, it’s actually quite large because it ‘pokes’ out a bit on your foot.
If you are wearing socks, you can actually reach down on the top of your foot and feel a ‘bump’ through the sock! That’s the navicular, and it’s one of the most misunderstood bones used in kicking a football given that it’s THE bone used in kicking a football!
Beginning kickers, GET TO KNOW WHERE YOUR NAVICULAR BONE IS. Know what it feels like when you strike the ball, because you should ‘feel’ the contact directly on this bone when kicking field goals.
Still have questions about kicking a football using the soccer style method? Looking to kick, kick off or punt the ball further and with more and more consistency? We continue to create lots of free content on fieldgoalkicker.com, but for our members we continue to create the most comprehensive library of training videos in the industry each month so JOIN TODAY!
Not only will we teach you more about the bones used in kicking a football, but we’ll guide you step by step through the entire kicking and punting process from A to Z.
