How hard is placekicking?

[ThaHero]

In my struggles to make money(fu 25NL), I realized I had strong legs.

Since high school, the girls have praised my strong, athletic, powerful legs; since I was wearing baseball pants. My buttocks were a main attraction too. We had to go to my small school in our uniforms.

Either way, I had a LOT of power playing baseball. I was 5'7" and a half, and routinely hit balls off the fence, and home runs during games. I attribute that to my trunk. Not "trunk", but trunk as in abdomen, back, and thighs.

Recently, I thought, I can [censored] kick! These guys miss all these field goals. I can at LEAST miss as many as them! I never played soccer, but I was always the first or second pick in kickball. I once did a leg press of 800 lbs. when I was in shape.

My question- How hard would it be for me to become a placekicker in the NFL? Possibly starting in the AFL. The league minimum is more than 5% of the American public. If I trained rigorously, and got a tryout(I have connections in the sports world), could I at least make the practice team before the season starts? I've never kicked a field goal in my life, and I kicked a couple kickoffs in pop warner.

[Needle77]

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Recently, I thought, I can [censored] kick! These guys miss all these field goals. I can at LEAST miss as many as them! I never played soccer, but I was always the first or second pick in kickball. I once did a leg press of 800 lbs. when I was in shape.

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I squat 525. I kick the ball possibly 25-30 yards on a good day.

Our kicker at Kutztown squats about 185, maybe 225. He routinely kicks at least 55 yards.

It's only one instance but I don't think strength in your legs mean anything. I believe it's all technique.

As for as making an AFL squad, having never kicked before I would say that it's as close to 0% as one could get. But who knows.

[ajml]

Im guessing pretty [censored] hard considering the NFL can't find 30 good ones out of the whole world

[JordanIB]

Hard. Really hard.

30 yards is a chip shot. And then you walk onto a football field and try to kick a ball from 30 yards through uprights and realize, "[censored], this is really [censored] hard."

[Kneel B4 Zod]

I kicked and punted in high school. it's really not about pure strength as much as it's about perfect technique, flexibility, and speed through the ball.

in my time punting, I got off only a few perfect punts, which was a perfect spiral + lots of force. It went probably 70 yards in the air. if you get a perfect spiral, you don't even need to kick the ball hard. I could hit the ball 35-40 yards with a 50% swing a lot of the time. but, this is in practice, with lots of time.

placekicking is largely about hitting the ball right. look at soccer players. they rarely look like weighlifters, they can just kick through the ball with great speed and at the right spot. I do think there are literally hundreds and hundreds of players in pro European soccer who could be (easily) trained to be NFL kickers or punters. but these are all incredible athletes who happen to have the right body/skills.

like w/ punting, placekicking is a whole lot easier in practice when you are not as rushed, less pressure, etc.

(for perspective for the OP, I did play soccer growing up, and always had the strongest or 2nd strongest leg on the team. I quit in 8th grade to play football)

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placekicking is largely about hitting the ball right. look at soccer players. they rarely look like weighlifters, they can just kick through the ball with great speed and at the right spot. I do think there are literally hundreds and hundreds of players in pro European soccer who could be (easily) trained to be NFL kickers or punters. but these are all incredible athletes who happen to have the right body/skills.



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He was probably exaggerating somewhat but Morten Andersen claimed in a danish interview that most soccer players here on a reasonable high level could become really good kickers.

But I mean it can't be that easy or simple can it? It's not like decent american soccer players are worse than decent european or south american ones AND you make a lot more as an nfl kicker than as an american soccer player. You would think then the market would be flooded with ordinary soccer players turned into or trying to turn into great kickers.
Maybe it is??
This is one subject I don't know a whole lot about really. After he has become well known here I've heard at least the first ten of my soccer playing friends claim they could probably do what he does....

[sixfour]

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I do think there are literally hundreds and hundreds of players in pro European soccer who could be (easily) trained to be NFL kickers or punters.

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Probably rugby would be a better example, as they actually do things more comparable. Gavin Hastings (ex-Scotland captain) kicked in NFL Europe for a season.

[HajiShirazu]

OP have you ever kicked a football? If so you wouldn't be asking. That [censored] is impossible. NFL kickers are at least as good compared to the average guy as the other positions in the league.

[ThaHero]

Could you have kicked in college? Is punting any easier? [censored] I should have just stuck to baseball.

[kyleb]

I kicked place and punt in high school, and played GK in soccer, so I had a lot of cross-sport specific training.

My long was 48, which was only attempted because the team was up by 35 or some crap. My PAT % was around 80% which was fairly standard, especially since we ran 2pt conversion for the most part.

The real strength I had was in punting - I could boot the [censored] out of the ball from anywhere. However, accuracy is much more important, and I didn't really have much of that.

In short, there's no way you would make it, considering kicking in the AFL is like twice as hard as the NFL probably.