How are you putting your kickers under pressure in training?
My camera roll is full of kicking clips at the minute. I film our kickers going through their process so they can review more than whether the ball went over.
The outcome matters, but it does not tell us everything. What did the player do before the kick? Did they rush their set-up? Did their breathing change? Was the process the same after a miss as it was after a successful kick?
Video gives the player something concrete to look at. It also helps move the conversation away from the coach simply telling them what happened.
One small change we have made is having balls ready as soon as the whistle goes. Before the kickers join the hot review, they have to take a kick at goal and a kick-off.
They have just finished the activity. They are breathing, everyone else is moving on and they do not get the perfect build-up to the kick.
It will never recreate the pressure of a match. There is no scoreboard, crowd or consequence attached to it. But standing in front of the posts, fresh and with as much time as they want probably does not tell us much either.
We are trying to see whether they can find their process when they are tired, rushed and their attention is somewhere else. Can they reset quickly? Can they control what they can control? Does the process hold up after a mistake or when the session has moved on without them?
Pressure does not always need to mean shouting, punishments or making a huge competition out of every kick. Sometimes it is a small change to when the skill happens and what the player has experienced immediately before it.
We are not trying to catch them failing. We are trying to help them recognise what they need when the conditions are not perfect.