I have spent several summers teaching kids with no previous experience how to kick. Without a doubt, the most successful approach is to keep things as simple as possible. For someone who has never kicked a football before, there are three basic principles to focus on:

Shoe Laces
The point on your foot where contact is made with the ball is critical...


Sweet Spot
Like the ideal point on your foot to make contact with the ball, there is also an ideal spot on a football to hit with your "shoe laces"...


Head Down
This is the last principle, but probably the most critical...

 

	The 'right art' cried the Master, is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.
	-- Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

Doug and Tommy's Frequently Asked Questions: "My kickoffs go to the 5-yard line from the 40, but I get massive height. I'm wondering how to lose a little height and get it into the end zone?" -- Click here to read our answer