So you play football? “Yes.” What position? “Kicker.” So you must of played soccer growing up, right?
This is how the conversation usually begins when getting asked what position I play in football. A simple question, followed by another, followed by the speculation of being an ex-soccer player. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just a never ending continuous script that becomes a routine.
Yes, most kickers used to be soccer players. In fact, the majority of kickers come from a background of playing soccer at a young age. Many successful kickers can relate to soccer being the reason they even thought about kicking a football, those kickers include :Justin Tucker, Dan Bailey, and Adam Vinatieri (some of the current best kickers in the NFL).1
It’s no mistake that soccer has proved to enhance athletic ability for not just kicker but for any athlete from any sport. Majority of professional athletes played soccer at one point in their early lives. Soccer is known to activate balance, feet coordination that improves overall mobility, awareness, endurance, etc. Soccer is just a sport that uses all parts of the body and if young athletes begin with soccer, all other sports become easier to play.
Soccer is arguably the most popular sport in the world, maybe not in the United States but when it comes to international popularity, soccer or futbol wins. It is a sport that anyone can play at anytime. It is available and understood in any part of the world. When it comes to the sport that develops feet athleticism soccer is the answer, and therefore kicking a football relates to it. Like I have said before- kicking a football and a soccer ball are different actions but if you can kick a soccer ball with great technique and power, it can easily be transferred into a football.
So it isn’t a bad thing to relate soccer to kickers, because they are in the same sport action family. This has become a known fact and a general public expectation that kicker used to be soccer players. Rightfully so.
1Lemire, J. (2014, December 25). NFL kickers attribute soccer to help their game. Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/nfl-kickers-attribute-soccer-to-help-their-game/article22210228/
My brother is a football kicker and he ALWAYS deals with this. Granted, he actually was a soccer player for the longest time, but he always speaks of how people assume that kickers are almost always ex soccer players. I think he has also talked about how soccer has helped his kicking abilities which as you mentioned in your article, makes sense. Great article
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