My Left Foot

Well not really MY left foot. I’m talking about the amount of IC players that are “one-footed”. The main example I’ll use is Colm Anthony McFadden from my own fair county. A fine player when on form (his father was a right tough man too) but totally incapable of using his right (weaker) foot. You see it all too often across all counties. A player is perhaps being forced backwards and all he needs to do is pop a short kick pass to a colleague using his weaker foot and everything is hunk-dory, but no! We get shimmys and shakes and fakes until the player either loses the ball or manages to get onto his stronger foot.
In this day and age how is that possible? Getting back to McFadden, defenders marking him know that all they need to do is force his to his weaker foot and they have significantly curtailed his game.
At the other extreme you have Stephen O’Neill who is totally comfortable kicking long-range points with either foot. Now I’m not expecting that every player should be like SON, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that any player would be able to give an accurate 20 yard pass off either foot.

great thread i am a right footer but when playin underage with the county we worked hard on improving our weaker foot and we got a lesson off mattie forde and darragh 'foxy' breen two great players who had no problem kicking with both feet it was something we carried with us all through minor and put us a step ahead off teams who had been our rivals wicklow carlow offaly teams that beat us by 4or5 points on each occasion till we improved our weaker foot at u16 and at u17u18 and 21s we beat them by this margin. I now solo with either foot naturally {a great help change according to which shoulder your man is on trying to get the ball out of your possession} and when kicking a point am much more accurate off my left i just wouldnt have the same distance or power as my right? So no reason why a county player csnt teach himself to kick at least mediocre off his weaker foot???

great thread,

was right footed only untill i was U16 started to work on my left foot then when i was with the county, my dad came up with a great idea which was when i was at home messing around with the ball to put a welly on my right foot, a football boot on my lefr and then play i only used my left foot for ages, now i can use either makes no difference both out of my hands and off the ground

there is a great quote from i think it was brett farve,
most people throw a ball 100 times and get bored, i throw the ball 1000 times and never get bored"

BASICALLLY PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

it is amazing to see how many top footballers cant use their weaker side - its now one of the first things i would coach to youngsters.

I was very fortunate that as a youngster growing up i was able to use both feet equally well, i was born naturally right footed but i have to say i can kick a ball further with my left now. It was great at u14 u16 level - defenders thought they had you in a tight spot and then i'd knock one over with my left or make a decent pass with my left. Ah those were the days.

I did find it very difficult to kick with lefty!! But i have practised and now it's stronger, but my right foot is still the stongest. Richy, thanks for that tip, I'll go out the back later, put on a welly and a footy boot and see how it goes!! I hope the neighbours dont see

Yeah it's amazing how many intercounty players can't use their weaker foot, even if it's not as accurate as their main one they should still be able to use it when needed. Forwards especially, there is that much analysis and preparation done ahead of games nowadays that if a forward is extremely one-footed, he'll not have much chance as the defender knows exactly where to push him. These days it really should be standard for inter-county forwards to be able to pop the ball over the bar on either foot, within reasonable distance.

Ya i think that its vital for an intercounty player to be able to kick well with both feet. Otherwise theres not much chance of him beating his/her defender