Macquarie University Junior Pathways – Kicking Clinic Time!

After having a very successful Immersion Session run for their Junior Pathways clubs, Macquarie University AFC asked Kicking Dynamics to come along and provide a Kicking Clinic. While it may be late in the season, it’s never too late to practice your craft and Tim Schmidt was on hand to help guide the girls through his trademarked Kicking Basics, the fundamentals of the drop punt, and confidence in one handed drop.

The Mac Uni AFC Junior Pathway clubs, St Ives AFC and the Lane Cove Cats (LCC), were invited to attend, with the perfect sized small group in attendance. As always, Pathways is about inclusion and immersion so the LCC girls headed off to join the combined Men’s and Women’s warm up – a key and important introduction into the not so scary ‘big kids’ on the park, offering a safe environment for young adults to experience Seniors in their natural habitat.

Breakouts to Men’s and Ladies program time and so the Pathways girls were thrown into the deep end: Tim challenged the girls to kick flat and short, straight off the bat and as he watched he moved through the group and gave one on one advice, support and direction as he guided the whole group towards confidence in ‘quick hands to foot’ disposal practice.

Footy players come in all forms and on Tuesday night Tim found a challenge: a left footed right hander – how does a drop punt work when the dominant hand is on the opposite side to the dominant foot? “Simples”… Ask Tim.

This time around the Mac Uni AFC Female Program leads and Head Coaches (Smitty and Hicks) had Giants AFLW duties and could not attend. However, the Junior Pathways club ladies had a lesson in kicking, right before their finals tilt!

Mac Uni AFC offers a number of programs to its Junior Pathway Clubs and Schools. Its Prep4Prems Academy seeks to offer emerging junior athletes an opportunity to be fully engaged in Senior Men’s and Women’s AFL during the course of a season, learning what it needs to be committed to an Elite Pathway, if chosen.

The Junior Pathways Immersion Program seeks to offer all an experience of senior training, demystifying the daunting move from Junior to Senior Football. The Fundamentals and Basics program* has been designed to help boys and girls new to the sport, learn to protect themselves better when picking up ground balls and committing to a contest.

* this program is currently focused on the Independent Girls schools competition to help develop a common baseline for all Girls entering into contact (AFL) sport.

As the number of Girls and Boys moving into Senior AFL is particularly low across AFL Sydney and NSW in general, Mac Uni AFC are seeking to ensure that all Junior players are made aware of the many senior clubs available to them when they move out of the Junior Footy System, interstate or not.

Mac Uni AFC welcomes any Junior Club interested in offering these experiences to their own members but would encourage all players to explore the relationship with their assigned Senior Pathway club to try to further make AFL the sport of choice for young adults as they leave Junior Football.

**Mac Uni AFC would like to thank their very own AFLW Players Katherine Smith and Jodie Hicks in their tireless pursuit in developing not only Senior Women’s football at MUAFC but in growing Junior adoption of the sport as they progress into adulthood.**

MUAFC pathway clubs and Schools:

• Lane Cove Cats*
• North Ryde Dockers*
• Macquarie Junior Australian Football Club
• St Ives Australian Football Club*
• Loreto Normanhurst*
• Pymble Ladies College
• Ravenswood School for Girls*
• Redlands School*
• Brigidine College*

(Please Note: the * denotes a shared pathway relationship with another Senior Club)