A Parent’s Guide to Supporting a Young Kicker
Your child plays the only position in football where a single mistake is replayed, discussed and remembered — and where the coaching staff often has nobody qualified to help them fix it.
Here is what makes kicking different from a parent’s point of view. Most positions are absorbed into a unit. A lineman has a bad play and it is one of sixty. A kicker has a bad moment and it is the scoreboard, in front of everyone, with a stoppage in play so that the whole ground can watch them walk off.
Add to that a position most football coaches genuinely cannot coach, an equipment market full of things that are not necessary, and a camp industry selling exposure to teenagers, and it becomes a role where informed parental support is worth a great deal.
This guide covers what actually helps, what to say after a miss, how to spend money sensibly, when to seek outside coaching, and the warning signs worth taking seriously — written for the person driving to the field rather than the one kicking.
📋 What’s in this guide
Why Kicking Is Different
Understanding the shape of the position explains most of what your child experiences.
The scrutiny is unusually concentrated. A kicker might touch the ball four times in a game. Each touch has a binary, public, scoreboard-changing outcome. There is no averaging out across sixty plays.
The reward structure is lopsided. Make an extra point and nobody mentions it. Miss one and it is the story. Kickers learn young that the best available outcome for much of their work is silence.
They are often coached by nobody. Most football coaching staff have no specialist kicking background. A young kicker frequently trains alone, with feedback limited to whether the ball went in.
They are physically separate. Specialists often train apart from the team, which can be socially isolating in a sport built around collective identity.
And the fixable problems are invisible. The faults that ruin kicks — plant foot position, approach path — cannot be felt by the kicker or spotted by an untrained eye. Our plant foot guide explains why.
The position asks a teenager to perform a precise skill under concentrated public pressure, frequently without qualified instruction. Knowing that is most of what makes a parent useful.
What Actually Helps
Ranked roughly by value, and the top of the list is cheaper than the bottom.
| What you can do | Value | Cost | Why it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Being consistent regardless of results | Highest | None | Removes performance from your relationship |
| Providing transport and time | Very high | Time | Practice access is the main constraint on most kickers |
| Filming from behind on the target line | Very high | Near zero | It is the only diagnostic tool a solo kicker has |
| Buying cones, a net and a tripod | High | Low | Unlocks the drills that fix the biggest faults |
| Protecting rest and sleep | High | None | The largest recovery lever available |
| One good coaching session | High | Moderate | Qualified eyes on faults nobody else can see |
| Asking about the process, not the result | High | None | Reinforces what they actually control |
| Advocating on logistics with the school | Moderate to high | Time | Equipment fit, facilities, practice access |
| Buying more expensive equipment | Low | High | Rarely the constraint |
| Paying for exposure showcases early | Low or negative | High | Measures a problem it does not solve |
Notice how the table sorts. Almost everything at the top is free or cheap and involves your time and attention. Almost everything at the bottom involves money. That is not a coincidence — the binding constraint on a young kicker is very rarely equipment and very often access, feedback and a steady environment.
What to Say After a Miss
The moment parents most want guidance on, and the one where instinct is least reliable.
Say very little immediately. The car journey home after a missed kick is not a coaching opportunity. It is a recovery period. “Tough one. I’m glad I was there” is usually enough.
Do not analyse the technique. Unless you are a qualified kicking coach, technical commentary from a parent after a miss lands as criticism regardless of intent — and is usually wrong, because the actual fault was invisible.
Do not tell them it did not matter. It did matter, they know it did, and denying it makes you someone they cannot talk honestly to.
Do not compare. Not to other kickers, not to themselves last week, not to professionals.
Let them raise it if they want to. Many will, hours later, when they have processed it. Being available then is worth more than being insightful immediately.
Return to normal quickly. The single most useful signal you can send is that dinner, conversation and family life are exactly the same after a miss as after a make.
And if they want to talk technically, redirect it to their process. “What did your routine feel like?” or “Have you filmed it?” points toward things they control.
💡 Decide your after-game behaviour in advance and keep it identical. Children read the difference between how you are after a good game and a bad one far more accurately than they read anything you say. If your body language, your questions and your mood are the same either way, you have removed a source of pressure they cannot otherwise escape. That consistency is genuinely the highest-value thing on this page.
Spending Money Sensibly
The kicking market contains a lot of things that are not necessary and a few that genuinely are.
Start with almost nothing. Cones, a ball, and a phone tripod cover the highest-value drills in kicking. That is a very small amount of money and it addresses the faults that matter most.
Add a net when practice access is the constraint. A net removes the dependency on a booked field and roughly doubles the reps available per hour. For most young kickers this is the single best purchase.
Buy footwear on fit, not price. The kicking shoe is the only equipment that touches the ball, and a well-fitting mid-range shoe beats an expensive poorly-fitting one.
Be sceptical of anything promising outcomes. Guaranteed exposure, promised college contact, or rankings that improve with repeat paid attendance are promises about other people’s decisions that nobody can make.
Prefer coaching over events. One or two sessions with a genuinely qualified coach usually produces more improvement than a weekend showcase, and often costs less.
Do not solve a coaching problem with equipment. A more expensive tee does not fix a plant foot fault.
When to Seek Outside Coaching
Often the highest-value spend, and worth timing well.
The signal is a plateau or a persistent fault. If they have been stuck for months, or missing consistently in the same direction, that is a specific problem a qualified coach can usually identify quickly.
A consistent miss direction is the clearest indicator. Most misses going the same way almost always means a mechanical fault rather than a confidence problem — and it is exactly what an untrained eye cannot diagnose.
Ask about the coach’s background and the ratio. Named coaches with real kicking experience, and a coach-to-kicker ratio you are told as a number rather than reassured about. Our camps guide covers what to ask before paying.
Understand the difference between instruction and evaluation. A camp is trying to teach; a showcase is trying to rank. If your child is still developing technically, buy teaching.
Set expectations about the dip. A genuine mechanical correction makes performance temporarily worse. Knowing that in advance stops a family concluding the money was wasted after two bad sessions.
Judge it at eight weeks. Not on the Sunday evening. Everyone feels good after a weekend of attention.
Load, Growth and Injury
The area where a parent’s perspective is genuinely valuable, because young athletes are poor judges of it.
Kicking volume is the main risk. Not contact. Hip flexor and adductor problems come from accumulated repetitions, and enthusiastic young kickers routinely take far more than is sensible.
Watch for the enthusiasm trap. A teenager who has just discovered they are good at something will kick two hundred balls on a Saturday. That is exactly how a groin problem starts.
Growth periods deserve extra care. Adolescents going through growth spurts can be more vulnerable to certain overuse problems, and coordination often temporarily regresses. A sudden dip in performance during a growth period is frequently physical rather than psychological.
Take persistent groin or hip pain seriously. Especially if it recurs. That belongs with a doctor or physiotherapist rather than being trained through.
Protect sleep above almost everything else. It is the largest recovery input available and the one most easily lost to school, screens and scheduling.
Watch the multi-sport total. If they also play soccer, two coaches each see half the week and nobody sees the whole load. Our multi-sport guide covers managing it.
⚠️ This guide is general information, not medical advice. Persistent pain, recurring injury, any head impact, or concerns about growth and development belong with a doctor, physiotherapist or qualified sports medicine professional who can assess your child individually. Do not let a season’s schedule delay that.
Equipment Worth Buying
💰 On prices and ratings: we do not print them — both change constantly and stale figures mislead. Each button opens live Amazon results for current pricing, availability and genuine buyer reviews.
Training Cones
The Cheapest Thing That Actually Works
A cone marking where the plant foot should land unlocks the highest-value drill in kicking — and it addresses the fault behind more missed kicks than anything else. If you buy one thing, buy this.
✅ What’s good
- Targets the biggest fault directly
- Works with no field and no ball
- Trivially cheap
- Packs completely flat
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Utterly unglamorous
- Light cones move in wind
👤 Best for: Every young kicker. Start here before anything else.
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Phone Tripod
The Only Feedback They Have
Kicking faults are invisible to the kicker and to an untrained eye. A tripod behind the plant foot turns an unsolvable problem into a visible one — and gives a coach something concrete to look at.
✅ What’s good
- Makes invisible faults visible
- Useful evidence for any coach
- No helper needed
- Cheap
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Needs stable ground
- Requires a consistent position
👤 Best for: Any kicker training without qualified supervision — which is most of them.
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Football Kicking Net
Solving the Access Problem
For most young kickers the limiting factor is not talent or equipment — it is how often they can actually practise. A net removes the need for a booked field and someone to fetch balls.
✅ What’s good
- Roughly doubles usable reps per hour
- Works in a garden or park
- No helper required
- Folds for storage
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Needs space
- No accuracy feedback
👤 Best for: Families where getting to a proper field is the main obstacle.
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Soccer Cleats
Buy on Fit, Not on Price
The kicking shoe is the only equipment that touches the ball. A well-fitting mid-range pair beats an expensive poorly-fitting one every time, and growing feet mean this is a recurring rather than a one-off purchase.
✅ What’s good
- Consistent contact feel
- Wide range of sizes and prices
- Same footwear any kicker uses
- Durable
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Sizing varies between brands
- Needs replacing as they grow
👤 Best for: Every kicker. Check the fit each season rather than assuming.
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Footballs (Practice Set)
Fewer Trips, More Kicks
Practising with one ball means most of the session is walking. Several balls turns the same hour into meaningfully more repetitions, which is where improvement actually comes from.
✅ What’s good
- Substantially more reps per hour
- Keeps rhythm and focus
- Long lifespan
- Shared use
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Bulky to transport
- Needs periodic inflation checks
👤 Best for: Anyone whose child currently practises with one or two balls.
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Training Log
Making Progress Visible
Young athletes judge themselves on their last session. A simple record of makes, miss directions and volume shows genuine progress over months and catches overload before it becomes an injury.
✅ What’s good
- Shows real progress over time
- Flags excessive volume early
- Cheap and simple
- Useful for any coach they see
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Requires the habit
- Needs gentle encouragement, not enforcement
👤 Best for: Families wanting to replace feelings about progress with evidence.
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The Recruiting Conversation
Worth handling calmly, because this is where families spend the most money and experience the most disappointment.
Be realistic without being discouraging. Very few kickers play at the highest levels, and most who play college football are not on full scholarships. Both of those facts can be said kindly and are better said early.
Development comes before exposure. Paying for evaluation before there is something worth evaluating is the most common way money gets wasted in this space.
No camp controls recruitment. Guarantees of exposure or scholarship outcomes are promises about other people’s decisions.
Academics matter enormously. They widen the range of programmes available and they matter far longer than kicking will.
Walk-on routes are real and common for kickers. Understanding the difference between a walk-on and a preferred walk-on prevents misreading what a programme is actually offering. Our recruiting guide covers the pathways.
Keep the identity broader than the position. The kickers who cope best with the pressure of the role are consistently the ones for whom it is not the only thing they are.
Common Mistakes
❌ 1. Analysing technique after a miss
Lands as criticism regardless of intent, and is usually wrong because the real fault was invisible.
✅ Fix: Say little, return to normal quickly, let them raise it later.
❌ 2. Behaving differently after good and bad games
Children read this far more accurately than anything you say.
✅ Fix: Decide your after-game behaviour in advance and keep it identical.
❌ 3. Buying equipment to solve a coaching problem
A better tee does not fix a plant foot fault.
✅ Fix: Cones, a tripod and one qualified session beat expensive gear.
❌ 4. Paying for exposure too early
Evaluation before development measures a problem it will not solve, and a poor ranking is not neutral.
✅ Fix: Buy teaching first. Evaluation once there is something to evaluate.
❌ 5. Ignoring kicking volume
Enthusiastic young kickers take far more repetitions than is sensible, and hip and groin problems follow.
✅ Fix: Track the count and encourage rest days as normal rather than as a concession.
❌ 6. Training through persistent groin or hip pain
Recurring pain in that area is a signal, not an inconvenience.
✅ Fix: Get it assessed by a qualified professional promptly.
❌ 7. Letting the position become their whole identity
It makes every miss existential in a role where misses are guaranteed.
✅ Fix: Keep other interests genuinely alive, and talk about them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I say to my child after they miss a kick?
Very little, immediately. Something brief and warm — that you are glad you were there — and then return to normal conversation. The journey home is a recovery period, not a coaching opportunity.
Avoid analysing the technique, avoid telling them it did not matter, and avoid comparisons. Let them raise it later if they want to; many will, once they have processed it.
What equipment does a young kicker actually need?
Very little to start: cones, a ball or two, and a phone tripod. That covers the highest-value drills in kicking for a small amount of money.
A kicking net is the best next purchase because it solves practice access, which is the real constraint for most young kickers. Buy footwear on fit rather than price.
Should I pay for a kicking camp or private coaching?
Often yes, and coaching usually beats events. Most football coaching staff cannot coach kicking, so a session with a genuinely qualified coach may be the only expert assessment your child gets in a year.
Ask for named coaches and a specific coach-to-kicker ratio, and distinguish instruction from evaluation. If they are still developing technically, buy teaching rather than a showcase.
How much should a young kicker practise?
Less than an enthusiastic teenager will want to. Kicking injuries come mainly from accumulated repetitions rather than contact, and hip and adductor problems build quietly over weeks.
Track the kick count, keep genuine rest days, and treat rest as normal rather than as something to be earned. Extra care is warranted during growth periods.
How do I know if my child needs a coach or just more practice?
Look at whether the misses have a pattern. Most misses going the same direction almost always indicates a mechanical fault — usually at the plant foot — rather than a lack of practice or confidence.
That is exactly the kind of fault an untrained eye cannot see, so it is the clearest signal that qualified coaching would help. Filming from directly behind gives a coach something concrete to work with.
How realistic is a college scholarship for a kicker?
Worth being honest about early. Very few kickers play at the highest levels, and many who do play college football are walk-ons or preferred walk-ons rather than full scholarship athletes.
Development comes before exposure, no camp controls recruitment regardless of what it promises, and academics widen the range of options considerably.
What They Hear Versus What You Meant
Parents rarely say anything unkind after a bad game. The difficulty is that well-intentioned remarks land differently on someone who has just missed in front of a crowd, and the gap between intention and reception is where most of the damage happens.
| What you say | What you mean | What they often hear | Better alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| “It’s only a game.” | Don’t be too hard on yourself | You don’t understand what this means to me | “Tough one. Want to talk or not talk?” |
| “You looked like you rushed it.” | I was paying attention | You did something wrong and I noticed | Nothing — leave the analysis to a coach |
| “You’ll get the next one.” | I believe in you | Now there’s pressure on the next one too | “I liked how you handled that.” |
| “Everyone misses sometimes.” | This is normal | You’ve been put in the category of people who miss | “How did your routine feel?” |
| “Do you want to go practise tomorrow?” | I’ll support whatever you need | You need fixing | Wait — let them ask |
| “The holder didn’t help you there.” | It wasn’t all your fault | We’re looking for someone to blame | “Long night. Glad I was there.” |
| Silence plus a changed mood | I’m giving them space | You’re disappointed in me | Normal conversation about anything else |
The right-hand column has a pattern: almost every better alternative either asks about something they control, acknowledges the moment briefly without dwelling, or simply carries on as normal. None of them involve analysis, reassurance about the future, or reframing how much it mattered.
The last row is worth particular attention, because it is the one parents least suspect. Saying nothing while being visibly flatter than usual communicates disappointment far more clearly than words would — and it is the version children report noticing most. Normal conversation about something entirely unrelated is not avoidance; it is the clearest possible signal that your relationship does not move with the scoreboard.
Parent’s Checklist
- After-game behaviour decided in advance and kept identical
- No technical analysis from you after a miss
- Questions about process rather than results
- Transport and practice access prioritised over equipment
- Cones, a tripod and a ball bought before anything expensive
- Filming from directly behind on the target line
- A net considered if field access is the constraint
- Footwear bought on fit and re-checked each season
- Kick volume tracked; rest days treated as normal
- Sleep protected
- Persistent groin or hip pain assessed professionally
- Extra care during growth periods
- Total load counted if they also play another sport
- Coaching prioritised over showcases while developing
- Named coaches and a stated ratio confirmed before paying
- The post-correction dip expected and explained in advance
- Recruiting expectations discussed honestly and early
- Identity kept broader than the position
The bottom line: the most valuable things you can offer are free. Be identical after good games and bad ones, provide the time and transport that practice depends on, film from behind so the invisible faults become visible, and protect rest. Spend money on cones, a tripod and one genuinely qualified coaching session long before you spend it on exposure. And keep the position one of the things your child does rather than the whole of who they are — in a role where misses are guaranteed, that is the thing that makes them survivable.
Keep Going
🏕️ Choosing a CampWhat to ask before paying
🧠 Mental PreparationHandling the pressure
🩹 Injury PreventionManaging volume
As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. This article is general information and is not medical advice. Persistent pain, recurring injury, any head impact or concerns about growth and development should be assessed by a doctor, physiotherapist or qualified sports medicine professional.