Although Maher is correct in saying more practice is needed. There is a large difference between shooting a basketball and kicking a football, in that kicking a football has much less control involved.

Has shooting % increased in the NBL in previous years? Did the 36ers shoot well last season, even with this extra hour training?

DrB, not entirely true. the control over a football is less but still high enough to be able to improve from pure goal kicking practise. With a large amount of games being played under roofs now, afl players should have less excuses. how many shanks do you see giong for goal in afl that should all be eliminated through practise?

practice makes perfect.

The age old saying practice makes perfect.

I remember an article a while ago was either mentioned here or on OzHoops where they researched the advantages and changes from 'practicing' shooting a basketball and found that repetative practice of shooting a basketball of an already established elite basketballer made no difference to his/her shooting %'s.

Was something to do with the reaction/communication from brain to hand if I remeber correctly.

So someone like Brett Maher can shoot a pretty decent clip in training/anywhere but come game time the factors of defense, the situation of the game, pressure etc all ultimatley determine the outcome of his shot not if he has practiced for hours on end or not.

Was an interesting read.

Sorry.
Perfect PRACTICE makes perfect.

You can practice the same crap technique (like mine) for as long as you like with marginal improvement. But if you practice better technique you will become significantly better.

I would've thought (intuitively rather than from first hand knowledge) that if AFL kicks had a higher margin for error then the better the technique the better the result.

Your saying that u can practice better technique fine yeah u can say that but what happens when u change the style you've had for your whole life, thats right you get worse. Tell kevin brooks his style is crap, see if he shoots a better % when he changes to a jason smith or a brett maher 'textbook' type shot.

In response to shaunos post. You would be surprised at the difference in control:

1. oval shaped ball, kick it 1cm on the left and it misses 10m on the right.
2. the drop of the ball, underrotation, overrotation, a bit of a stick to the hand and the kick is well of its mark.
3. Swing of the ball, even if you kick it straight sometimes the ball decides its going to swing

(all 3 variables that dont exist in basketball)

No matter how much u practice the best player is still not going to hit 1000/1000 layups or 1000/1000 kicks from 20m out.

The mechanical actions involved in the sound execution of both rely on the coorination many body parts. (although football generally has a larger range of environmental factors- ground condition, wind, rain, sun). This aside the standard of skill to play at elite level dictates that the individual should be able to execute a high percenage of the time.

Variation due an individuals psychological perception is probably the critical control or lacking of it as the case may be.

Consider The AFL at the moment:
A tight season in terms of defensive pressure and win / loss ratio. Increasing pace and rule interpretation changes that during the game, require a player to change previous modes of operation. On and off field, there is increased scruitiny by media and the public.

Increased pressure levels may be manifesting in poorer scoreboard execution. Frustration from poor execution can drive the phenomena further.

Correction funnily enough generally favours the stupid. That is take it for granted that you know what your doing i.e. think less. The base mechanics are then more likely to flow with less tension and resulting in less margin for error.

To this end you need practice in identifying and coping with a given situation rather one more shot.

the thing is these guys are human and will always miss the easy shot or kick if it was perfect it would be boring thats the beauty of sport even the best miss (MJ and Lockett)

DJ don't agree. I know with Brett in particular, in the last few seasons he has had injuries on and off throughout the season. The first game he comes back to from injury, his shooting is poor. By the 2nd game with all the practice in between, he improves immensely. Practice does make perfect but its fresh practice that makes the difference. You can't practice shooting for an hour everyday for a week and then go a week without practice and expect to shoot well. Even elite sports people like Brett lose their touch without practice.