In this episode of the “Experts in Sport” podcast, host Stuart McErlain-Naylor sits down with Dr Neal Smith, reader in Biomechanics at Chichester University. They discuss his research on football kicking, his experiences of testing elite athletes, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, and finally, how his findings can be translated into improvement in performance for everyday players.

Timestamps: 

00:00 – 03:31 Introduction & career background information on our guest 

03:32 – 11:08 The basics of football kicking research 

11:09 – 25:40 What goes into a good technique  

25:41 – 30:17 Tackling unexpected results 

30:18 – 33:12 Communicating the findings 

33:13 – 38:32 Testing Cristiano Ronaldo’s free kick 

38:33 – 41:35 More information on Neal’s research 

41:36 – 42:15 Episode recap and conclusion