Rugby: Fox tells students secret to success is keep it simple

All Black legend Grant Fox gives Whangarei Boys' High School student Jayd Kapa some kicking coaching lessons at Toll Stadium yesterday. Photo / John Stone

Whangarei Boys' High School student Jayd Kapa reckons Grant Fox "cleaned his kicking heaps" after a memorable session with the All Black legend.

The 16-year-old was among six high school students from Whangarei, Dargaville and Kerikeri chosen for kicking lessons from the All Blacks selector before the Taniwha v Taranaki ITM Cup match at Toll Stadium yesterday.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My parents told me about him. He gave me helpful tips like how to realign the ball, which I'm sure will help me heaps," Jayd said.

Other students were Wayne Iripa of Tikipunga High School, James Witehira from Kamo High School, Jacob Gorrie from Dargaville High School, Levi Clark from Kerikeri High School and Mitchell Dean from Whangarei Boys' High School. Fox was brought to Whangarei by electronics company Ricoh to promote and encourage first 15s rugby in Northland.

He looked terse while taking the boys through their drills and most of the time was devoted to one-on-one sessions.

Initially, the students started practising from far out and were told to come near the goalpost as 80 per cent of practice was done from in front.

"You guys start out wide and succeed probably with only 20 per cent of your kicks and when you come in front, your confidence is shot and you fail your kicks," Fox told them.

At the end of the session, he emphasised on the acronym KISS (keep it simple stupid) while teaching kids and said the students should try to retain lessons learnt with him.

"All kids have got the ability but they also have flaws and part of what I do is to minimise those flaws by emphasising on the way you set the ball up on the tee and remember it's not a one-size-fits-all.

"Also you tweak the angle of your runs ... kicking is mostly technical while the mental aspect comes in when you're successful with your kicks," said the 46-test All Black.

Fox said the fundamentals of kicking these days, compared with when he used to play, were the same but some things, such as the posture of kickers prior to their kicks, have changed a bit.

Meanwhile, Fox didn't take issue with Taniwha first-five Dan Hawkins' unique kicking style.

"At the end of the day (it's) what works for you. There's some basic principles and different ways to go about it, like getting the body in the right position when you plant the kick," he said.