St Kilda forward Jack Billings working to fix his kicking problem
JACK Billings was one of St Kilda’s worst offenders in front of the big sticks last season but with a little help over summer the young forward believes he has found a fix.
St Kilda
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ST KILDA young gun Jack Billings has developed a new run-up to fix his goalkicking.
The 22-year-old has been one of a number of Saints working closely with the club’s new goalkicking coach, Ben Dixon.
The Saints finished last season with a scoring accuracy of 52 per cent — the equal worst alongside Western Bulldogs.
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And Billings was one of the worst offenders. His scoring accuracy of 34 per cent came from 23 goals and 36 behinds.
Billings said he was confident of improving those figures this year after working hard over the off-season.
“(Dixon) has come in and, not only me, but a lot of the forwards have worked pretty closely with him,” Billings said.
“He’s been really great and hopefully we can see the good signs this year, but I guess you’ve just got to wait and see.
“Without giving too much away, I’ve just changed my run-up a little bit and just got it a lot smoother and tried to make it more similar to my field kicking.
“That’s been the main thing and it’s working well at the moment, so hopefully it can continue.”
While he hopes the goal-kicking fix will make him a better forward, Billings is seeking more time in the midfield.
“(I) probably spent more time forward last year, so the aim this year is to hopefully spend about half and half,” Billings said of his midfield-forward mix.
“I’ve just kept trying to improve my running capacity and my strength, which I think I’ve been able to do, and just training a lot more with the midfield.
“As a team we just want to play finals, so everyone needs to stand up and go to that next level if we want to do that.”
St Kilda finished 11th last season with an 11-11 win-loss record, losing several games because of poor goalkicking.
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