We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Garrett Kane a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Garrett, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

To create the content that I was interested in there were three things that I had to learn: How to shoot a knuckleball, how to edit, and how to use a camera.

Learning to shoot a knuckleball was the first step that I began learning; actually, what inspired the content creation side of things was the first time I shot a knuckleball in my yard. After accidentally hitting a perfect knuckleball, I began watching videos on freekicks from the likes of freekickerz, lukasfootball, knuckleballtwins, buduiza (just to name a few of the most notable ones). After watching a few tutorials on how to consistently achieve this technique, I devoted, at this point, thousands of hours in my yard and at other full-sized fields trying to perfect the technique and hit the best shots I could.

After I became somewhat proficient at taking knuckleball freekicks, I asked my parents if I could start a YouTube channel. I was very inspired by the content creators at the time, whose names I previously mentioned, and so I wanted to make content just like theirs. My dad was gracious enough to give me my first camera, which was a Sony camcorder that shot in what looked to be <144p. Although low quality, I began filming my freekicks for the first time. After years of filming and watching other people’s videos, I eventually purchased a better camcorder and became much more proficient at filming. While I initially started filming freekicks purely to watch back and post the knuckleballs I hit, I eventually became passionate about cinematography. This passion would lead me to create some of the videos that I am most proud of today, most notably “Just Football 2023.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSXfdUIAat4

Along with filming my freekicks, I was also immediately drawn into the editing process of content creation. Editing for me is such a rewarding process, as you literally start with nothing. By use of music, transitions, color coding, etc, all of the random clips that were once just sitting on a hard drive can turn into something special. Actually seeing this come together is something that gave, and still gives a rush of exhilaration, and is one of the things that makes content creation such an amazing process.

Lastly, I wanted to compile some of the struggles that I went through during this process. Firstly, when I first wanted to make videos I was 11. Because of this, I had to use my mom’s email to start my first youtube channel which was actually called “JustKickIt.” After making this channel, I very quickly realized I needed my own email to run the channel the way that I wanted to. Once I made my own email, I remade my channel and instead named it “JustKnuckleIt.” The absolute biggest obstacle I have faced throughout my journey, however, has been mastering the knuckleball technique. There’s a reason why even pros struggle to get it down consistently. It is an extremely difficult technique to master, and it is hard to not get down on yourself when you have a couple of bad freekick sessions. One life lesson that I have taken away from merely taking knuckleball freekicks is that you have to be forgiving with yourself. Having a bad day, or even a bad week does not define your ability to do something. Finally, another one of my biggest obstacles was not being able to go to a regulation field very often. Since I was so young when I first started making content, I had to rely on my parents for transportation if I wanted to film on a full-sized field. Due to this hassle, the majority of my earlier content had to be filmed in my front yard. This resulted in numerous problems. Firstly, the yard was not super flat. This negatively affected my ability to be consistent with the knuckleball, since I was always kicking on a different slope. Also, while I did have fairly nice goals in my yard, they were not full-sized. Because of this, I would get many comments asking me to film on full-sized goals which was something that was not always possible at the time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Garrett Kane and I have been creating content relating to soccer/football for the past seven, nearly eight, years. My content has been particularly inspired by the infamous knuckleball freekick. When I first started I was infatuated with the knuckleball freekick from watching videos by buduiza, lukasfootball, knuckleballtwins, and other soccer/football-related content creators. I was already passionate about soccer/football, however, these content creators made me particularly interested in the knuckleball freekick, as well as “freestyling.” video editing, and filming. I was privileged enough to be able to fully delve into this passion by having access to a goal and a front yard big enough to allow me to take freekicks.

Currently, I create content on YouTube and Instagram under the name “JustKnuckleIt.” On my YouTube channel, I post long-form content that allows me to express the more creative side of myself, whereas on Instagram I mostly post my own freekicks from recent sessions. What is different about me from most other content creators, is that I have always pursued content creation due to my passion for what I do. While I try to be consistent, especially on my Instagram, I post the kind of content that I am passionate about and don’t comprise it in any way for anyone. One of my absolute favorite YouTubers of all time is Buduiza. He made long-form knuckleball free-kick-related content, and almost every post he made was like a movie. It was exciting. Although he didn’t have an upload schedule and did not post consistently, he posted when he felt he had something worth posting. This, in my opinion, resulted in some of the most exciting and creative content on YouTube. The elusiveness and creativity of someone like Buduiza are what have impacted my own decisions regarding content creation the most. I want my viewers to feel excited when they see a new upload from me. I want to put out videos that I am proud of. I want to inspire other people to be creative and do something special regardless of whether or not they are interested in the knuckleball free kick specifically.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being a creative is incredibly rewarding. For me, creating something I am passionate about is the most fulfilling thing in the world. One of the reasons for this is due to the fact that making content keeps me present. To better explain this, let me share the story of the creation of the video that I am most proud of, “Just Football 2023.” This video started with one shot. After having an evening freekick session, I was walking out of the tunnel that leads in and out of the field, and I got this idea for a shot that I thought would look cool involving the tunnel and the streetlight that was illuminating it. The shot ended up looking just how I wanted it to, and on the drive back home, all of these ideas came into my mind on how to incorporate this shot into one complete video. I was thinking about different places I could visit at different times in the day to get perfect lighting, I was thinking about ways to reinvent the ways I had been filming freekicks in the past, I was thinking about the way I could use music in relation to the shots I had in mind, I was thinking about videos from other content creators that have influenced me and how they utilized certain editing and filming tricks into their videos and how I could pull from them…. It was exhilarating. I wasn’t thinking about things I didn’t want to do the next day, I wasn’t worried about anything, I was just perfectly present and focused on something I was passionate about. These kinds of moments are what make being a creative special for me.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn, and accept, that perfection is unrealistic. Throughout the first five or so years of taking freekicks and making content, I was obsessed with my knuckleball technique. Anytime I would have a bad freekick session, I would get in my own head and obsess over what was wrong with my technique and how I could fix it. I never really considered the fact that I might have just been tired, or not in the mood. Instead, I would always blame a poor session on my technique. This mindset made me change how I took freekicks constantly and ironically made my technique less consistent. What I eventually learned was that everyone has bad days. It’s impossible to always be consistent, and sometimes you just have to accept that. After learning this, my technique became more consistent, and actually taking knuckleball freekicks became more enjoyable because I wasn’t being so hard on myself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justknuckleit/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChmT-cXxnT7rIpNTCuXuELA

Image Credits
Ben Rowe and Sammy Evison