[RRLedford]

At end, you also joined the tensioning arm to the kicker arm (or somehow prevented them from separating during kick arc).
In weaker shot videos, the kicker was impacted and then rebounded away from contact with the tension arm, then it hits the ball with only its own too-little momentum, thus bouncing backward off ball and impacting into contact with tension arm again, then being driven forward a 2nd time after re-contacting the tension arm, then back onto the ball for a 2nd time. Lots of time lost with nothing accelerating the ball, for lack of contact during the kicker arm rebounds.
This really shows how a slo-mo vid can reveal what is actually happening!
-RRledford