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Looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday afternoon.
There will not be a clinic on Sunday July 6, or Tuesday, July 8. Tuesday, July 8th is the date of the Princeton University Specialist Camp. Camp begins at 8:30 and ends at 7 PM. Coach Roger Hughes will have his staff on the field during the afternoon competition. Bring your best game to this camp! Last year approximately 30 coaches from colleges and universities all over the north east came to watch the Precision kickers and punters work out at this camp. This resulted in several collegiate opportunities that our guys took advantage of. If you have not signed up for this camp, you may contact Carl Hoffman at Precision and he will give you all the details.
Any of the Precision kickers and punters can sign out balls and equipment after the Tuesday clinic if you want to work out on your own until Thursday July 10th. The skinny pipes will remain up at the Holland Jr. High field.
Sunday's clinic had an amazing competition at the end of a two and half hour training session. First in the training session we had a long segment working on kick offs. Everyone showed immediate improvement. We worked on the concept of "strength and aggression, over form".
EJ Cochrane is still the best kick off guy on the planet and he showed it yesterday. Several kicks going 7-9 yards deep in a windless environment. NFL camps with a weak kickoff guy should have their eyes on EJ.
Jon Striefsky, who is the reigning first team All American from Delaware seemed to add distance and hang time with every kick off. Jon ended the session with a bomb that landed 3 yards deep in the endzone.
Richie Bruno from Council Rock South also hit a few bombs from the 30 yard line using the strength and aggression techniques we were working on.
The field goal competition was a game situation "make your own" set up. Two long snappers, two holders and two kickers side by side. We started with 35 yard field goals. All 15 kickers made their kicks. Then we moved to 40 yards, all 15 kickers made their kicks. Then we moved to 45 and we started to see guys start to drop out. Misses were measured in inches. It was fun watching all the nice hits from that distance.
Several area schools were represented with their best athletes on the field this week. Lycoming, Villanova, Muhlenberg, West Chester, West Virginia, Delaware, Temple, Indiana of Pennsylvania, Council Rock North, Council Rock South, William Tennent, Wissahickon, Neshaminy, Pennsbury, and more...
But it was Villanova's Jon Toroni and Wissahickon's Jason Bilotti, that wowed em in the competion yesterday with 52 yarders, to win the competition.
By the way, we have to mention the great job George Radu was doing with the punters. Alex from West Chester stopped the kicking workouts with jaw dropping, 5 second, bombs.
Special mention to Ryan Matusz. Ryan is a sophomore at Council Rock North. Ryan has been kicking a football for only 3 months now. Through hardwork and dedication, Ryan has made progress beyond everyone's expectations. Yesterday Ryan bowed out of the competition at 50 yards when his boot fell one yard short but dead center! If anyone had told us that we would have Ryan teeing it up for a 50 yarder just three months after he decided to learn to kick, no one would have believed it. But yesterday Ryan showed what hard work and determination can produce. We are very proud of Ryan and we expect big things from him in the future.
Kickers, for more power, check out this new tip on the tip page. "Tuck In Your Shirt".
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Time To Sweep Up! This is going to be a stretch… But here goes…
I have created these lovely stick figures to try to explain “sweep”. Those of you that regularly attend our clinics hear the coaches talk about sweep. For a kicker, you absolutely have to work on sweep to generate any power whatsoever. I have heard other coaches and students alike, talk about the finish position and the need to have your kicking foot aimed down the target line. We prefer to guide the shoulders and inside arm to follow the target line. The position of the kicking foot during follow through is more like a fingerprint to me than it is a template. In other words, every kicker is likely to have a different follow through due to his body metrics, approach angle, posture and swing path. Regardless of the aforementioned characteristics, ALL strong kickers have sweep in their swing path. Simply put, “sweep” for a right footed kicker is the counter clockwise arc of the kicking foot. The most important word in this description is ‘arc’.
In figures 1 through 4, you see our stick figure (let’s call him “Sticky”) with his plant foot in place. The yellow arrow shows Sticky’s swing path with sweep and the red arrow shows a swing path void of sweep. We like to see every kicker bring his foot through the point of impact and elevate his kicking leg UP, allowing it to swing OVER and then relaxing it DOWN. You have heard the Precision coaches say “Up, over then down”. This is the arc that we want the kicking foot to create.
The swing path that does not have sweep seems to decelerate at impact, and causes a heavy plant, and a significant crunch after impact. It is very difficult for the kicker to remain upright through the point of impact if he does not have a swing path with sweep.
In this second set of figures, I want to point out that it is possible, to finish with your leg straight down the target line and still have sweep. OK… if the first set of figures wasn’t a challenge for your imagination, this example surely will be. Sorry I am no Michaelangelo here…
The second set of figures shows part of a kicker from behind. The parts that are shown are the kicker’s butt and his right leg. (This is a right footed kicker.) Again, the yellow arrow shows a swing path with sweep and the red arrow is a swing path void of sweep. In figure 1, you can see the kicker’s leg comes from behind his left cheek. His arc therefore, while complete, allows his follow through to join his right arm to point straight down the target line. His shoulders are perpendicular to the target line (held back by his right arm) as he follows through. In figure 2, you see a kicker that does not begin his kicking motion from as far behind his left cheek as the kicker in figure 1. However, his swing arc is exactly the same. It is incumbent of him to point his kicking toe more to the left or to the 10 O’clock position.
Regardless of the beginning of the swing of the kicking leg, we like to see all kickers with at least a slight toe point across the body in their follow through.
Perhaps these pics can make this concept clearer.
This kicker has great form. Shoulders are level. Inside arm is straight and down the target line. Kicking foot is high as he begins his swing. Knee is exactly halfway from plant to the ball.
I would want to make a slight adjustment to give this kicker more power and accuracy through ‘sweep’. Notice the yellow line. This line shows the angle of his foot to his knee to the ground. This kicker is only lacking ‘sweep’ in this kick. The angle of this yellow line tells us that his swing path will be too upright. His leg will extend close to the target line, but he will have quick deceleration of his leg because of the steepness of his swing arc. This will also put lots of stop pressure on his knee and will abbreviate his follow through.
The green line shows the preferred angle of this foot/knee/ground angle. We would like to see his foot begin more behind his left cheek than it is. We like the high position of his foot and we encourage him to keep that foot position high. However, we would like to see his foot wrapped more around his body, as the green line shows us. Our kicker will have greater leg speed and will be able to guide his ball more effortlessly through impact.
In the second shot of our kicker, you can see the swing arc consequent of his leg in its current position in the extension of the yellow arrow. This arrow lacks the sweep that you see in the example of the green arrow. The green arrow shows the swing path consequent of the proper foot/knee/ground angle in his approach.
GREAT CLINIC YESTERDAY...
633 FAST FRAME PHOTOS ARE BEING EVALUATED FROM YESTERDAY'S CLINIC. HERE IS A CLASSIC SHOT OF 7 PERFECT 'MAKE YOUR OWN' FIELD GOALS FROM 36 YARDS. 
"THESE GUYS ARE GOOD!"
Muhlenberg's TJ Chiarolanza is having a great spring at Precision.
Great example of proper follow through for a long snap. Precision trained snapper, Pat Wilson is on his way to Indiana of Pennsylvania. Pat was a top high school snapper and was the MVP of his Bensalem High School team. Pat's work ethic and focus on long snapping will give him a long career at this specialty.
Thank you to the many Precision athletes that participated in the Villanova Specialist Camp this past weekend. It was a great show case for all of the athletes. The Precision kickers, punters and snappers represented VERY well at the camp. We have evaluation stills of all of the athletes that were there on Saturday. If you would like us to email your evaluation to you, please shoot us an email to coachc@precisionkickersandpunters.com.
Quote of the week...We got this from one of the parents who brought his son to train at one of the college camps. There were a few of our Precision trained kickers at the camp.
The father told us that his son said, "Dad, I want to be able to kick like all of those Precision guys!"
Congratulations to Brandon McManus of North Penn High School. Brandon was named the top kicker in the Villanova Camp.
Brandon was accurate and long with his field goals. His kickoff average distance was 67 yards and his average hang time on kickoffs was 3.85. Brandon is up there with Chris Glenn of West Virginia as the top high school kick off specialists we have ever had at Precision.
Remember that on Thursday's we film everyone and provide detailed analysis for the start of the Sunday morning workouts. The success of this program has forced us to add a Tuesday workout as well. The BEST high school and college specialists in the area are often at these workouts. We hope to see you there too.
We'll be filming at practice tomorrow. We hope to see all of you there. Come and test your skills against the top high school and college kickers, punters and snappers in the area. We work hard but we always have a good time.
Below, look at how Sean Baner, just a high school junior, has learned to generate real 50+ yard field goal power with accuracy. In particular, look at his sweep and head position through impact.
Kentucky State kicker Aaron Chambers shows why he is destined to be great. "The hardest working man on the football field."
Our Sunday workouts are seeing huge crowds. The athletes learn from each other as well as the staff of Precision.
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