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THIS TIP IS OUT OF THIS WORLD...

Perhaps the best kicking drill ever!

This drill has dramatic effect on every kicker that practices this. This will teach your muscles both ‘sweep’ and ‘pull’. And you can do this with a heavy ball too to amplify your power at impact.

First of all, try to stop laughing at my graphics. This looks like I am training kickers with Martians! (I couldn’t help myself…I had to add antennae.) When I hire a good artist, I’ll let him do this more professionally.

Now that you are done laughing, let’s get to it…

There are no steps taken in this exercise. As Martian #1 is showing us, simply stand with your plant foot in the plant spot. This is like you might do if you are doing a ‘no step’ exercise. (By the way…I hate the no step exercise. Unless you do it this way, your no step does much more harm than good.) Now as Martian #1 is showing us, wrap your kicking leg behind your plant leg and put your toe on the ground. It is good if you do this exercise on a yard line so that you are sure that your plant foot and kicking toe begin on the same line. Remember to keep your hips facing straight in front of you. Your belt buckle should be facing down the target line.

As Martian #2 is showing us, simply pick up your kicking foot. Try to pick your foot straight up. Your leg muscles are going to want to allow your foot to sway behind your butt. Don’t let that happen. Just pick your foot straight up and hold it there for one full second.

Martian #3 is showing us that the next move is to begin your kicking motion. Notice that he has not moved his little Martian plant leg or plant foot.

Martian #4 is showing us that he is making impact with his kicking knee down and inside of the target line. Again, this Martian still has his hips facing down the target line.

Martian #5 shows us the finish of this exercise. His kicking leg sweeps in front of him. He is forcing a long and high follow through with his kicking foot locked down. He has lots of sweep!

These Martians will not fall backward after the kick. They will all step FORWARD! This is very important.

Do this exercise with a partner about 20 or 30 yards away. Do it everyday. (If you are using a heavy ball, 10 yards apart is the maximum distance that I want you to kick the ball.)

This exercise will embed ‘sweep’ and ‘pull’ into your muscle memory… if you are a Martian. I have only used this exercise with Martians. I will have to count on you to let me know if this works with earthlings! Send us an email and let us know.

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Hey you, stop ‘pushing’!

Since we were little kids we have been telling each other to ‘stop pushing’. Well, it’s time we look in the mirror.

Kickers that push are like pitchers that aim. Kickers that push are like golfers that try to steer the ball. Kickers that push can’t kick the ball as far as kickers that pull. Kickers that push can’t be as accurate as kickers that pull. Kickers that push remind me of a guy throwing the shot put. (By the way…what a stupid event that is.) Of course they can’t throw the shot put very far…Because they are pushing not pulling (better known as throwing).

The fellow in the Eagles uniform in frame # 1 shows follow through as a result of ‘pull’. You could never have a follow through with your hips ahead of your plant leg and shoulders without pulling your leg through the ball. Notice how his head has stayed ahead of his hips.

The less experienced youngster in frame # 2 has not yet mastered the mindset of “pull”. As you can see he is in a position that will only allow him to “push” the ball. His center of gravity is clearly behind the ball at impact. His hips are behind his shoulders and plant foot at impact. Consequently he is losing lots of leg speed.

Just think about pulling instead of pushing. Sometimes that is all it takes. Just the swing thought of pulling instead of pushing. Your kicking foot is the end of a long whip. Think of that at address. The world will conspire to put your body in the right position to ‘Pull” at impact.

In frame #3 we see another young kicker who is mastering the concept of ‘pull”.

Again, notice how forward his hips are relative to the ball

position. Momentum carries his hips forward through impact. He has to get his hips ahead of the ball to complete the ‘pull’ through impact and

follow through. I would like to see this kicker with a bit more ‘sweep’ in his follow through. He is a bit too straight down the target line this late

in his stroke. (See the tip “You don’t want to be too straight”. I have added the sweep lines in these frames to illustrate this point.)

In frame #3 you can see the difference between the sweep line of this kick (yellow) and the desired sweep line (green).

Keep your hips ahead of the spot of the ball through follow through. ???. Maintain your ‘sweep’, and think PULL. Do this today at practice and you will feel the difference almost immediately!

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Work with your snapper and holder!

They say that some of the best ideas never made it of the design room. There are many reasons why that is so. From poor management to lack of funds and lack of energy. Who knows…maybe we would all be piloting flying cars by now if every good idea made it out of the design room. There is a horrible analogy in the kicking and punting game, particularly for high school athletes. Some of the best specialists never make it out of the locker room.

You can be the best kicker in the state or the best punter in the state, but without a good snapper, no one will ever know it. This problem is not limited to high school either. I have seen it at the college level from club teams all the way to D1 teams. A bad snapper is a specialists biggest problem.

I want to write specifically about one such experience that I had this weekend. One of our trained specialists is Sean Baner of William Tennent High School. You may have read about Sean numerous times on the Precision website. Sean has one of the most powerful legs we have had the pleasure to work with. He is a great kicker, a great punter, and a great kid. However, the only people that will ever know how good he is are his coaches. They get to see him kick and punt without a snapper and holder. They can appreciate his technique and his raw power. Sean is only a junior.

At our clinics, Sean has often made 60+ yard field goals. His kickoffs routinely approach 4 seconds with end zone distance.

Sean’s punts are most impressive. He hits consistent spirals that turn over. He has consistent 4.5 second hangers and 45 to 50 yards from scrimmage is no surprise. His hands time is less than 1.3 and his technique is very good.

So what is the problem??? He will never get to show that in a game. There are no college recruiters that will ever appreciate all he can do. Watching Sean punt in a game is painful. You won’t see any of his talent because the snaps he gets literally float back to him. Every punt is rushed just to keep from getting blocked. It is not uncommon for him to have to turn right or left just before impact to avoid a ‘would be’ punt blocker. The line is doing its job, but you just can’t slow down the guys on the outside long enough to allow Sean to execute his practiced routine in 1.2 seconds.

It is the same thing with field goals. Balls that float back to the holder are a real liability for Sean and the team. College recruiters will never get to see the consequences of all of the hard work that Sean has put into developing his kicking technique. Operation times of 1.6-2.0 just don’t cut it.

This article is written for every coach that wishes he had a kicking game. Did you ever wonder why the athletes don’t perform in the game like they do on the practice field. More often than not, the reason is time. If the center can’t get the ball back fast enough for the specialist to execute, it really does not make much difference how strong his leg is or how well he executes his practiced technique.

The real sad part of this story is this…Long Snapping is not really that hard to learn. Most coaches think that if they don’t see a kid that can long snap on the first day of practice, they assume that they won’t have a snapper this season. Fact is, if they commit themselves to having a good specials team, and make time in practice for long snaps, they would find that there are probably several guys on the team who wear big numbers, that can be taught to snap with some reasonable proficiency. They just have to work at it every day!

Sean Baner is a kicker/punter that everyone should be talking about at this point in the season. But his coaches, understandably so, can’t afford to take the risk of putting him on the field since the odds of getting blocked or rushed beyond operation time, will likely lead to a negative play of some sort.

Sean is going to have to get some college recruiters to see him in practice. He won’t get many chances to look good in his games. We will vouch for him though. We have several super high school specialists in our program and we consider Sean among the best.

It has to be up to the specialists to get their snappers to work at snapping. Bring your snapper and holder to practices with your kicking or punting coach. Remember you don’t want to be one of the best specialists to never make it out of the locker room!