A couple weeks ago, I was at the NFL Europa camp in Tampa, Florida. There were several very good kickers at the camp, several very average kickers, and a few that were below average kickers. There were many NFL teams that had sent scouts and coaches to evaluate the pool of kickers at the camp. I am not sure if the scouts were aware of the nuances of the technical aspects of kicking. Their judgments were primarily based on the balls that went through the uprights. As a professional kicking coach, I am not always impressed with a ball that goes through the uprights when the ball is kicked from under a tripod and no live rush. Or even with a snap and hold, without a rush. I saw many made field goals that were frankly, bad kicks. They were the lucky result of technique that would never hold up over any reasonable number of kicks. By the same token, I saw some kickers that were better than the number of ‘makes’ they showed on that particular day of just a dozen or so, charted kicks. I was aware that the athletes that I thought were the best of the bunch, separated themselves with the effects of techniques that we teach at Precision. The most important was trajectory. The best kickers had the best trajectory, or launch angle.

I am a trajectory nut I guess. For a kicker to be consistent and accurate, it is all about trajectory. For those of you that are not kicking coaches, a ball that is launched with a very high trajectory track is not necessarily a good kick. A high launch angle kick is the hardest to control. It is the most affected by wind conditions and temperature. A kick with the right launch angle is driven to a target seemingly with ‘purpose’. The best kickers hit balls that seem to know where they are going. The kicks do not float through the uprights, they seem to have an appointment with the net directly behind the center of the uprights.

A kick with the right trajectory tracks like the putt of Tiger Woods. Did you ever notice how his ball seems to know where the hole is? He hits the ball with enough pace that the ball holds the target line like it was in a groove that ends at the hole. You can do the same thing on the football field.

The proper kick trajectory insures that from 6 yards away, your ball is 10 feet high. This means that your ball is rising 1.7 feet per yard downfield that it travels. At this rate, 7.5 yards away your ball is 12.5 feet high and rising. Assuming that the defense can get a jumper as close as 7.5 yards, that jumper would have to time his jump perfectly and have ‘ups’ like Kobe Bryant without a helmet and pads on, just to make any contact with the ball. It is unlikely that this could happen.

 

So, here is the drill. Place your ball 6 yards from the crossbar. The object is to hit the crossbar. Don’t let your ball go higher than the crossbar. Have your coach stand on the end line and to the side of the uprights. From this position he’ll be able to easily see and report to you how far above the crossbar your ball is traveling. Your adjustments for height are to be made with your plant foot. Move your plant foot slightly forward until your ball comes down to the level of the crossbar. (Do this with adjustments that shorten your steps back by an inch or two.) You should be hitting the crossbar with almost every kick. Do not make adjustments with your posture unless you are consistently hitting the ball too low. I would have to personally analyze the cause of your low trajectory, but in most cases it is because the kicker’s posture is not upright enough at impact.

Now that you have mastered the art of hitting the crossbar, move your ball to the side of the uprights so that your target line is just outside one of the uprights. You are still 6 yards out and your coach is still on the end line and to the side of the uprights. Now start kicking again. Imagine with every kick, that you have a crossbar in front of you to hit. Your coach will be very impressed when he sees the distance and accuracy of those balls that you kick, that are exactly as high as the cross bar when they are 6 yards downfield. You’ll notice that this exercise grooves the trajectory of your kick so that it will be consistent until the ball returns to earth. Your ball will seem to know where to go every time you kick the ball. Every kick will look exactly the same. And just like a Tiger Woods putt . . . ’Center Cut!’.

Hit em high!

          — Coach Crocker —