The Kicking Coach

06/04/2024

It was great to catch up with TKC Alums at one of my favorite camp locations- Ashland, OH. Brad Robbins of Cincinnati Bengals and Manaki Watanabe of Ashland U.

05/31/2024

Putting your foot through the middle of the ball rather than slicing it slightly will generate significantly more power. You may get less spirals if your drop is not clean. However, punting the ball flush or fat without getting a spiral will travel farther than cutting the ball and catching a “skinny” fast spinning spiral.

On personal note, I did not learn this until right after my college senior year. In college I never hit a 5.0 hang time. After a kicking coach told me to relax my steps and swing through the middle of the ball, in February after my senior season, my consistency went through the roof and my top hang times went up to 5.4s…within weeks! Definitely an adjustment worth messing with.

05/30/2024

Substitute “speed” for “kicking power” in that statement…same rule applies for on the field, and in the weight room…keep reading….

Simple example:

Doing 10 maximum speed 40 yard sprints with 30 second rests is not the same as doing 10 maximum speed 40 yard sprints with 3 minute rest in between.

Without adequate rest between sprints each sprint between 2nd and 10th will be slightly slower and slower, essentially training your endurance since you will not be anywhere near your maximum speed.

If you are sprinting to improve your kicking power, your goal is power, or rapid production of maximum force against a ball. You should train your body to create maximum power by training at your top speed as much as possible, and minimizing garbage repetitions that are taxing on your body and yield low benefits.

05/22/2024

Ohio kicking camp is next on deck. Ashland University stadium is a stunning facility. Ohio kickers and punters, join us. Details at TheKickingCoach.com

05/17/2024

Chicago and Michigan camp weekend. Join us if you can. May camps are our smallest events of the year averaging about 20 athletes. Great environment to get some work in and kickoff the summer of kicking.

05/15/2024

Wilson forgot to add sweet spot to this ball! In my unscientific observation, it seems that bladder is barely reaching outer leather, causing ridges to pop out. If you have to kick this ball, well, you may want to consider transferring.

05/09/2024

Kickoff contact on the foot is a lot closer to ankle than most people realize. Foot position is similar to field goal. This NFL kicker has it open at 2 o’clock. But if you want to close it closer to 1 o’clock, that works as well, but it raises the contact point on the ball a bit and moves it to right panel. So you may need to adjust body and plant foot position if you do that.

05/07/2024

Spring/Summer 2024 Outdoor Camps are about to start! Same locations, some new staff, some old staff. Same low coach to camper ratio teaching you NFL level skills and training.

05/07/2024

Tyler Perkins coached at Iowa Kicking Camp in April and shared his training method through his high school years with athletes.

It does not seem like he kicked a lot relatively speaking. But what is evident is that he maintained his training pace consistently for 4+ years with focus on developing skills and strength while still kicking enough to continue improving.

Kicking journey is a marathon, not a sprint. Young kickers need to find a pace that you can maintain long term. That might mean kicking once per week if that is all that is possible, and kicking three to four times per week at other times. But you have to keep moving forward.

04/23/2024

I stole this screenshot from , sprinting coach with awesome content , and repurposed it for kicking a football.

KICKING POWER comes from:
1. Force absorption: Landing plant foot without sinking your body and leaking energy into ground.
2. Force production: Driving/digging in plant foot into ground, bringing kicking foot back, creating tension in your core and body head to toe.
3. Projection/posture: Fast and linear leg swing to the ball without changing of body posture until ball is long gone.

*Kicking the ball far and high is a full body coordinated movement to generate force. When training in the gym, avoid gimmicky exercises that mimic kicking movements. You already kick and do drills to make movement more efficient, thus faster. Instead, to increase kicking power, hit the gym hard, hit plyometrics hard, become explosive and fast, and ball will jump off your foot.

03/27/2024

NFL kickoff returners next year when balls gets kicked….

03/11/2024

At camps, I have seen Greg run across the field without a hesitation to grab a forgotten cone or a clip board left behind. Getting paid, staying humble, and doing life well. Happy for them !

03/07/2024

Last 2 indoor kicking camps of this winter! Join us if you can.

02/02/2024

Discounted footballs at Wizard Sports. Stock up if you need new leather.

01/22/2024

It was not fun watching Tyler Bass miss a kick that sealed Bills fate last night. He is a successful NFL kicker with career average of 85% while kicking in Buffalo. In the spirit of chasing of perfection and figuring out what we could do better, let’s take a closer look at the few frames of last night’s kick.
1. Average size NFL kicker like Tyler could be a bit more efficient in his stance. Starting with left foot toward the plant, and right foot toward the holder. Setting him up for straighter approach.
2. When kicking foot hits the ground, it can be open, especially in kickers that use wider angle and more hips, but having it too open will result in body momentum going away from the ball, which when combined with straight swing will introduce left to right fade. In this kick, that fade was exaggerated with left to right wind.
3. Contact, plant foot, and body rigidity are absolutely perfect. Tyler smashes this ball with exceptional height, power and cleanliness of rotation. Ball that well struck should have penetrating, down the filed velocity, and not have any movement, regardless of the wind. Which takes us back to the starting stance and approach being the areas where he could do a bit better.

01/16/2024

So much power is lost in high school kicking due to inefficient mechanics. Part of kicking strength comes from neural adaptations that come from mindful kicking and drills. Weight room gains take time. Neural adaptations take reps - mental and physical. You can be sitting on your couch and mentally visualizing how you want to look when you kick…even specific details like foot position, core firmness, etc. Or you can visualize whole body feel and look, tallness, rigidness, straightness of approach. Or you can stand up and feel it as you are thinking about it. In the picture you see a good HS kicker with 45+ field goal range versus NFL kicker with 65 yard range. Strength difference aside, getting the whole body to work together and in right position maximizes all that a kicker has. Most good high school kickers will plant somewhat soft and have major power leaks in slack joints throughout the body. Soooo, stay taller, firm up, and keep drilling it into your mind and body.

01/04/2024

Pro Bowl Kickers…Justin Tucker is one of the best kickers ever…just not this season. As much as Pro Bowl is meaningless, being selected brings a lot of peer respect and contract negotiation leverage. Lot of better performers got snubbed.

12/16/2023

We have couple spots open for tonight’s small group session if you are free and near Chicago, join us. Details at TheKickingCoach.com

12/14/2023

Perfect vs. pretty good. 1. Plant leg is straight and rigid vs. slight bend in knee, 2. Swing is leveled down the field vs. slightly up (common mistake), 3. Chest open allows free hip movement vs collapsed, 4. Left arm extended at shoulder height vs. next to the body and low. Bonus…eyes are down but head is up vs. head down. midwestkickingcamps

12/11/2023

CFL receivers are like…”yes, please!”

11/28/2023

It is time to start this off-season! Saturday indoor sessions at the fire pitch are back on for 9th year! Let’s roll Chicago area kickers. https://thekickingcoach.com/chicago-kicker-punter/.

11/28/2023

Always thankful to for football and holder contribution to TKC. Wilson practice ball is my favorite kicking practice ball. Breaks in amazingly. Perfect balance of roundedness and pointedness.

11/08/2023

On average, when his foot touched the ball in this game, not perfect practice conditions, it travelled 74 yards! Insanity!

11/08/2023

Young kickers, get yourself some high quality leather footballs. Throw away your rubber and composite ones.

10/17/2023

Only in Iowa….whatever takes the attention away from their offense I guess.

10/06/2023

*New at The Kicking Coach camps this year…athletes will get a skill report card to keep track of their progress. First camp coming up this Sunday at Ashland University in Ohio.

09/28/2023

and are both crushing punts to start this season. Keep it going!

09/13/2023

The Kicking Coach Indoor Camp Dates are up. Good luck this season! Join us after.

09/11/2023

Early In-Season Newsletter with Training Tips https://conta.cc/45N4z6n

For Kickers and their Coaches In-Season 2023 Newsletter by Filip Filipovic, Professional Kicking Coach Training and Recruiting Tips for Specialists and their coaches. More information on our website..

08/08/2023

At the NFL level…details matter. Dissecting mechanics of our staff member Greg Zuerlein, 11-year NFL veteran. 3 details that are the difference between 85% and 95% field goal percentage seasons.

1. At the start of the movement toward the ball, chest moves toward the ball during the pro-bowl season. Average season, chest starts too far right.
2. Jab step, left foot, starts straight toward the plant, with ball of the foot striking the ground naturally during pro-bowl season….average season, it is an awkward toe-only step heading too far left of the ball. 3. In the stance, kicking foot is naturally facing toward the holder….during average season, it is facing toward the sideline. The differences in these two frames are tiny. But at NFL level, that meant the difference between being best in the world and middle of the pack in the NFL. Young kickers should learn from this and only practice mechanics that are going to work for as long as they kick. It is never too early to start preparing for the pro-bowl.