Raising the standard of your kicking performance
Sean Riley
Article posted on 9/25/2008

Today kicking at the high school level is very competitive. It is not a big deal to hear a kicker booted a forty-yard field goal in a game or kicked the ball into the end zone. Let's face it, athletes are bigger and stronger then ever before. With that being said, we as kickers must find the competitive edge. What separates you as a kicker versus the other kickers in your area? Let's examine a few distinct ways to separate you from the pack:

1. Practice when no one else is: If it is the weekend and you know most everyone else, including your friends, are at home watching football you should take an hour out and go to the field: kick, run, do plyometrics i.e. jump lunges, jump ropes etc.

2. Try to find a qualified kicking coach: Preferably in your area that can help observe you and give you professional advice on how to separate from the pack.

3. Work on specialty kickoffs: Most kickers cannot put the ball where their coach tells them consistently. Practicing: onside kicks, long line drive squib kicks, short squib kicks, placement kicks i.e. "put the ball high onto the 30 yard line", directional kicking "whatever you do don't kick to #10", you can practice extreme right and left kicks (preferably on the numbers is far enough outside).

4. Shrink your goal post: This can be done in a variety of ways. One of the more popular ways we use is: one side of the goal post. Pick the side, whether it is left side or right, this will cut your goal post in half. Kick field goals and extra points like you normally would in practice. The biggest advantage to this technique is when you are live in practice or a game your target is double the size. Imagine if you go 20/20 (on a 12-foot goal post) the confidence you will have on a regulation size goal post.

5. BE MENTALLY STRONGER: You have read several great articles about mental preparation on kicking.com. You may think it is corny or doesn't work, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY WRONG. One technique I have always used to eliminate mental pressure is to kick a certain amount of kicks without missing, i.e. today I will kick twenty consecutive extra points. I will not leave the field until I do so. When you have made nineteen kicks in a row and you are tired the twentieth kick is a ton of pressure. Once you have completed this several times, a game winning kick doesn't seem so hard.

6. Do not make kicks bigger than they are: If you are sent out to kick a game winning extra point do not think it is a "game winning" extra point, think it is "just an" extra point. Do not think a fifty yarder is a must make. Most professionals are under 60% on long field goals. My advice on long field goals is, "I am going to put this right down the middle"; if it goes in great, if it falls short you know you don't have enough leg or you hit it wrong, YOU HAD ACCURACY, which is most important overall.

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