Coach Zauner's Blog...: Brady Beeson Kicking Lessons

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Brady Beeson Kicking Lessons

On Thursday and Friday Brady Beeson from St. Thomas University (St. Paul Minn.) and his family were in Scottsdale, Arizona for Kicking Lessons and evaluation. Brady like many graduating seniors would like to know if they have the talent to make and have a career in the NFL, CFL or UFL as a kicking specialist.

College players coming from smaller colleges and Universities usually have the biggest concerns and most questions marks by NFL, CFL and UFL Coaches and Scouts.

The first factor is their talent level, the second is the level of competition and third, playing in a smaller venue or crowd noise and pressure of the big game.

To me kicking, punting and snapping is a little different than the other positions in professional football. Like in the movie 'Hoosier' where the coach tells his under dog team in the final games that the rim is 10 feet high for both teams. Kicking, punting and snapping the ball is pretty much the same.

How high, far, fast and accurate are you with your skills level compared to other kicking specialists in the same draft year. Other football positions have a concern about the level of competition.

Brady like many kicking specialists that come to me for kicking lessons or evaluations all have talent. What separates one kicker, punter or snapper from the others besides leg strength or speed is "Consistency".

Kickers have no height or size restrictions. Teams just want to see a kicker with a good leg that is accurate. The wooooo factor helps. "The Big Leg!" Some professional teams like punters that are taller. Many professional teams like snappers with more size so they don't get dominated at the line of scrimmage.

The stop watch, distances and statistics are the only factors that most scouts use to evaluate kickers. The bottom line is "Consistency".

Brady showed me a good leg. However, he had a couple of mechanical flaws that we needed to address. Brady has not been coached a lot and therefore needs to become more fundamentally sound. We addressed his plant foot, foot to ball contact and kicking up and through the ball.

I think the two kicking lessons with a kicking coach where an eye opener for him. I told him to go home and work on the two or three fundamentals for a couple of weeks and see how much he improves. He will be able to evaluate himself by how consistent he is kicking the ball at that point.