On Saturday and Sunday Jacksonville Jaguars kicker, Josh Scobee was in Scottsdale, Arizona for some Kicking Lessons.Josh called me about a month ago looking for a another set of eyes to look at and critique his field goal technique. Josh in his own words had a tough year statistically, however he attempted a lot of long field goal which explains his statistically poor year.
When I was the Special Teams Coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens I watched Josh kick at the NFL Combine and was very impressed with his trajectory and leg strength.The first day I watched him go through his warm up routine, drills and took a bunch of sequential camera shots to evaluate his technique from various angles. After an hour of kicking we headed back to my office to evaluate the video.
During the video review I pointed out a couple of things I saw and made a couple of suggestions. I also showed him various other NFL kickers I had worked with in the last two years and showed Josh the drills I used with Garrett Hartley, Sebastian Janikowski and Billy Cundiff to emphasize some fundamentals.
Josh mentioned he missed several kicks from the left hash so I checked out his perfect triangle, consistency at marking off steps, his aim or target line mechanics and approach to the ball.
This is the time of year most NFL kickers take a break from kicking many balls. So, when we reviewed some of the kicking photos and video I pointed out the Josh had a tendency to crunch forward and cut some of his kicks.The key was Josh wanted my opinion and wanted to get my evaluation. I also put together a progression of drills using my coaching technique of A Natural Style of Kicking and Punting that will help him emphasize kicking up and through the ball better and staying square to the target.
Josh was a quick study on day two. He quickly picked up on the drills and what we were trying to accomplish. He was starting to kick up and through the ball and kicking with less effort. He said he could really feel a difference.The one thing I emphasized to Josh and all kickers with a big leg is to slow down. If you concentrate on hitting the sweet spot of your foot to the sweet spot of the ball the kick will travel with great distance and accuracy. After emphasizing to Josh to kick easy he launched a field goal. We measured the kick at 68 yards.
Josh is an excellent, scratch golfer. After our kicking lessons we had a chance to play nine holes of golf. I was amazed how far Josh could drive the ball. He launched several drives 300 plus yards.My advice to both Josh Scobee and Sebastian Janikowski was to take driver -field goal kicking club- out of your bag and use a the 3 wood -kicking club-. It worked for Sebastian and I hope it will work for Josh.
Click below to listen to Josh Scobee's Testimonial on working with Coach Zauner:
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