On Monday and Tuesday of this week former Fresno State and Free Agent Kicker, Clint Stitser was in Phoenix, Arizona for some individual kicking lessons. I first met Clint back in March when he attended my 2010 Free Agent Specialists Combine.
Clint had an excellent showing at the Combine and approximately a week after the event he signed a free agent contract with the New York Jets to compete against the former Dallas Cowboys and PRO Bowl kicker, Nick Folk. Nick Folk is currently the kicker for the Jets and is having an excellent season.After being released Clint was later signed and went to training camp with the Seattle Seahawks. He played in a couple of preseason games but again was released.
During the last couple of years Clint has competed at the highest level at several Free Agent Combines but admits that he knows he must improve certain parts of his kicking game to earn a starting position with an NFL team.
Clint was here to improve on what he termed his ball striking and his kickoffs. I just called it consistency. If you improve your foot to ball contact everything will improve. And improve it did through my coaching technique of A Natural Style of Kicking and Punting.
The first day I watch and listened to Clint as we went through his warm up and kicking routine. I took several sequential camera shots and video of his kicking and kickoffs from several different angles to analyze his technique.
After about an hour and fifteen minutes of kicking we went back to my office to review and analyze the photos and video.
The close up video from several different angles and in slow motion and stop action made things crystal clear for me to explain what I felt was causing Clint to be a little inconsistent with his ball striking. It was also hindering him from kicking up and thru the ball.
During the video review I also showed Clint video’s of several other NFL kickers I have worked with the last couple of years and some of the problems they have had and how we corrected them.
Clint saw video of my kicking lessons with Garrett Hartley, Sebastian Janikowski, Billy Cundiff, Gary Anderson and Josh Scobee. At the present time Josh Scobee is 11 for 11on field goals with a long of 59 and Billy Cundiff is having a good field goal year and leading the NFL in touchbacks.
After the review Clint and I talked about the course of action for day two and Clint knew exactly what we he needed to do to get better.
The second day I went through a series of drills and a routine with all the teaching points for Clint to work on when he went back home to Reno, Nevada.
The emphasis was exactly on what he wanted to improve on: 1) his consistency 2) ball striking on kicking field goals 3) his consistency and distance on kickoffs.
After working on Clint's field goal technique with several drills we shifted gears to actually kicking field goals. Former Yale University combination punter and kicker, Tom Mante held while Clint kicked a series of field goals from various spots on the field. Clint was money from all over the field. He was kicking the ball higher, further and straighter with less effort.
We ended the kicking lesson with kickoffs. Again the emphasis was on technique and not how far he could kick the ball. As he found out with better technique the balls went further with less effort.
It was a real pleasure working with Clint Stitser. My job as a teacher and kicking coach was made pretty easy because Clint is an excellent athlete. He was a quick study in almost every facet of the kicking game we worked to improve.
In two to three weeks I believe Clint will be kicking the ball even better. He will get use to the new drills he learned and his new muscle memory will become automatic and more natural. I believe “the sky is the limit” for Clint.
Click below to listen to Clint Stitser’s Testimonial after working his kicking lesson with Coach Zauner.
Clint felt that he needed to find a way to improve his ball striking and distance on kickoffs and I believe the Kicking Lessons gave Clint exactly what he wanted. I wish him the best of luck and I believe he will be kicking some place in the NFL, CFL or UFL soon.
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