Clinic at Apache Junction H.S.

Saturday morning I traveled to Apache Junction High School to perform a Kicking Clinic for Head Coach Rich Milligan, his staff and kicking specialists. Basically, we had about 15 specialists attend the clinic who compete on the sophomore, junior and varsity football teams. Coach Milligan videotaped the entire classroom and on field instruction.

Coach Milligan's goal was to expose the kicking specialists to equal instruction or coaching as the other players on the field. At the end of the two and half hour clinic he was very pleased with the results for his kickers and staff.

Shane Phillips, my Aussie Punter, assisted me with the clinic and helped coach the holders and punters.

Shane commented at the end of the clinic how much easier it is to actually hold and punt then to coach it. Most athlete's don't understand the 'Art of Coaching'. Shane now has a better appreciation for coaching.

We started the kicking specialists clinic with a classroom session for the first half hour. The players were shown a video presentation for their respective position. We then moved to the field. The emphasis in the first part of the clinic was: Short Snappers, Holder and Kickers.

On the field: Short and Long Snappers warming up with drills

Shane Phillips worked with the holders. The holder runs the huddle and regulates the timing of the field goal unit. The holder must not only have good hands and but also the dexterity to catch, rotate the laces and get the ball in the proper position on the tee so the kicker can execute his job. This is not an easy job. A good holder is worth his weight in gold to a kicker!

We emphasized individual technique, drills and progressed working together as a FG Unit.

We stressed 'Team Work' and what it takes to have a successful Field Goal Unit. We stressed the operation time from Snap, Hold and Kick to be between 1.25 to 1.35 seconds. The operation can not be too slow or too fast! We also showed the snappers how to snap 'Perfect Laces' to the holder. If your center can snap 'Perfect Laces' it makes it so much easier for the holder.

The varsity snapper, holder and kicker looked pretty good working together by the end of the session.

The second part of the clinic was for long snapping, punting and the punting unit. Below, you will see me emphasizing with the punters the proper position of the ball on the foot. We started with basic fundamentals and stayed pretty simple. The kids had not received much previous coaching instruction. I just wanted them to learn some good basic fundamentals and drills.

After stressing ball to foot contact we progressed to good fundamentals for a proper drop.

The drop is extremely important to the success of a good punt. We worked several drills emphasizing; catching the snap, getting the ball on the table and a good drop.

We had four punters and I just kept hammering fundamentals to them.

We finished coaching individual technique and progressed to the punting unit.

The punters were a little erratic to begin with. All of a sudden there was a rocket flying down field and everyone looked over at one of the boys. The coaches said, "we found a punter." We kept working catch, mold, get the ball on the table and drop the ball. Most of the punters were throwing or tossing the ball to their foot.

It was my first clinic for high school kids in Arizona. I felt it was not only a fun but also a rewarding experience. I thoroughly enjoyed working with these young men. The entire group was very attentive and worked hard to get better. I believe Coach Milligan's specialists will benefit from the instruction.

Listen to Coach Milligan's remarks about Coach Zauner's consulting services:

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