On Wednesday and Thursday I had two One on One Punting Lessons with Jon Damkroger who has just transferred from Nebraska Omaha to the University of Nebraska. Jon will red shirt this year because of the NCAA transfer rules. Jon's father, Tom Damkroger, brought Jon out to Scottsdale to make sure what he was practicing was fundamentally sound.
Jon started punting and I watched and asked a lot of questions. I could tell right away when Jon started executing his basic drills: drops, walk & drops and one step punts, he was going to have some consistency problems.
Jon like many punters has been taught some poor fundamentals by instructors or coaches through the years. Which means he has taken a lot of punting repetitions with bad muscle memory.
My job is to teach the correct technique for a punter to be fundamentally sound and to design drills that will enable a punter to get the most repetitions with the correct muscle memory.
Thank goodness Jon's father noticed his son had changed his technique in the last year or so and looked further for some guidance and help.
Jon was fundamentally unsound in two or three aspects of his punting game. To get Jon on track, we started him off with the drop and the drop progression drills to give Jon a couple of drills that would give him all the correct fundamentals. These drills will give Jon a chance to get thousands of repetitions without even punting a ball.
We progressed to the One Step Drill and Jon hit a couple of excellent punts. Immediately he realized what I was stressing along with my Power Zone Punting Technique, which I teach all my punters, was also going to work for him.
Jon is a very coach able young man and tried to do exactly what his college coaches wanted him to do. The only problem was, the coaches were teaching him, in my opinion some poor and incorrect fundamentals.
This is why Jon started to struggle hitting good solid punts with any type of consistency.
Jon, was taught a couple of things: 1) drop the ball with the nose straight, 2) walk straight down field and 3) keep your head down. These three fundamentals if executed incorrectly can be a night mare for any punter.
If you watch the videos of the Pro's in my One on One Lessons or go to the Art of Punting section you will see that I don't teach or stress any of those points.
After two days of One on One instruction Jon and his father knew that what I was teaching Jon was going to make him better in the long run.
When Jon hit a booming one step or regular punt he could feel punting through the ball with so much more power and with less effort. Jon has a very quick and explosive leg. However, his old style and technique of punting was hindering him from punting up and through the ball with any consistency.
I told Jon to go home and practice his new drop along with the drop progression drill and one step drill emphasizing my power zone punting technique and in a couple weeks he will be more consistent.
Jon and his father were very happy with the sessions. They really liked having the sessions video taped and got to take home a DVD copy of the lessons for perusal.
It was a pleasure working with Jon because he picked up concepts quickly. I know that Jon has a lot of things to work on, however, it is a blessing that he has a red shirt year to practice and get better.
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