In the first lesson Andrew went through his warm up drills and started kicking. When he was kicking I noticed he marked off his steps differently on each kick.
Andrew is a typical southern athlete, very polite and very respectful to coaches. Yes sir, No sir. Andrew is the product of listening to a bunch of kicking coaches or instructors that might not know a lot about kicking. Their in the business to make money but know nothing about the mechanics and fundamentals about kicking.
After the first lesson I analyzed and reviewed the video with Andrew. My thoughts on the field were confirmed by the slow motion video. Andrew was a little surprised on how he now looked on video.
Andrew was a good kicker in high school with a strong leg and was not kicking the ball even close to the way we saw him kick on his high school highlight video. Kicking instructors have changed Andrew so much he was now kicking very mechanically, with less accuracy and power.
He knew something was wrong but was not sure what it was or how to correct it. Andrew, had heard about me through another kicker and decided to get out here to Scottsdale and work out his dilemma.
After the first lesson I designed a game plan and progression of drills specifically to help Andrew acquire the correct fundamentals and muscle memory to not only make him a more consistent kicker but to get the power and distance back that he lost trying to kick with this other style of kicking and kicking off.
I introduced Andrew to the One Step Drill which is my favorite Drill
Andrew was kicking and pivoting and wrapping his foot around the ball causing one problem so I tried to get Andrew to kick up and through his kicks.
The first day Andrew was very inconsistent marking off his steps and lining up his kicks so we spent time on and off the field making sure he was more precise at doing both none kicking skills.
In the photo above you see Andrew now finishing this kick on balance. In the first two sessions Andrew was kicking a little out of control. I like kickers to start and end on balance.
Andrew hopes to be the starting kickoff man this year for the Crimson Tide. So we spent time in two sessions working on kickoffs.
Coaches and other kicking instructors have tried to mandate that Andrew kickoff with a scissor or hurdler technique. My recommendation was to have him kickoff with the same technique that he kicks field goals (kick and skip) .
During the video review I made my suggestion for his kickoff technique and I gave Andrew my reasons. He told me that's the way he use to kickoff in high school and was good at it but everyone has told him to get better distance he must use this other technique.
Go figure.
Andrew finished the three day One on One Kicking Lessons knowing he is back on track to kicking the ball more like he use to. He has the DVD to review the coaching points and drills. I believe in two to three weeks he will be kicking much better.
