Two kickers, Jake Webber, Portland State (left) and Justin Kahut (right), Oregon State University were in Scottsdale, Arizona the last two days for some One on One Kicking Lessons. The two are buddies from their days together at Oregon State. However, Jake transferred and is now playing for Head Coach Jerry Glanville at Portland State.Actually, about a month ago Coach Glanville called me and asked if I could help his kicker Jake Webber be a better directional kickoff man. I said, "send him down."
Jake is about 6'4 and a big raw kicker with some potential or upside. After working with him for two days I don't think Jake really knows how good he could really be.
Jake was excited to be here because he wants to get better and also knows Coach Glanville is watching and waiting to see how much he has progressed.
I believe Justin and Jake were both amazed at how much progressed he made in two lessons. It was like day and night. In the photo below, Jake was kicking, crunching and pivoting trying to create a kick.
After two days of drills, Jake was making much better contact on the ball and hitting balls high, far and straight. He was now kicking and skipping through the ball and made much improved and consistent contact.
At the end of both lessons we worked on Jake's kickoff technique with an emphasis on kicking directionally. Coach Glanville said, "I want my kickers, kicking the ball to or outside the numbers to help our coverage teams and my man Jake keeps kicking the ball down the middle of the field."
In the photo below we are working on Jake's kickoff approach and technique so he can execute directional kickoffs with better accuracy and consistency. I believe Coach Glanville will be very happy with Jake's improvement on not only his kickoff technique but also his field goal technique.
Justin Kahut, is the kicker at Oregon State University. He kicked the winning field goal in this past year 2008 Sun Bowl in El Paso Texas, when #24 ranked Oregon State beat #18 ranked University of Pittsburgh in a low scoring 3 to 0 win.
When Justin heard that his good friend Jake Webber was coming down for some One on One Kicking Lessons Justin decided it was a also a good idea for himself.
Justin like Jake has not received a lot of kicking instruction in the past. Basically, Justin does a short warm up and starts kicking. When he started kicking in his first lesson balls were flying every where in the wind.
In the photo below I showed Justin that he was not getting the proper foot position on the ball and he was cutting a lot of his kicks.
I also pointed out in the photo below that Justin's approach angle and distance varied on almost every kick. I asked Justin his field goal stats for last season and they were not very impressive at I believe he said 68%.
Justin has the potential to be a pretty good kicker but has no system. He was mis aligning his kicks and had a inconsistent approach while crunching a lot.
In the two lessons we got Justin to figure out his 'Perfect' Triangle so he had a consistent approach. We next worked on him lining up his kicks better drawing a 'Target Line' through the goal posts to his target.
Finally, we worked various drills trying to get Justin not to crunch so much on impact. In the photo below Justin was starting to kick up and through his kicks better and was eliminating the crunch and cut motion on his field goals.
At the end of the second day Justin was kicking much better and was very happy with the results.
Both boys were very happy that they came down and enjoyed the One on One Kicking Lessons. They also enjoyed the 60 to 70 degree weather and the good Mexican food here in Arizona.
Both Jake and Justin were a pleasure to work with and both said they enjoyed their One on One Kicking Lessons and want to come back this summer.