On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Josh Maveety a combination kicker punter from Bishop's University in Quebec Canada flew into Fountain Hills, Arizona for some One on One Punting and Kicking Lessons. 
Josh and Canada's #1 ranked punter and 5th ranked kicker Rob Maver worked out back to back for three days. These two big legged Canadians have a passion for kicking footballs and have a goal to be the best they can be and are here in Arizona to take their games to the next level. Josh who told me that he is more a kicker than a punter has been asked by his team to also handle the punting duties. During the first session I observed Josh and could quickly could tell that this young man has an explosive kicking leg.
As I observed Josh punt I noticed he had an inside drop that caused him to pull many of his punts left. As you can see in the photo above that Josh's first step was inside causing him to also place his drop inside.
I introduced Josh to my Drop Progression and One Step Drills. He quickly started placing the ball directly in front of his punting leg and hitting some better power zone punts.
Josh was an excellent student in the video review sessions. I pointed out a couple of flaws in his fundamentals and mechanics. I showed him video of several drills and came up with a progression to help him repair his problem. In the photo above you can see the ball landing more on the top of his punting foot.
The second day Josh hit three SNO spiral nose over punts to his power zone and said he had never done that before. Josh turned over three punts that must have sailed about 55 to 60 yards with hang times all over 4.7 seconds. The key was placing and dropping the ball directly in front of his punting leg.
Josh was not a natural punter at first but eventually started to look smoother and punt with better tempo and timing. As Josh eliminated pumping the ball and throwing it to his foot his drop improved along with his consistency.
Josh has never been formally coached on punting or kicking technique. He is a cruncher when it comes to both kicking skills.
At the end of each practice we worked about 20 minutes on Josh's field goal kicking technique. As I mentioned in my Blog; Rob Maver, Canadians are allowed to use a one inch block when kicking field goals in college and the CFL.
Therefore when kicking off a one inch block the crunching does not effect a kick as much as when kicking off the ground.
When we started the One on One Lessons Josh was fundamentally more advanced on his place kicking technique. By the end of the lessons Josh had improved in both phases of his kicking game but still is a little more ahead with his kicking technique. Only because he is thinking way too much with regards to his punting technique.
As I told him and everyone else that comes for One on One Lessons. You learn the proper technique and drills to reinforce the correct muscle memory. The key to every ones improvement is to then go home and practice and in about three weeks everything starts to improve.
You start to think less about what your doing and just go do it. Proper drills and the correct technique and muscle memory will be the key to Josh's improvement with his punting and kicking technique.
Josh has a strong leg and kicked several balls over 60 yards during the field goal section. The key is for him not to try to kick hard. He needs to learn to kick with better tempo and timing and the consistency will then improve.
During Josh's One on One Lessons all the kicking and punting was video taped. The video review sessions were very helpful for Josh to see his flaws and correct them. He now has a personalized DVD of all the drills and teaching points for him to go back home to Quebec and to continue to improve his technique.
It was a real pleasure meeting and working with Josh Maveety and I wish him the best of luck this season.
Josh and Rob seemed to really hit it off during their four days here in Fountain Hills, Arizona. I believe the two Canadians have become friends and will follow each others football careers.
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