Jared White (Trousdale County)

On Wednesday and Thursday Jared White (Trousdale County) was in Hendersonville, TN for some One on One Kicking and Punting Instruction. Jared was the 2008 Mr. Football Kicker of the Year and is now walking on at Middle Tennessee State University. Jared set the state record for most extra points in a career and had a wonderful career in high school. He came to me to refine his technique before starting his college career.

The first day Jared wanted to work on his punting and so I introduced him to the Drop Progression Drill. He had been successful as a punter in high school but said he needed to improve on punting before heading to college. Jared is much more of a natural kicker but I was able to give him some good drills to work on improving his punting. As you can see in the picture (below) Jared is dropping the ball too low and this effects hang time on punts. This was a hard habit to break and will result in improved hang time and distance. We continued to go over the Drop Progression drills and by the end of the day he started to understand the concepts.


At the end of the day I briefly saw him kick some field goals and I could see why he was the Mr. Football Kicker of the Year last year. He was very polished with his technique but I saw some things I could refine the next day when we worked kicking.

The next day we worked strictly on field goals and kickoffs. I noticed the day before that Jared had a tendency to lean away from the ball. He mentioned that he had learned this from a kicking video when he was younger and had always practiced it. I worked with him on opening his foot up a little more and kicking down the field. He was reluctant to make the change at first but by the end of the day he seemed to be pleased.

Finally, we worked on his kickoffs. I watched him kick a few kicks and noticed that he was lacking that same height on his kickoffs as he had on his field goals. I worked with him on keeping his chest up and letting his leg kick through the ball and he saw considerable improvements in his height and distance.

It was a pleasure working with Jared and I was very impressed with all the hard work and dedication that he and his dad have put in to make him such a successful kicker. I wish him the best of luck in his college pursuits and I really enjoyed watching him improve.

Visit: www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

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