On May 21-23 I worked with Coach Zauner on his Pro Development Camp at the Grande Sports World in Casa Grande, Arizona.This three day camp is designed for college and free agent kicking specialists to improve their technique along with Coach Zauner explaining what the standards are to make it in the NFL.
Working closely with Coach Zauner for the past two years and coaching college and high school kickers in Tennessee, has given me a unique perspective on the 'path' it takes to make it from a high school specialists all the way to professional kicking specialist.
It was a great weekend as I was in charge of the kickers while we were on the field, and Coach Zauner conducted the video review sessions and meetings and handled the punters.
We had some very talented kickers at the event including Jacob Branstetter (pictured above), who is entering his senior year at the University of Kansas. He is thought of as one of the top kickers in the country for next year and even hit a 57 yard field goal in 2009 against Oklahoma.
There were many other talented kickers from all over the country that attended like:
- Joshua Shene: Former Ole Miss kicker
- Nick Freeland: Indiana U. Kicker
- James Aho: New Mexico U. Kicker
- Randy Bullock: Texas A&M Kicker
- Fabrizio Scaccia: Free Agent Kicker
- Nicholas Pertuit: Free Agent Kicker
- Giannis Kourlesis: Free Agent Kicker
- Cody Morrow: Mid America U.
It was fun working with such a talented group of specialists as a whole but what I really enjoyed was working with the quite a few of the field goal kickers after the sessions on some minor technique issues that needed to be tweaked.
I saw great improvement with the kickers by the end of the four practices as each kicker had a good idea of where they stood and what drills they needed to work on to improve their game.
Coach Zauner did a fantastic job with the punters. This was a very talented group and Tom Malone (pictured above), free agent punter, was one of the best as he hit a 5.6 hang time on the first day of practice.
The snappers came out on the second and third days as we worked on live operation for the kickers and punters. Live operation is crucial to any specialist and that is something I think is a real advantage of this camp.
Also, I gave my Sport Psychology presentation for the group on what it takes to take your game to the next level. Every specialist at the camp was talented but what separates the good from great kickers is the mental side of the game.
Overall I thought it was a great camp that covered not just the technical aspect of the game but it worked with the player as a whole.
If you are a college or free agent specialist and you are looking to take your game to the next level you should really check out the remaining two Pro Development Camps in Minnesota.
Visit: www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com
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