Tennessee Kickers Headed to Kicking Camps

As I gear up for kicking lessons in Tennessee this Summer, I wanted to take a look back at all the success of kicking specialists in Tennessee over the past few years.

Last year was a very successful year in the state of Tennessee for kicking specialists and especially for punters. The success of punters in Tennessee was highlighted by Nathan Renfro signing with Maryland and Spencer Roth signing with Baylor. This year the talent in the state of Tennessee leans more towards the kickers.

There are three kickers that highlight the 2012 class of kickers in the state of Tennessee; George Bullock (West High School), Landon Foster (Independence High School), and Ben Ogle (Greeneville).

George Bullock (pictured above) is a kicker from Knoxville that I have worked with since he was in 8th grade. He is a very talented and has the ability to kick off the ground. His hard work has put him in a position for a scholarship.

Landon Foster (pictured above) is the kicker/punter from Independence High School. He was referred to me by Brian Davis, who is now the starting kicker at Arkansas State, and is certainly the best combo kicker in the state of Tennessee and quite possibly the entire country!

I conducted lessons with Landon last Summer and I was extremely impressed with his demeanor and ability to learn. He picked up the instruction I gave him quicker than anyone I coached last Summer.

It will be interesting to see where Landon ends up and I hope he is able to use both his kicking and punting skills at the next level.

Ben Ogle is the kicker at Greeneville High School. Ben is a two time All State kicker and has had an extremely impressive career.

His team scored numerous touchdowns throughout the year on their way to a 4A State Championship, but unfortunately for Ben this limited his field goal opportunities. He was able to kick a 49 yard field goal in the State Championship though and boom numerous kickoffs through the endzone.

Ben's uncle is former Vol kicker Alan Duncan and just last Summer he sat in on my lessons with Ben and got to see my coaching methods.

Below is Alan Duncan's testimonial...

Another kicking specialist that has an opportunity to gain a scholarship is Abraham Haddad (Martin Westview). He has a big leg and is really improving his technique. He is also the starting running back for his school and runs a 4.4 forty yard dash.

 I look forward to seeing Abraham's development this Summer and believe he might have the biggest upside of any kicking prospect in the state this year.

My goal of improving kicking specialists in state of Tennessee is certainly working! I look forward to seeing how these kicking specialists perform this Summer at Tennessee kicking camps and other camps across the country.

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UFL-Las Vegas Locomotives Workout

This past weekend I took a break from coaching to travel to Phoenix, Arizona for the Las Vegas Locomotives workout.

Las Vegas is one of the few UFL teams that doesn't have a designated kicker on their roster and so I thought this would be a great time to perform for the Locomotives Special Teams Coach Larry MacDuff.

As many of you who have followed my blogs know, I have been following Coach Renner's Training Program since December with the goal of playing PRO football. His program certainly works and my performance this weekend is a living testament.

The workout was probably the most efficient one that I have ever witnessed. We had approximately 12 kickers at the tryout and that included former kickers from universities like Oregon St., Northwestern, and USC.

The kickers started with 30 yard field goals and worked our way back to 50 yard kicks. We kicked a total of 9 field goals and I made every single kick! I am really starting to learn from every competition that I am faced with and my confidence continues to grow when testing my technique under pressure.

We ended the workout with 3 kickoffs. My first two kickoffs were from the middle of the field and I averaged 70 yards with 4.1 hang time. My final kick was a directional kick to the right and was 66 yards  4.15 hang and perfectly on the numbers.

It was as close to a perfect day as I could have had! I am excited about the different professional kicking opportunities I might have in the future and eager to share Coach Renner's Training Program with my kickers and punters in Tennessee.

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Memphis Kicking Lessons

After doing kicking lessons in Nashville the week before, I spent this weekend doing kicking lessons in Memphis.

Memphis is home of Elvis, barbecue, and quite a few talented kickers. Over the years Memphis has produced kicking standouts Courtney Leavitt (South Carolina), Josh Jasper (LSU) and just recently Corey Acosta (Southern Miss).

Corey Acosta is my first kicking client and also a good friend. This past year he was a scholarship kicker at Southern Miss after narrowly missing out on the starting job as a true freshman. He has no reason to hang his head though because the starting kicker, Danny Hrapmann, went on to become a Lou Groza finalist after making 26 of 30 field goals.

This weekend I worked with Corey and quite a few other kicking specialists in Memphis. I think I saw a few prospects that have a chance to be the next Corey Acosta!

Tanner Norman (First Assembly Christian School) is a beginning kicker who is looking to contribute as a freshman this year for his varsity team. As you can see in the picture (above) he is working on his ball to foot contact, which is vital to any younger kicker.

CJ Stafford (Houston High School) is a rising sophomore and is extremely talented. He is headed to a few kicking camps in Tennessee and the surrounding states this Summer. I feel confident that he will turn some heads with his kicking potential.

Finally there is Gary Wunderlich (Memphis University School). Gary is a rising sophomore and took over the kicking duties last year after Mr. Football kicker Christian Kaufmann graduated. Gary is preparing for a big season for MUS and I can tell that he has improved from last year.

Overall it was a great weekend of kicking lessons in Memphis. I look forward to coming back to Memphis on June 24-26 to work with more kicking specialists in the area.

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Tomas Silva-Top Canadian Specialist

Tomas Silva (McGill University) came to Nashville from Canada to improve his punting and kicking fundamentals. This is Tomas' second trip to Nashville and after working with me last year he finished as one of the top university punters in Canada.

Tomas is a bright and articulate guy and he is very dedicated to his craft.  We spent four days working on his punting, field goals, and kickoffs. Even though the trip was mainly for working on kicking fundamentals it doesn't mean that he didn't enjoy some of our Southern hospitality!

He arrived last Thursday afternoon from the airport and when I picked him up I ask him if he was interested in going to the Nashville Predators vs. Vancouver Canucks Playoff Game. We went down to Bridgestone Arena and were able to get some great seats for the game. He told me that it would have been near impossible to get seats to a Montreal Canadians game. I convinced him to put on a Predators t-shirt for the game but he still stuck out like a sore thumb when he celebrated each Vancouver goal!

Punting is Tomas' bread and butter so we went over his punting fundamentals on Day 1. I saw that Tomas had certainly improved his technique from last year's visit but there were some things I could tighten up for him. 

After finishing with lessons Tomas mentioned that he was craving some BBQ. I explained to him that Memphis has the best BBQ but that Jack's Bar-B-Que on Broadway is the next best thing. He ordered the combo platter, which consisted of barbecue, ribs, and chicken. Lets just say he didn't go home hungry!

Tomas wanted to work some field goals and kickoffs but they are not quite the same necessity as punting because McGill has Gary Anderson's son, Austin, as their kicker. It is difficult to beat out the son of one of the best kickers in NFL history!

I showed him some kicking drills to refine his technique and he could see right away that he felt much more on balance and had better contact on the ball. As his field goal technique improves so will his kickoffs.

(Pictured: Gary Anderson in Arizona)

Tomas has lots of ability and is getting much closer to reaching his potential. He is a legit CFL prospect and he deserves the opportunity to be in a CFL Training Camp. It was great working with Tomas and I look forward to his next trip to get kicking lessons in Tennessee.

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May Kicking Lessons in Nashville

This weekend I was back doing kicking lessons in Nashville. It is always great to work with kickers and punters that I have worked with before plus working with some new kicking specialists.

Saturday and Sunday were spent working with kicking specialists on their fundamentals. Drill work is vital to improvement and giving specialists a plan for the Summer is equally important.

Brian Davis (pictured above) has been a kicking client for the past three years and just finished his first year at Arkansas State as their starting kicker. He continues to seek coaching each year and is part of a year long Training Program that I have established for kickers and punters. 

Hayes Foster is another client that is in the Training Program. He is entering his freshman year at Siegel High School and has a real chance to play as a freshman. In the picture (above) you can see Hayes last year and in a year's time he has made a dramatic improvement.

When you look at the picture of Hayes and I (above) you can see that Hayes has grown but not just in height. His maturity, physical strength, and kicking technique have all improved. This improvement is from hard work and using proper technique and kicking drills to improve.

While I still continue to train for PRO football I will still be available for kicking lessons all Summer unless I sign on with a PRO team. I have weekends of lessons already booked out in Memphis and Knoxville for this month and will be listing my June schedule in the near future.

Last year I worked with over 130 kickers and punters in Tennessee. This year I may not reach the same volume of kicking specialists but I will still be out there on the field helping guys improve.

A lot of exciting things are happening with my business over the next few weeks including the launch of a new website and the unveiling of my logo.

Last but not least...I want to give a big thanks to all the mothers out there. Everyday is Mother's Day but I really want to thank them for all they do!

Check back on the blog Thursday for another blog about my weekend of kicking lessons with another visitor from out of the country.

Visit:

www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

Check out Coach Renner's Training Program

UFL-Virginia Destroyers Workout

 This past weekend I had intended on doing kicking lessons in Memphis, Tennessee , but due to some unforeseen circumstances I had to readjust my schedule and I went a UFL workout for the Virginia Destroyers.

The field I typically use for lessons in Memphis (pictured below) was completely underwater due to flooding and so my lessons will be rescheduled till May 14-15. There are still a few openings for that weekend so please contact me ASAP if interested.

So instead of a weekend of kicking lessons I was off to Norfolk, Virginia to kick in front of Coach Stock, who is the Special Teams Coach for the Virginia Destroyers.

It was a really fun weekend cause I got to listen to legendary coach Marty Schottenheimer, who is the Head Coach of the Destroyers.

Coach Schottenheimer had some words for all the players before the workout. He told everyone that "the only thing that anyone could do today was there very best" and that "once your head hits the pillow tonight did you do everything you could do to be better".

 I took Coach Schottenheimer's words to heart during the workout and was able to perform very well . Coach Stock had us start the workout by kicking from 6 yards away from the goalpost and see if we could kick the ball high enough to clear the post. Most of the top kickers could clear it and through Coach Renner's training I never had any problems with that challenge.

There were approximately 20 kickers at the workout and we all kicked one kick and rotated. The challenge with a workout like this is to keep your focus on each kick when you could be waiting for 4 to 6 minutes before each kick. The truth is though that when you are a free agent kicker you need to be ready for anything!

Throughout the workout I kicked very well and only missed only a few kicks total, which put me right at the top of the specialists at the workout.

I was fortunate to have Will Batson (pictured right) to hold for me during the workout and I got to compete against Kenny Spencer (pictured left) who I did kicking lessons in Nashville with last Summer. Both Will and Kenny played at North Alabama and are both on the verge of UFL jobs and NFL opportunities.

Overall it was a great weekend and I look forward to seeing what other opportunities come up over the next few months as I continue my training toward PRO football.

Visit:

www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

Check out Coach Renner's Training Program

Also check out www.tennesseekickinglessons.com