No Good Kicking Coaches Near You? Until now...
Updated: Dec 19, 2023
How is it that an Aussie playing professional football in North America went from a benchwarmer to starting in the playoffs without having a kicking coach in his area?
It was done through online coaching - and in this short article I will show you how you it can help you for NFL or AFL when you don't have a kicking coach near you.
Blake Hayes played footy in Australia up until his early twenties. But took up punting when he saw the opportunity to play College Football in America. After a very successful college career, Blake wanted to play professionally.
But he was struggling to get enough power in his punts to go to that next level. And with no coaching in his area (well at least no good coaching) he came to me for some help.
As an expert kicking coach who played in the AFL system as well as college football in America, I understood Blakes' kicking style and the struggles of not getting decent coaching over there.
So we conducted an initial video consultation where I immediately spotted an issue in Blake's technique (he was making contact way too). I gave Blake some coaching points and drills to help him fix this issue.
You can check out a short clip from our initial consultation below:
From there Blake sent film to me each week so I could reinforce the changes that were needed and make minor adjustments to continually enhance his technique to make it more consistent.
This was all done through simple video analysis which you can see here:
I also created a gym program tailored for Blake to improve his strength, power & stability to have him kicking with even more hang time and distance.
As a result of this comprehensive coaching, Blake went from averaging 42 yards with 4.4 seconds of hang time to 44 yards and 4.7 seconds of hang time in just 8 weeks! This allowed him to win the starting job late in the season to punt in the playoffs.
Check out his testimony below:
"Josh has really helped me progress on the field with my punting and off the field with my strength and conditioning. His punting technique teachings are not the same for everyone, instead, he works with your current technique and finds the best way to maximize it. This is the best way to do things in my opinion."
So whether you're an Aussie wanting to improve your punting for American football or wanting to kick better for Australian football I can provide the help you need no matter where you live.
Click the button below to email me for some online coaching!
Want to see the benefits of online coaching... click here
And with all my online clients I'll do my best to see you in-person as well!
The Kicking Consultant aka Josh Growden is a High Performance Manager & expert kicking coach, making elite-level coaching accessible and affordable to all - not just the professionals. He holds a Masters degree in High Performance Sport from the University of Technology Sydney, and a Bachelors degree in Sports Science from Louisiana State University. He played for the GWS Giants when they first entered the AFL and then became a punter for American Football where he played in front of 100,000 people weekly!