Improving Your Youth Football Defense, Punting Tips For Youth Football

Coach Kohl from the Kohl’s Kicking Camps presented three times at the Chicago Glazier Clinic and did a great job. Kicking is an area we admittedly have yet to develop a core excellence in and Coach Kohl showed us why or better yet, maybe why not. Like most youth football coaching staffs, we used some common sense, trial and error and hoped for the best. As you might expect, we had better than average results when we had good “natural” kickers and weaker results when we had average natural kickers.

Punting Goals For Youth Football

Obviously the goal of a youth coach should be to have good results with just average players and great results with better than average players and I’m firmly convinced that this a reasonable goal when it comes to the kicking game as well. I’m more firmly convinced of that now after listening to Coach Kohl and other kicking coaches this clinic season. At every clinic I went to I sat in on the kicking sessions, often they were the lightest attended sessions in the clinic.

Progression Punt Teaching

I was pleased to come to the conclusion that like any teachable football skill, the punt is best taught in a progression. Like many poorly taught football skills, many youth football coaches teach a player to perform multiple fairly difficult tasks nearly simultaneously and that certainly describes how most of us teach the punt.

The punt consists of a number of very specific and coachable tasks: the lineup, the stance, the readjustment, the catch, the grip, the ball “mold”, the “drop table”, the approach, the plant foot, the drop, the contact fit and lock, the extension and follow through. The youth football player can be taught every one of these concepts and we can even link them together into an integrated movement. We as coaches just have to teach each specific step and perfect each step in our kickers, one step and concept at a time.

Coach Kohl has kicking camps all over the country and has no problem if coaches want to attend and watch free of charge, those are listed on his web site. He also has two kicking DVDs that I bought and highly recommend. They can be purchased through “Championship Productions” you can find them on the web.

While coach Kohl and others aren’t coming out with anything brand new, it is important to understand the intricacies of punting, the key points and how to teach it in an easy to understand progression based manner. I’m not going to spell out all of his coaching points and methods here on the blog, but we certainly plan on applying coach Kohl’s concepts next season with both our punters and kickers.

The Drop Table

Two simple to understand and implement concepts is the “Drop Table” and the “Drop Angle”. These are commonly agreed upon kicking terms, the drop table refer to the height the ball is kept at from the time of the catch to the time of the drop. It is an imaginary “table” that the ball should never go below. The drop angle refers to what angle you drop the ball at to your kicking foot. All the experts do agree that the drop table should never go below the waist. If the ball is constantly moved to various elevations after the catch, the ball is often thrown out in front of the kicker where he has to catch up to the ball or even tossed up rather than down if the ball height is varied with the punters stride.

Smooth and consistent is what you are looking for here, arms fully extended, the drop table never varying or going below the waist.

The Drop Angle

The drop angle is very important and very easy to correct. The drop portion, like any other progression move is isolated and practiced and coach Kohl and other kicking coaches have a plethora of drills to practice this portion of the kick. One of the key coaching points of the drop is that you want to drop the ball at 11:00 if you are right footed kicker, not in a straight line or 12:00. If you drop the football straight down and not at an angle, quite often the back tip of the ball is going to strike your shin first before it touches your foot and you get what punters call a “double hit”. When you “double hit” the kick will be a short end over ender, with the ball not receiving the full force of the punters foot, ankle, leg and hips. By dropping the ball at 11:00, the back tip of the ball just misses the shin on the drop and the first contact of the ball is to the top most portion of the face of the foot, the protruding hump bone on the top of your foot “the sweet spot” for all punters.

Our goal as coaches is to make sure our players have the tools necessary so that they will maximize their potential while playing for us. For my teams this means the kicking game too. We will excel in this very important part of the game next season, I assure you.

Don’t be intimidated by kicking, it is something you learn to teach just like anything else.

Remember, field postion is a key factor in developing a solid defense in youth football. While we have not had to punt very often in the last 8 seasons due to our prolific offense, we need to establish competency in it for when we do need it and for the benefit of the kickers. We aren’t going to settle for mediocrity in any part of our game or just hope some natural Ray Guy Jr. type player shows up on our field for our first practice.

Dave Cisar-

Dave has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized. He is a Nike “Coach of the Year” Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington.

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

To Sign up for his free tips newsletter or to see his 325 free tips go to: Football Plays

Mike Holmgren’s Seattle Seahawks did absolutely nothing to disturb the greatness of the NFL’s most historic venue at Lambeau Field Saturday (1-12-08) in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the advancing Green Bay Packers.

Packer Quarterback Brett Favre (pronounced Farve) had a 7-2 postseason record at home that is now 8-2. He had a 4-2 record in the playoffs against Seattle that is now 5-2.

Favre is statistically the greatest signal-caller in National Football League history with a record 253 consecutive regular-season starts (second best in history at ANY position), a record 61,665 career passing yards, a record 442 career touchdown passes, and a record 160 career wins, the most by any starting QB.

And, oh yeah, Favre is the only 3-time NFL Most Valuable Player. He won in 1995, in 1996 when Seattle coach Mike Holmgren coached the Packers to the Super Bowl 31 title by beating New England, 35-21, and in 1997 when the Holmgren-led Packers lost Super Bowl 32 to Denver, 31-24.

The Packers record for playoff wins at Lambeau Field was 14-2 before Saturday. Now it is 15-2, thanks to Seattle. In a 2003 survey by ESPN The Magazine, the Packers ranked as the No. 1 franchise among the 121 major sports teams in North America.

The Seahawks also did absolutely nothing Saturday to advance their chances of getting into their second Super Bowl appearance in 3 years. After jumping out to a 14-0 lead by converting two fumbles by first-year running back Ryan Grant into touchdowns during the first 4 minutes of the game, the Seahawks laid down and died a slow death among the falling snowflakes at Lambeau Field.

The (we thought) vaunted Seahawk defense allowed the Packers to get back into the game and dominate it by giving up 6 straight touchdown drives to Green Bay. It was game, set, match, period, end of season.

Oh, the guy that fumbled twice to start the game, he finished with 201 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. Favre? He was 18-of-23 for 173 yards and 3 touchdowns. Seattle put on a pathetic rushing display with a total of plus 28 yards to 235 for the Packers. Same field, same snow coming down, same slippery turf, same clogged cleats.

Green Bay will now advance to play the New York Giants (21-17 winners over the Dallas Cowboys Sunday) in the NFC Championship Game next Sunday. I hope the Packers dominate the Giants the same way they did the Seahawks.

The Seahawks will be watching television from here on out, wondering why they could not handle the snowflakes in Green Bay. The answer, of course, was Brett Favre in snow-crazed conditions having the time of his life playing football.

In short, the Seahawks defense did nothing but lose, 42-20. They did not fight off blocks. They did not tackle. They did not cover. They did not react. They did not bring their A Game against Green Bay’s “hogs” up front who dominated the line and the game. Forget the charity trip. If the ‘Hawks did anything at all, why did Green Bay score touchdowns on 6 STRAIGHT possessions?

Mike Holmgren, the Seahawks, the Seattle fans, the owners, the brain trust, the Seattle media and myself did not get what we wanted. I asked for too much. I wanted a game in which no one gets hurt on either side of the ball that comes down to the last play in a classic confrontation between two worthy teams.

Watching this playoff game was painful for me. After suffering through an entire season watching the Washington Husky defense raise ineptitude to an art form, I had to endure the Seahawks’ supposedly much improved defense get demolished. This is not how you increase your fan base.

In the meantime, the San Diego Chargers waltzed into the Indianapolis Colts’ playground Sunday and walked away with a 28-24 victory against the defending Super Bowl Champions on the road to advance to the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots (31-20 winners over the Jacksonville Jags Saturday).

Do not give me all of this crap about how hard it is to win on the road. Tell it to the San Diego Chargers, who had injuries to their stars, played some scrubs and won anyway. That is called desire. That is called attitude. That is called guts. That is called, “I do not want to win this game, I NEED to win this game.”

And now for two disclaimers: 1) Brett Favre has been my favorite NFL player since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Favre is a gamer. ‘Nuff said. 2) I am one of the few Green Bay Packer stockholders who was not totally uphappy when Holmgren moved from coaching Green Bay to coaching Seattle.

I was born and raised in Michigan and distanced myself from my family by following the Green Bay Packers closer than the Detroit Lions. Let me say that the Packers have let me down less over the years than the Lions.

I moved to the Puget Sound Area of Washington 34 years ago and so, of course, I have become a follower of the Seattle Seahawks. The only difference is that I am a fair-weather follower of the Seahawks, as you can tell. I do not apologize for it, I take pride in it. I hate losing. It takes no talent to lose, it takes talent to win. Any no good can lose.

Holmgren has done well in Seattle. He has taken the Seahawks to the playoffs 5 straight seasons, has won 4 consecutive NFC West titles, and has taken them to the Super Bowl in 2005, winning an NFC title along the way.

Seattle needs more and better players, and it is not Mike Holmgren’s job to get them. That chore falls on the shoulders of President of Football Operations Tim Ruskell and Seattle Seahawk Owner Paul Allen.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley’s Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.

Read my 11 Washington Husky articles including “Meet the Nation’s Most Statistically Incredible Team - The University of Washington Huskies”, “Anatomy of a Team on the Rise: Washington Will Get Over Freshmanitis and Really Thrive” and “College Football Mayhem: Flagrant Helmet-to-Helmet Shots Need to Stop Before Someone Gets Killed”.

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