15 Jun 11 2011 Austin Kicking Camp Re-Cap
We made our 4′th Annual stop in Austin Texas for the big summer kicking camp. Everything was bigger like Texas is known for. The kicking/punting distances were not big, they were insanely HUGE! Temperatures were soaring up to 101 degrees throughout the 2-Day Instructional Kicking Camp and kicking competitions and the kicking action was just as hot.
This weekend’s camp was the most impressive display of kicking I’ve seen at any of our camps in the last 4 years. Never have so many students hit as many 50+ yard field goals as this weekend! The field goal competition was won on a 58 yarder! The most astonishing thing is that the majority of campers were under-classmen and they still hung back to 50 yards plus! – Coach Brent Grablachoff
The 2-Day Instructional Kicking Camp again proved to be a success because of focus on quality kicking instruction, technique heavy teaching and drills and fundamental demonstrations. The overall process of the camp ensured each student was ready for the big competition on Day 2.
Results
We saw improvement from EVERY kicker but notably a few extremes that are not typical results. Grant Carlson (13), an 8th grader hit a few 45 yarders at camp, gaining 10 yards on his previous long Field Goal. Brannen Carraway (14) drilled a few 45 yarders and several 40 yarders throughout the day thus improving 10 yards on his previous ‘comfortable’ range of 30 yards! Jared Haynes (13) who won the ‘younger group’ FG Competition with a 56 yarder improved nineteen yards on his previous long of 37 yards! If you don’t believe it, watch the testimonial video below!
Texas Builds Champions
Football is so big in Texas and there are so many great teams and athletes who come out of the state. Winning state championships is what it’s all about at the HS Football level in Texas. So for a little motivation before the Day 2 competition, Coach Brent invited his friend Ralph Moccio out to help out with the camp. Ralph is a former standout tight-end and safety from Toms River North HS in NJ which is the area Brent is originally from. Ralph’s football team in his senior year won the NJ State Championship! Ralph proudly showed off his big ring to all the campers and they were pumped for the competition!
Competition Preview
I’m going to provide some commentary about our 2011 Austin Texas kicking competition, but keep it relatively short and sweet because you can view the full camp stats and see the incredible results for yourself! We had 11 under-classmen and 4 upper-classmen at this event. Two in 8th grade, Eight Freshmen, One Sophomore, Two Juniors and Two Seniors (All grades are based on Fall 2011 Class). With this said, most of the time I would expect the competitions to go rather quickly since the majority of the students were frosh! Well this was not the case as even though there were a lot of young students, they all had cannons for legs!
Younger Group Kicking Competition
Grant Carlson, Wesley Sparr and Evan Crocket were all within tenths of a point of winning the younger group kickoff competition. However in the end Evan was able to pull it out by a small margin. Congrats! In the Punting competition Jared Haynes, a Hutto Hippo (school & mascot) was able to squeeze out Andrew Tucker by a very small margin. The field goal competition was ridiculous. Three students advanced all the way to 53 yards! Evan was the first to drop out at 53 yards. Then there was Connor and Jared going back and forth where they both made their 53 yarder and then Connor missed his 56 but Jared nailed it! Jared won the younger group field goal competition with an extremely impressive 56 yard field goal. Jared (13) will be a freshman in high school this coming season! Jared even went on to dual it out with the older group winner all the way back to 58 yards! Congrats Jared on winning the Golden Boot Award for the younger group!
Older Group Kicking Competition
In the Older Group we had one guy with a bazooka for a leg. He would just fire off 60+ yard kicks left and right during the warm-ups. We saw a few of his kickoffs go through the goal posts! Andrew Procell wowed campers with his big leg by winning both the kickoff and punting competition. Check out the camp stats page for his impressive numbers. The grand finale of them all is the field goal competition. You already got a little preview by reading about Jared’s feat in the younger group. Well let me introduce you to a field goal kicking machine: Kevin Marcotte from Lake Travis HS, home of the 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 etc. State Champs! Winning at Lake Travis HS is a tradition and Kevin certainly represented his school to the fullest in our field goal competition.
Kevin Marcotte was a perfect 8 for 8 through 50 yards folks! That is consecutive kicks from 30L, 30R, 35L, 45R, 40M, 45M, 50M, 53M! Because him and Jared kept drilling their kicks we had to move the boys back or else we’d be there all day! Chris Nichols and Andrew Procell were still ‘alive’ through 53 yards but they both had their second miss on the first 56 yard field goal so they were eliminated. Kevin missed his 56 yard field goal too, but that was only his first miss of the whole event! Kevin had now won the older group competition but surprisingly Jared Haynes, the 13 year old with a cannon was still in the race. We let the two face off until one was left standing. We had to go back to 58 yards until finally Jared came up just short while Kevin nailed his and won the 2011 Kicking World Austin Kicking Camp ‘Golden Boot Award’ which signifies he is the BEST kicker at camp. Congratulations to both Jared and Kevin! Check out all the great photos from our 2-Day Texas Kicking Camp!
The Next Level
Do you want to showcase your talent at a Kicking World camp? How about learn from awesome coaches who put their hearts into what they do? Our main focus is helping you grow, improve and get results. Check out the video testimonials below to learn why people come to our camps. This is a video of several students from the Austin camp who share their experience about the weekend. We encourage you to check out our website, videos, social media pages and connect with Coach Brent and staff. Be sure to sign up for our next camp or schedule private lessons with us. Till next time, keep kicking and ya’ll have a great summer!
Tags: Austin Kicking Camp, Field Goal Competition, Kicking Competition, Texas Kicking Camp
05 May 11 2011 Dallas Kicking Camp Re-Cap
This was our 4th consecutive year back to the Lone Star State and the caliber of kickers and punters did not disappoint as usual. What a fun experience we all had from kicking at the ‘mini Jerry Jones’ like indoor stadium to getting tons of instruction and fun competitions outside in the famed Gopher-Warrior Bowl in Grand Prairie, TX. Kickers and Punters traveled from all over the state of Texas as far as 6+ hour drives and even one student came out from NJ!
The format was a 2-Day Kicking Camp with focus on instruction on Day 1. We teach the fundamentals and technique of field goal kicking, punting and kickoffs. Half-way through the first day’s session we break for lunch which is a nice opportunity for students to make new friends. After lunch is over we get back to work quickly and break down video from the morning kicking. This provides each student the ability to actually see their form on the big screen as coaches diagnose and repair form ailments.
Texas is known for changing conditions and weather that surprises you from one day to the next. When I arrived in Dallas the weather was 98 degrees, hot and sunny! At the start of our camp it was cloudy, cool and thunderstorms and tornados in the forecast! None of us were hoping to experience a Texas twister so we prayed the weather would hold out at least until our 2 day Kicking Camp was over! Fortunately, we were blessed with weather that circled all around the town of Grand Prairie and held out just long enough to provide us a wet free camp. Five minutes after camp was over it started lightning and raining!
For the Day 2 competition we had very strong swirling winds in the 20 MPH range. I asked the students if they wanted to eliminate variables and kick in the indoor football complex or if they wanted to do it outside. The response was unanimous that they wanted to try the competition in real life conditions even though it was windy and FRIGID (45 degrees). I applaud them on being brave and wanting to take on a challenge!
The competitions were fierce and some of the students really set themselves apart quickly. You can reference the full camp stats here. We’ll start the play by play with the ‘Older Group’ which was 10th and 11th graders (class of 2013 and 2014). Matthew McCrane of Brownwood HS and Sean Pollock of Royse City HS went the distance in what felt like a heavyweight boxing bout! The two were head to head the entire field goal competion. It went to the tune of make, make, make, make, make with hardly a miss mentioned anywhere! Nearing the end of the competition from 50 yards away Matt missed and Sean had the chance to close out the camp if he made it. Unfortunately Sean pushed his (or should I say the wind pushed it) but had PLENTY of leg and it gave Matt another chance to stay in the game. So after the first 50 yard field goal attempt, both Matt and Sean had 2 misses. But since they were tied we had to go to a bonus round. We kicked again from 50 yards and this time Matt nailed his and Sean’s got pushed again in the wind and Matt McCrane was crowned the Golden Boot Award winner of our 2011 Dallas Kicking Camp! Both boys did exceptionally well and are already very good kickers and will only continue to grow into even better kickers over the coming years.
In the Older group kickoff competition consistency won. Chris Gulla from Toms River North HS in Toms River, NJ was able to come away with the win. He didn’t even hit his best balls but because of his consistency with a respectable hang-time and deep ball he was able to knock off everyone else. The whole key to our kickoff and punting competition is consistency. Since students only get 2 attempts at each, it really trains you to perform under pressure and doesn’t allow you anytime to ‘get in a groove.’ It’s very much so like a game scenario where you may come in cold off the bench and are expected to put a perfect punt of kickoff down the field with little prior warm-up time. So that is why we do it this way.
In the Older group punting competition we had a very quiet young man who let his kicking and punting ability speak for himself. Again, consistency won here. Ronny Vega who traveled from Eastern Hills HS in the DFW area of Texas was able to come away with the win in our punting competition because of his consistent punts. None were rockets, but they were consistently good enough to beat out the other boys. See all the photos from the Texas Kicking Camp!
In the Younger group- Reagan Bates cleaned up shop in the field goal competition with a perfect 100% field goal accuracy rating as he nailed his 30, 30, 35 and 35 kicks to knock off everyone. We even gave him a 40 yard kick just to try after he had already won and he drained that too! Great job Reagan! Reagan also won the kickoff competition for the ‘younger age group.’ In the punting competition, there was one clear winner and Andrew Tucker wowed everyone with some high, tight spirals that looked like missiles. His hang-time average was 3.91 seconds and he is only in 8th grade! His punt distances were a very respectable net 35 and net 40 (50 and 55 yards in air from where he kicked it). I really look forward to seeing Reagan and Andrew’s improvement over the coming years. These guys should make for excellent kickers and punters in high school and beyond!
I want to thank everyone who made it out to the Dallas Kicking Camp in Grand Prairie, Texas this year. Us coaches has a blast teaching you everything we know and watching your improvement over the 2 days. A lot of friendships were forged and memories made. We may be coming back to the Gopher-Warrior Bowl again this winter so make sure you watch our website and Facebook page for updates. We also have a camp in Austin next month on June 11-12. Till then, keep kickin’ and ya’ll have a successful 2011 football season in Texas! -Coach Brent
Tags: Dallas Kicking Camp, Field Goal Competition, Kicking Competition, Texas Kicking Camp
27 Apr 11 2011 Spring Break Kicking Camp Re-Cap
On Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17, 2011 Kicking World held our annual Spring Break Kicking Camp! Students, parents and family traveled from all over California as well Nevada, Utah, Alabama, Hawaii and Canada to attend the marquee event that was held at beautiful Laguna Hills High School in Orange County, California. This year we introduced new elements to camp including:
- 2-Day Event
- Competition Stats Posted Online
- Slow-Mo Video Review/Analysis
- Lunch by Jersey Mike’s Subs
- 2 New Camp Awards
Adding something new to camp each year is important as it keeps our students coming back excited to learn and experience new things. -Coach Brent Grablachoff
The big rave of the 2011 Spring Break Kicking Camp this year was the video review session. We broke for lunch mid-day on Saturday (Day 1) and it was a perfect opportunity for students to relax out of the sun, down some lunch and make new friends. After lunch we embarked on a review, critique and analysis session as Coach Brent broke down the intricacies of every student’s field goal form & technique. Rest assured, not all of them were pretty! But by the end of the video review session all students knew exactly what they needed to work on throughout the remainder of camp.
Click Here to view tons of photos from our 2-Day 2011 Spring Break Kicking Camp!
Day 1 was a scorching 98 degrees, but all in attendance knows it was certainly hotter on the football field! Estimations were in the 110-112 degree range. Although the temperature was hot, I think the kicking and punting was even hotter! Students learned the basics, fundamentals, techniques and even more advanced drills and strategy for all 3 facets of the kicking game- field goals, kickoffs and punts. By the end of Day 1 everyone was prepared for the big competition on Day 2.
Sunday came and fortunately the heat cooled down a bit and it was a modest 85 degrees for most of the day. We did a review of all areas of the prior day’s instruction and then we held competitions for most of the day. Our punting and field goal competitions are quite simple. They’re designed to make you be accurate under pressure with minimal warm-ups. Students don’t get 5, 6, 7+ kicks to try to get a good ball. You only get 2 chances for punts and 2 chances for kickoffs. You are scored by adding the average of your 2 distances and your 2 punts. That number is your score or points for that particular event. We saw some amazing kickoffs and punts on Day 2. We were all very pleased with the improvement everyone made, especially on punts this particular camp!
The main event is the field goal competition which is run a little different than most camps. We do a double-elimination event which simply means each student has ’1 life’ during the field goal competition. So they can miss once, but if they miss twice they are out. We keep going back in distance until there is only one student left in each age group. The last person ‘alive’ is declared the Golden Boot Winner (the most accurate kicker of the camp). This year we had an awesome field goal battle going all the way back to 53 yards before a winner was determined!
This year we organized competitions into 2 groups based on age: 7/8/9 grade and 10/11 grade. We declared a winner for each of the 3 events- FG, Kickoff, Punt for both age groups. We also gave out 2 special awards this year that we haven’t in the past. The ‘Hussle Award’ is awarded to the player who exhibits leadership and pep during the camp. This is the person who is the first to each drill and has a great attitude throughout camp. We also gave out the Most Improved Award. Most Improved in our book is a very special award. It means to us this student is one who is able to quickly implement what they learn at camp and improve their skills with noticeable results the fastest. It does not mean they were not good at first and then got better. In fact this year’s winner(s) all were good kickers that became even better by the end of the camp. We coaches had such a tough time picking just 1 Most Improved so we named 4 winners!
To see complete camp results, award winners and detailed and sortable stats for each student at camp you can view the kicking camp statistics page.
Our Spring Break camp was another success and we thank all who made the commitment to be a part of it with us. We look forward to seeing you again soon at another camp in the near future!
Tags: California Kicking Camp, Field Goal Competition, Kicking Competition, Orange County Kicking Camp, Spring Break Kicking Camp
20 Jul 10 Orange County Kicking Competition at Irvine High School
On Sunday, July 18th we had a special mini kicking competition at Irvine High School for some of the Kicking World students. It was a hot day out on the field turf but we all had fun. I’ve been coaching some awesome kickers this year who work hard each week and I wanted to do something different besides the regular kicking instruction we normally do. To spice things up we had a field goal competition with 4 of my students- Zachary Christensen of Mission Viejo High School, Christian Rodriguez of Fountain Valley High School, Nicholas Mares of Servite High School and Bailey Lipschultz of Alta Loma High School. Bret Miller of San Clemente High School was unable to attend. We had a double-elimination field goal competition and the winner got a Kicking World Under Armour heat-gear training shirt. It was a close kicking competition with a lot of laughs and good times. Ultimately Zach Christensen was able to pull ahead as the winner with a beautiful 53 yard field goal. All 4 guys exhibited great poise, confidence and excellent ability under the kicking competition pressure. I’m really looking forward to this 2010 football season and seeing how our Kicking World students do. I’m expecting big things from everyone! Check out Kicking World TV for the best football kicking videos!
Tags: Field Goal Competition, High School Kicker, Kicking Coach, Kicking Competition, Kicking Instruction, Orange County Kicking Competition
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