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