Less than 1% of high school senior kickers, punters & snappers around the nation are fortunate enough to earn a college football scholarship. Over the years, it’s become common place for college football programs to only offer ‘preferred walk on’ spots to high school specialists. A preferred walk on spot will not give you much of an edge going into camp. The team typically still brings in multiple kickers to compete with you, so there is never a guarantee or sure thing. You might end up spending $40,000+ dollars a year for college and may never even get a chance of playing in one single college football game! This is the harsh reality of going from high school to college football, which is very much a business. You need to do all you can to put yourself into the best position to be one of the top 1% of specialists who do earn a college football scholarship.
Deciding which camps or private coaches to spend your money on is a daunting task. A quick Google search will reveal multiple kicking camp options and tons of college football recruiting outfits offering you iron clad services. You need to sort through the noise and find a trusted kicking coach and camp provider who not only gets your son results in his kicking game, but also one who can help guide him throughout his years of HS into college and beyond.
Planning your son’s recruiting efforts should begin as early as middle school. College coaches around the nation are discovering talent earlier and earlier each year and it would behoove you to start preparing for the journey now. You need to record quality video of your kicks, punts and snaps at every game, as well make a practice kicking, punting or snapping video to showcase your skills up close and allow the coach to get to know you on a personal level.
Get a good HD Camera (not a cell phone) with a tripod and record your in-game field goals, kickoffs and punts from high up in the stadium so you can follow the ball the entire way and not let it get out of view. Special Teams coaches can then properly assess your hang-time and distance on kickoffs & punts, as well, check your trajectory and timing on field goals. Relying on videos from your high school football team or outside service is not a good idea as most of those videos are shot with the line of scrimmage in mind, meaning, the cameraman does not pan out enough to follow the flight of the ball, and it makes it very mysterious for a coach or recruiting personnel to watch.
The illustrations many companies add in (such as pausing the kick to show a circle around the kicker or punter) are not needed and most of the time it inhibits a Special Teams coach from determining the consistency (or lack of consistency) in your form & approach. So, nix the fancy music and on screen overlays and just keep your video simple. Note the distance of each kick or punt and track the entire kick or punt’s ball flight from start to finish, and keep the field in view at the bottom 3rd of the screen at all times. Be sure to include your contact info at the beginning of the video and at the end of the video as well as your Parents, Head Coach, and Kicking Coach’s contact information as a reference.
Helpful Articles Written by Coach Brent:
101s of College Recruiting for Specialists
How to Make a Football Kicking Highlight Video
You should keep a detailed log of your in-game statistics such as field goals made, field goals attempted, yardages of each field goal made and missed, # of kickoffs, # of touchbacks, distance of each kickoff, kickoff hang-times, # of punts, gross punt average, net punt average, punt hang-times, # of punts inside the 20, # of touchbacks, etc. While it may seem tedious to record all of these numbers, doing so will set you apart from the rest of other specialists out there who are lazy and don’t give this part of the recruiting process much thought. Immediately knowing your average kickoff distance, average kickoff hang-time, field goal range, etc. will prepare you for when you begin the communications process with college football coaches and you can readily provide this information to coaches or recruiting coordinators who ask of it.
Utilizing the Kick Tracker App (designed by Coach Brent) will help you track all these key statistics in one place as well as enable you to visualize your performance through colorful graphs, charts & logs. You will begin to accumulate a historic performance which will allow you to spot trends, both good & bad, which allows you to pinpoint your weaknesses and ultimately improve your game. This kicking app is essential for any level of kicker or punter who wants to track their stats and improve every day.
For our graduating collegiate specialists and free agents not only do we offer 1 on 1 on-field and off-field training, but we also help guide you on your journey of becoming a professional kicker, punter or snapper.
Pro Training
Just as many parents can relate to about finding the perfect job, finding the perfect college fit requires a lot of effort, many interviews, good timing & a few breaks. Being organized throughout this process will help give you an edge over many students out there who just mosey on through with no real initiative or direction. Read More…
Be persistent in all your communications with college football coaches & recruiting coordinators, but don’t be pushy. Carry all communications with the upmost respect and courtesy and be sure to follow-through on all your commitments. Any communications you make with a college football coach should be treated like a mini-interview as they are constantly evaluating you, and want to make sure you have it together. Students who carry themselves professionally with each interaction with a potential college football team will greatly increase their chances of drawing offers from that university.
You need to put education & academics at the very top of your priority list. If you don’t make the grades, you won’t have any team interested in you. Over the years we’ve been blessed to coach some amazing kickers, but there have unfortunately been a few times where these students could not even get accepted into their dream school, even though they were leaps and bounds ahead of every other kicker in their class. They had to settle for lower level schools and work their grades back up and sometimes it was too late and they missed their opportunity and eventually fizzled out. The point here is to make sure getting good grades in school, preparing for your SATs, ACTs, etc. and carrying yourself professionally is one of your top priorities, above and beyond football. Shockingly enough, there IS more to life than football! If you can dominate your grades, it opens up even more doors in your college football recruiting efforts, and sometimes could be the winning ingredient that makes a school offer you over another recruit.
If you work hard, remain persistent, catch a few breaks here and there, have in-game opportunities and perform well under pressure, good things usually happen. Play selflessly and help your team win games. Don’t ever let your statistics be the focus of a football game or season. Your ultimate objective as a football player in high school should be to help your team win and get to State. Your team’s success ultimately should provide you with more opportunities to make a big kick or punt and get noticed. Make the college recruiting process fun, it should be. Not many students have the opportunity to play football after college, so if you’re one of the few, cherish it and go at it with everything you got, don’t hold back!
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