TKS April 2008 Unwrapped
Here is a look inside at TKS from this past weekend April 26th-27th, 2008
On Saturday morning in Del Mar, CA — at 9am is was close to 90 degrees, TKS had a private kicking lesson with Blake Busse from San Diego, CA.
We started wit punting I am pleased to see how Blake has really developed his punting skill and has started to him more balls with a spiral nose over. If Blake can get these fundamentals down he will be a great combo threat. We ended the session kicking off the ground, although Blake is a sophomore I wanted him to get started early! He was kicking 40-45 yard kicks relatively easily. Blake is one to watch over the next year.
At 10am Nicolas Stantisas from San Diego, CA had a private kicking lesson. Nick a lefty had a great session. He finally bought a shoe that fit his foot and ended up kicking a 45-yard field goal. And he is only in 8th grade!! I am proud of Nick. We spent most the session working on his timing with his hips and legs and finishing on balance.
At 11am TKS had another private lesson with Dominic Valentine a freshman from Riverside. This was the first time I had worked with him. He has a strong leg. We worked primarily on getting the basics down as he had never been coached before.
At 12:30 for the final lesson of the day TKS worked with Lee Abelkop, from San Diego, CA. Lee started with kickoffs and hit a 4.0 inside the 5-yard line. Lee is ready to take his game to the next level. Lee also looked string on FG’s, we continued to work on the details. Fine-tuning his skipping motion and keeping his head down longer.
What a day. Back to back sessions and the weather was hot. I thought it was a great day of kicking and looking forward to seeing these kids develop.
Sunday
It started with a phone call from the River City Rage of the UIFL. They want me (John Matich) to kick for them this year. This is the third phone call from them this year. We’ll see what happens, if the price is right it could happen.
The first private lesson at 10am was with Josh Boyd from San Diego, CA. Josh is heading to Oregon next fall as a walk-on punter. Josh hit a 55-yard field goal in the session and had some good hang time punts. We worked on his cross over step. And his drop that gets placed just outside his hip. It was a good day for young Josh as he punted well and even kicked some long field goals.
At 11am with the temperatures now close to 100 degrees. I got a chance to work with Andrew Sayer from San Diego, CA. Andrew a freshman punter started with a few field goals and then we worked out way into punting. Andrew is having trouble because he keeps pointing the nose of the ball down on his drop table. All in all not a bad day as he got a few punts to turn over.
Next at 12pm we had Jeff Lipton, a junior from San Diego, CA. Jeff mostly worked on field goals. We hit a few field goals. Jeff is starting to hit field goals off the ground and is doing a great job.
The next session at 2pm TKS worked with Brian Huynh, from San Diego, CA. Brian had a great day kicking the football as we worked mostly with field goals and kickoffs.
The last session of the day was the TKS Kicking Academy at 3pm. We had a big turnout as 11 students showed up. We started with a dynamic warm-up for about 10-15 minutes with some balance and flexibility work. We then did some static stretching and started to kick. First we hit some field goals, then kickoffs, and then punts. In the end Lee Abelkop who I saw the day before won the field goal competition in the end with a 53-yard kick over Rich Rodriguez. It was his third week in the run to win.
After 5 hours on the field today and 5 hours on Saturday, I was exhausted. The 100 degree temperatures were finally getting to me. Gotta love kicking!
