August 20th, 2010

TKS Owner John Matich (Kicking Coach)

We had the opportunity to work the kickers from Kearny HS in San Diego, CA the other day. And we found some great talent!  To get things started we started with a dynamic warm-up.  When were done, they were almost ready to call it day. Commonly we get kickers tell us our warm-up is like a “workout”.  Funny but true….

After the warm we hit some basics field goals. Working on proper form and technique. We didn’t go further then 30 yards, because we were focusing on mechanics. In the beginning of the clinic, Luis and Miguel were kicking 60% on field goals. And after some guidance they were up in the 80% range. To commonly, I find kickers trying to kick long field goals to early in their career. They often find themselves getting frustrated and not focusing on the mechanics.

Then we hit some punts. All four punters were inconsistent at best. After a few drills we started getting some punts to turnover. It was nice to see them smile. We got the snapper involved, Carlos, who was firing them back. Working on some operations and with the head coach watching, Luis and a few other of the punters kicked great punts and were praised immediately.

After some work on kickoffs, the students were all ready asking Coach Matich to come back in a few days.

Well see what happens. To be continued!

www.kickingsystem.com

August 20th, 2010

TKS is pleased to announce football kicking lessons in Hawaii between the dates of September 14th till the 21st. Over the past few months we have been fielding some calls about TKS coming out to Hawaii, time slots are filling up fast. Call to book your session today.

www.kickingsystem.com

USD says ‘icing’ causes NFL kickers to choke

// Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 6 a.m.

// / Union Tribune//

Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding, who has been very successful during the regular season, has missed many key kicks during play-off games.

San Diego Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding tried to chill out during the off-season, hoping to overcome the mental anguish of missing crucial field goals in a play-off game against the New York Jets.

The rest may do him little good. Same goes for other NFL kickers. An opposing team’s coach can simply “ice” a kicker and make it harder for them to put the ball through the goal posts.

A new study by the University of San Diego says that kickers are less likely to make a field goal in a high pressure situation if the opposing team’s coach calls a time out just as they’re about to tee things up. The technique is called “icing.”

Psychology professor Nadav Goldschmied reviewed data from six National Football League seasons (2002-08) and found that kickers who’d been iced scored only 66.4 percent of the time (73 out of 110 kicks). By comparison, kickers who were not iced had an 80.4 percent success rate (131 out of 161).

Oddly, the study also says that “when the kicker’s own team called a time-out” the kicker had a success rate of 83.3 percent (45 out of 54).

The university says “other factors such as experience, game location or game score were not associated with success.”

“The prevailing wisdom is that icing works because of negative thoughts regarding potentially missing the kick that overwhelm the kicker during the extended time period,” Goldschmied told us by email. “However, we found that an added time per se (e.g., if the time-out was requested by own coach) did not yield a deterioration in performance.

“Thus, an alternative proposition that I am advocating is that preparing for the kick is taxing by itself (when the kicker is iced – i.e., time-out is requested by the opposite coach – he prepares for the kick twice, thereby extending the preparation time). Other studies show that, in general, extending the preparation period results in worse performance.”

The study, which was done in collaboration with UC San Diego, will appear in the September issue of the journal The Sport Psychologist.