Are you looking for some ways to build skills and confidence in your kicking specialists? Jay Nunez, Senior Special Teams Analyst, Alabama provides some drills and helps train coaches' eyes to be able to be a better coach for your kicking specialists.
This video is an excerpt from Coach Nunez's Glazier Drive Clinic: Specialist Fundamentals: Kicking & Punting 101.
There are some takeaways listed below the video that can help with the mental part of being a kicking specialist.
There is a big difference between kicking a soccer ball and being a consistent field goal and extra point specialist.
The biggest part of kicking is the mental aspect.
Regardless of the skill level of your kicker, it is a coach's job to make sure that they feel confident when they are taking the field. They need to take the field with the mindset of "I can succeed."
It doesn't help anyone to set the specialist up for failure, just because you are frustrated with the results he has been getting.
It is important to spend the time to relate one-on-one to your kicking specialist. The specialist is usually isolated from the rest of the team in practice and it is difficult to build relationships that way.
The kicker's personality is usually different from most of the players on your team, so it is important to work to find ways to build relationships so that your specialist feels supported.