Taylor Mehlhaff, Special Teams Quality Control Coach at Wisconsin, discusses fundamentals of the kickoff approach. As a player, Taylor was a kicker at Wisconsin and was drafted by the Saints.
The video below is a part of his entire Glazier Drive presentation on Kickoff Specialist Instruction Fundamentals and Drills
Coach Mehlhaff's philosophy is that there is no one right way to teach kicking. There are some fundamentals that help anyone hit the ball higher, longer, straighter, and more consistently. At the same time, all kickers have slightly different mechanics and approaches. You need to find the sweet spot of the intersection of what is comfortable for the individual with the proven fundamentals.
The goal to kicking is to be consistent. To do that, you need to do the same thing, the same way, and every time. That includes the same warmup every practice, every time the kicker is kicking by himself, or on gameday. The pre-kick routine should always be the same.
This "dry swing" routing prior to the kick works on approach, making sure the kicker is hitting the lines perfectly. The steps are under the kicker's body without reaching and without stuttering. The goal is for the steps to hit the tape perfectly every single time.
Another drill that you can use with your kickers is to have them work on no step kicks. Have the kicker stand over the ball and focus on contacting the football--not worrying about how far it goes. The progression from no step is one step kicks, then to three step kicks, then on to the full approach. The fundamentals of the full approach are presented in the video.
The final piece of the routine is to do the same thing every time the team scores and there will be a kickoff. If the kicker will be kicking the extra point, or if the score is from a field goal that he kicks, those should be factored into the routine.
A suggested mental routine once the kicker places the ball on the tee and moves to the spot where he will approach from is to visualize the end result of the kickoff. For high school, that might be kicking the ball into the endzone with a nice slow rotation. For college, it could be kicking the ball out of the back of the endzone. The eyes should then lock into the sweet spot on the back of the ball.
