Will Billy Cundiff Ever Live This Down?

"Billy Cundiff will never live this down", was one of the common themes on most sports show on Monday, one day after his 32-yard missed field goal in the final seconds of the AFC championship game. If they only knew Billy as well as I do, I don't think that they would jump to this conclusion so quickly.

Billy gets paid millions of dollars to kick a football. That is all he has to do. How can he miss? I know, it sucks that he is not perfect because he gets paid a lot of money for his skill. But does this reasoning make sense for any other job? If you are getting paid well to do one job, are you not allowed to make a mistake?

Before I tell you more about Billy, there are few misconceptions about NFL kickers that I need to clear up. In order to keep this blog entry to under 100 pages, I will not talk about the tremendous amount of skills, training, genetics, and luck that it takes to make it to the NFL. I am just going to focus on general nature of the process that is becoming an NFL kicker.

For some reason, most people think that kicking a football is easy. While I agree that you can teach a 10-year old with soccer background to kick an extra point, kicking at the NFL level is quite difficult. It is a very very good job. It is not very physically demanding. You get paid a lot of money. You have a lot of free time. It is just lovely. But, it is not an easy job to get....or keep.

There are only 32 job openings in the world! Can you think of any other profession that pays greatly for being one of the top 32 in the world, but pays NOTHING for being 33rd best. Can you imagine the risks you take and odds that you face when you choose to pursue a profession with this pay arrangement ? How about added pressure that you face if you have to provide for people other than yourself ?

On average, about 2 college kickers will break into the NFL every year. Some years, there will be more than two - some years less. Contrary to what Disney movies may have you believe, ex-soccer players or mules (1976 movie "Gus") without college kicking experience, have 0% chance of making it to the NFL. Top NFL kickers have somewhat of a job security. But the remaining 80% have to compete to keep their job every year. It is not a lot of fun doing your job really well and then having your boss bring in a temp, every year, and tell you, "You are doing great. Don't worry about Michael here. We just want to see how well he can do your job."

Back to Billy. Before considering whether he will bounce back from this latest setback, consider what he went through to get to this point...

- did not get a kicking scholarship out of high school
- attended Drake University - non-scholarship small school
- did not get drafted after his college career ended
- was told by Indianapolis Colts that his leg was not strong enough for the NFL
- as an undrafted free agent, he won kicking job for the Dallas Cowboys
- played 5 seasons in the NFL during which he was cut by Cowboys, Packers, Buccaneers, Saints (I think that is all of them)
- Spent two years completely out of the NFL - working for a venture capital firm, raising his daughter, and training on his own.
- Reinvented his swing, clawed his way back into the NFL and finished the season for Ravens in 2009.
- in 2010 training camp, he competed against one of the all-time most accurate NFL kickers, Shayne Graham, and beat him out to win his own job with the Ravens.
- Made PRO BOWL and set the ALL-TIME NFL record for most kickoff touchbacks in a season.
- Missed a 32 yard FG in the AFC championship game....

I think you get the point. You've seen the posters and you've heard the cliches - "Never give up!", "It is not about how many times you get knocked down, it is about how many times you get up.", "Set your goals high and don't stop till you get there",etc.

In addition to being a great human being, father, husband, and a friend, Billy is one tough mother f*#ker who refuses to give up or lose confidence in himself when he faces a setback. He is the guy who personifies those sports cliches that we have been hearing our whole lives. Anyone who met him can attest to his humble nature and his relentless pursuit of perfection.

I hope you all stay tuned in. Because this story will not end with a missed 32-yard field goal......


Filip Filipovic
TheKickingCoach.com

The Kicking Coach Staff member will play in the Superbowl !

When New England Patriots face Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship on Sunday, January 22nd, two members of The Kicking Coach Staff will face each other. Neither New England Patriots' punter Zoltan Mesko or Baltimore Ravens' kicker Billy Cundiff have ever played in a Superbowl. It looks like that will not be the case after this week.

Both Billy and Zoltan are featured in this promotional video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6E3rf2kYnY&feature=related

Check it out.

Filip Filipovic
TheKickingCoach.com

Getting coached too much?

Most kickers practice alone. Very few high school, college, or pro teams have kicking coaches. But every once in a while, you will be a part of the program where you will have a coach whose only responsibility is to get you to kick well.

In college and the pros, I had to deal with coaches who were more concerned with proving to the management that they have value to the team, rather than helping me improve.

I definitely COULD NOT say to the coach anything along the lines off, " I kick better when I am left alone". This is a career suicide.

On game days, I recommend physically avoiding coach's presence and eye contact. If you look towards him after kicks, coach will likely try to say something to you - that is what coaches do. But if you go straight toward the kicking net (or designated area), coach will have to physically seek you before he can say something. Which will force him to decide whether he has something important to say. When it comes to your own body language, you need to look calm and under control whether you miss or make a kick. Any sign of frustration will signal your coach to intervene.

If those do not work, staring into coach's eyes, nodding your head while day dreaming always worked for me.


Filip Filipovic
THEKICKINGCOACH.COM

Walk-Ons Kicking Great

Many of you will come to a point in your kicking career where you may have to decide whether to accept a scholarship or financial aid at a small school, or try to walk-on and earn your scholarship at a bigger school by winning the starting job. There is no uniform advice that will work for everyone. Your decision will have to be based on your financial situation, your kicking abilities and potential, and your personal preference.

Following The Kicking Coach Alumni took a chance at walking on, won the starting jobs, and are kicking great this year.

Dan Conroy, Michigan State University. Perfect on the year on FG attempts.
Derek Dimke, Illinois. So far 13 for 13 on FG attempts. Kickoffs are great.
Mike Meyer, Iowa. Took over the kicking duties over a scholarship kicker. He is a true freshman this year.
Cole Wagner, Connecticut, beat out a scholarship punter and is starting this year as a redshirt freshman.

Congrats on your successes so far,

Filip Filipovic
THEKICKINGCOACH.COM

Wasted Time

I recently had an opportunity to work with a punter who has been out of college and trying to make it to the NFL for the last 5 years. It only took about 2 kicks for me to see why he hasn't made it yet. I thought to myself, "I can see why you haven't made it yet?" His mechanics were so unnatural that:

1) NFL coach would never give him a chance &
2) There is no way that his consistency will ever be in the 80%+ range that NFL teams require

We changed few simple things - relaxing the steps, softening the grip, adjusting the grip, moving the drop more outside, etc. Few hours later, he was punting the ball consistently and looked like an NFL punter. It is rare that someone is able to make major changes and improve right away. But it was easy for him because he made changes that immediately made his movements more natural and comfortable.

He has been working hard on his punting skills his whole life. He has a strong leg, tough mind and good work ethic. He's been to number of kicking camps. Why hasn't he made it? Unfortunately, he has been coached by people who are better salesman than coaches.

Conclusion:

1. Be careful of who you are learning from.
2. Do some research on your kicking coach. Contact people who have worked with them in the past. It is amazing how many kicking coaches have bad reputations and still run successful(profitable) kicking businesses.
3. Stay away from coaches who claimed to have developed some revolutionary way of kicking that will increase your power by million percent. They usually have some clever catchy name for their style. These guys are ripoff artists. They are successful kicking industry businessman because there is a turnover in athletes every year.

You do not have much time to develop your skills and make it to college or pros. Don't waste time by working with guys who have a fancy website and promise you the world.

Filip Filipovic
THEKICKINGCOACH.COM

Todd Carter signs with Carolina Panthers

Todd Carter, former Grand Valley State University ('08) kicker signed a contract with Carolina Panthers on Tuesday, April 6th.

Todd has always had an exceptionally strong leg. But when we first started working together in December '08, his consistency was terrible. We agreed that instead of making a sloppy run at the NFL when he wasn't ready, we will take a full year, change up his mechanics a bit, and train with the goal of getting on a team in the spring of 2010.

We shortened his field goal approach, cut out his jab step, adjusted his body lean and increased the length and speed of his kickoff approach.

And 15 months later, after workouts with Chiefs and Panthers, Todd had 2 contract offers. He chose Panthers because he will have the opportunity to win a job as a kickoff specialist.

Here is a short article about Todd's signing from Yahoo front page -

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Double-threat-Todd-Carter-kicks-deep-makes-smo?urn=nfl,232798

Check out Todd's monster kickoffs here -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ii2NNZ0Mw

Congrats Todd !!!

Filip Filipovic
TheKickingCoach.com

Learning From NFL Tryouts

Few weeks ago I invited Kansas City Chiefs Special Teams Coach Steve Hoffman to work out few specialists that I am training. He watched their videos and set up their tryouts for March 26th at the University of Michigan indoor facility.

Three guys that were trying out out were:

1) Zoltan Mesko, University of Michigan punter. Top punter int he nation from college class of 2010.
2) Todd Carter, Grand Valley State University. Kicker with a very strong leg
3) Zach Johnson, Eastern Michigan University punter. Underrated punter with a strong leg.

Tryout took 4 hours. Steve Hoffman is one of those special teams coaches who relies on more than just a stopwatch and a chart to evaluate kickers and punters. He has been coaching specialists for 25 years at the NFL level. He looks for technical proficiency, foot speed, coachability and body language. He is not evaluating a kicker based on how he is kicking today. He is evaluating him on his potential, personality traits, and how he feels that the kicker will deal with the NFL culture.

Whenever a specialist is trying to go up a level (high school to college, college to professional), he has to start comparing himself to those who play at the next level. Being a good high school kicker does not mean that you will kick in college. Being a top 5 college kicker does not mean that you will get a shot at the NFL. Coaches and recruiters are looking for more than just your performance numbers. They are trying to figure out if they can see you wearing the uniform of their team.

Words of Advice: If you are trying to move up to the next level, observe how succesful specialists that play at the next level kick, practice, work out, interact with coaches and teammates, react to success and failure, etc. And then do what they do.

Filip Filipovic
THEKICKINGCOACH.COM