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Are our kickers bulking up too much?

Skeeterpop

Skeeterpop

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Jul 18, 2008
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This is a serious question for anyone who might know our kickers personally or have some inside connections within the training staff. Unfortunately, most of my good ties within the locker room have moved on.

I have noticed the last few years all our kickers seem to take a noticeable decline in production and accuracy after their first season or two on campus. This goes for kick offs, FGs and punts. The biomechanics of a kicker is much different from every other position on the field when it comes to muscle mass vs flexibility and lean fast twitch muscles and tendons. I am sure they are lifting weights but to what extent? And if they are gaining too much muscle mass and losing flexibility, this may be the cause for their decreased production. I know we dont have a kicking coach but someone is monitoring these guys and I am concerned they are changing their body mechanics too much from getting too strong and losing their flexibilty and fast twitch that is what gives a kicker power and accuracy.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Especially from someone with some personal knowledge of out guys. I played LB and kicked in HS and never lifted in HS. I know it would have helped as a LB but would have limited flexibilty as a kicker.
 
NationalTitles18

NationalTitles18

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I don't know the answer to your question, but a paid consultant if allowed by the rules would be great if they have an answer to the problem that the coaching staff obviously hasn't had in 5 seasons now. Might be AG's back problem. Might be mental. Might be a combination. Whatever, it has to be improved one way or another for the team's sake.
 
Skeeterpop

Skeeterpop

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NationalTitles15 said:
I don't know the answer to your question, but a paid consultant if allowed by the rules would be great if they have an answer to the problem that the coaching staff obviously hasn't had in 5 seasons now. Might be AG's back problem. Might be mental. Might be a combination. Whatever, it has to be improved one way or another for the team's sake.
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Its not just AG. Look at Scotts kicks and what we hear about his rough camp. Our last FG Foster had the same issues. Our kickers in HS we kicking the ball out the back of the endzone. Now they barely get to the goalline on most kicks. I really think its loss of flexibility. We need to hire Coach Patterson back to work with them. Seriously!
 
TideHiFlyer

TideHiFlyer

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It is getting just about unbearable/cant watch Adam kick a field goal. How long does CNS support him? And JK? Flabbergasted at these two's performance last night.
 
J

JD95

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TideHiFlyer said:
It is getting just about unbearable/cant watch Adam kick a field goal. How long does CNS support him? And JK? Flabbergasted at these two's performance last night.
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Better question is how long do we have to keep suffering with the current special teams coach.
 
IH8Orange

IH8Orange

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DzynKingRTR said:
it looked as though Scott was pulling his kick. maybe he was afraid he would hit the scoreboard and end up with a short bad kick
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I wondered this same thing. There was already talk that he might be trying to hit the scoreboard in pregame and Saban probably told him he better not try to hit it during the game and that could have just put a little mental hitch in his follow through.
 
IH8Orange

IH8Orange

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JD95 said:
Better question is how long do we have to keep suffering with the current special teams coach.
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Probably for Saban's tenure. They have a long relationship and Saban apparently thinks that he's a benefit to the team, so I doubt he'll go anywere. He seemed to do well with Tiffin and Shelley. Both of them had their issues at times in their early years, but overall they were excellent kickers by the end of their time here. I don't know that there's a lot that a special teams coach can do when the snaps, coverage, blocking, and return game seems fine but your kickers seem to have a mental block. Getting on to them might make it worse, changing to another kicker might be even worse, and changing your offensive strategy in a way that makes you appear to not trust them might be the worst of all. Bobby Williams is just going to have to be the kicker whisperer and identify and solve the problem.
 
Gr8hope

Gr8hope

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Everyone at my house agreed, "Yep, they've been coaching the kickers."
Are the coaches too close to see the problem?
 
Skeeterpop

Skeeterpop

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Jul 18, 2008
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The lack of follow through for Scott would be directly related to reduced flexibility. Adam did not make a back swing at either kick. First one he looked too tense and pulled it. The second kick he struck well just did not follow through so like a golfer he blocked the shot out to the right. But only missed by inches. His confidence is shaken. He is thinking way too much about the last kick.
 
RTR91

RTR91

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According to last year's media guide, JK was 6'4, 185. This year's media guide lists him at 6'5, 198. Surely, those 3 extra pounds didn't cause JK's issues last night.
 
Skeeterpop

Skeeterpop

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13 pounds may not seem like a big deal to most. But if its 13 lbs of muscle that is 7% increase in muscle. He obviously did not need those 13 lbs to kick bombs last year. Of course we dont know where the 13 lbs went. One would assume his upper body was a large portion of it too. However, muscle mass directly effects flexibilty and reduces your range of motion around joints. So unless he also was doing increased stretching exercises and flexibilty work he has altered his kicking motion. Just watch as someone noted. His follow through with the punts was not near where it was last year. He also looked stiff and tight to me on camera. If I have a punter or FG kicker with elite range. They do zero weight lifting with their lower bodies other than what they have always done.

I have worried for the last several years our incredible strength program has also had some negative effects on all our athletes flexibility and range of motion. Just look at all the injuries some of the top players had later in their carrers or when they got to the pros. We need to incorporate new stretching,flexibilty exercises and programs to keep our players ligements, tendons high twitch and fast recovering to cope with the huge muscle we are building around those joints. Just one mans opinion.
 
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