Michael P.

There is a famous saying that begins with "Those who can, do...". So if you think you can or have the competitive spirit then you should do what I did, COMPETE! Experience comes from doing, mine is with kickers and punters at top level 7A high school football program, St. Thomas Aquinas, in the premier football state of Florida. I have experience training potential kickers and punters ranging from middle school through the collegiate level both individually and through BIGFoot Kicking run by my kicking mentor Tim Conrad. In my experience, it is one thing to be able to kick and punt successfully yourself, on the other hand, to successfully transfer those skills to someone else takes a different kind of skill set. I have been blessed with the ability to do both.

In the arena of athletic accomplishments, I have competed at the highest levels from high school to the NFL. As a high school kicker and punter for St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, FL, I was fortunate to play a part on two state championship teams and one national championship team (2007,2008-2009). In addition, I was selected as an Army All-American and rated the top kicker in 2010 by Scout.com. I continued my dream of playing football at the collegiate level for The University of Tennessee Volunteers "Go Vols!" I started all four years at UT as BOTH a kicker and punter, culminating my senior year as 1st team All-SEC by ESPN, a semi-finalist for the Ray Guy Award (nations' top punter), and 2nd all-time in career punting average in Tennessee history. Following my college career with aspirations of punting in the NFL, I was signed as a Free Agent to the NY Jets, Oakland Raiders, and most recently the St. Louis Rams in the 2015 preseason. Currently I am still a Free Agent awaiting my next opportunity.

Before every kicking or punting session, I expect two things from each specialist: The first is that they know my goal for them for that particular session. Secondly, they must tell me what they want to accomplish that session. From there, I will instruct them through a detailed warm-up routine for 10-15 minutes based on if it's a one on one or a group session. Upon completion I will instruct them to gather their equipment. For kickers that consists of 2-3 footballs, kickoff tee, field goal block (if needed). For punters, 3-4 footballs is all that's needed. I get deeply involved in my coaching and instruction and seeing the strides kids and young men make are where I get my gratification from. As having been around some of the best kickers and punters that have ever played the game, technique is of the upmost importance. Kickers will start their session with half-step kickoffs, followed by full step kickoffs which includes deep middle, deep right and deep left kicks. I will also work on other types of kickoffs such as onside kicks, squib kicks, pooch kicks, etc. Field goals will follow with a number of drills that I have found to help consistency along with accuracy over the years. Every session there will be a competitive portion to field goals to end the day. The field goal competitons may vary per session.
My punters can expect a great amount of technical work before any punting is actually done. One of the most important parts about being a specialist is consistency, without having good technique there will be no consistency. Punters will do a number of drills to perfect their drop, along with contact drills that can be further explained at the time. The punting itself will consist of different aspects of the game and situations such as open field punts, directional punts, backed up punts, and pooch punts. These sessions will also have a competition phase to them.
Out of everything that has been said, the most important part of it all is...DON'T FORGET YOUR CLEATS, trust me it has been done before.