Should you consider a kicking coach?

What makes a great kicking coach? How do you know if you found one or if you’re getting scammed into paying an outrageous amount of money to find the same information you can get elsewhere? Stay tuned to find out.

What makes a great coach?

It seems as if there are more and more Kicking and Punting Coach out into the world. In theory making money providing education for athletes sounds great, until you break down the responsibilities of being a great coach. 

A great coach not only knows and understands the responsibilities that he has towards each and every player, he has a genuine desire to help those around him succeed. He might not be the most popular coach in the world but that doesn’t matter to him, he just wants his players to be the best versions of themself. 

Whatever that means for each player is unique to them but a great coach will push the player to be the best version that they can be and goes the extra mile for them. A great coach is not only excellent in their field, they are successful in other areas of their life whether that’s with family, friends, relationships, or other businesses. 

Because if you really are a great person, great people will surround you. So it’s fair to say that a great coach will not only be successful at coaching but in many other areas as well.

Quality of coaching

There’s a big difference between present coaching and absent coaching. Present coaching is when a coach is standing by your side working through the issues with you to improve. An absent coach is there to simply collect a paycheck. 

They will show up for either a camp or a training session, And will only acknowledge you if your it’s up for former. Just a reminder, the coach signed up to help each and every athlete that comes in contact with them to improve in some way. 

It’s a shame that most coaches are just doing this to get paid. Sure they might have some basic knowledge but outside of what you can learn on YouTube in five minutes, their knowledge is very limited and they just repeat the same thing 15 different times because that’s what worked for them in high school or college. 

It’s not about what works for them but what works for that specific athlete and what makes sense to them. A great coach will be able to communicate a very complex movement into easy-to-understand and bite-sized pieces.

Level of care and effort they put into each athlete

What’s really important is do they actually care about you as an athlete? For some coaches, you are nothing more than a paycheck for them end it will be pretty obvious if they do some sort of ranking system as if that’s a fair indicator of you as an athlete. 

I’ve seen plenty of extremely high-ranking players completely crumble come game time because they’re great at camps but can’t handle an actual game performance. And that’s because rankings don’t make you a better player. 

If you ever have the chance to watch a coach, potential into the way he interacts with the athlete. Are they just trying to pass the time and scrape by until the lesson is over, or are they interacting with each player in answering every question they have? 

If you have to ask yourself is the person I’m thinking of a great coach, chances are they might not be. 

What’s their reputation?

A great coach is loved by almost everyone that knows him

Are the words Kindness, knowledgable, caring, connects with the athlete, respectful, trustworthy, accountable, humble, and empathetic brought up when mentioning them?

There are even instances where you sign up to get trained by that specific coach and they’re not even the ones that are coaching you. They simply use their brand name and people go to those lessons with the intention of getting coached by that specific person but they’re not even there. 

While sure the excuse could be made that they can’t be in two places at one time if they have two camps on the same day, shouldn’t that be a red flag? Why do you think that they want to do as many camps as possible just under the brand name? Because you’re just a number to them! 

At the very least they should put a disclaimer saying this person will not be at the camp instead this person will be there to help lead and instruct the players. A great coach will be there for you if they say they’re going to be there.

The whole reason they even have a business is because of the players. So it really damages their reputation if they start lying or doing deceitful things to the people who pay the money. The right thing is always the right thing and I recommend you trust your gut feeling when choosing a coach when factoring in everything.

Are they willing to give away information for free? 

Now they don’t have to post hundreds of articles and videos out there for the world to see, but if you go back on many of what they have posted, are you able to learn something from what they’ve posted? It seems like most coaches try to keep their information private when in reality, if they wanted to make the world around them better, they know that generosity is always a winning trait. 

Are they trying to provide value or just show the world that this is someone I’ve worked with? 

I always find it funny when a coach has a player who went professional start claiming I worked with this player 15 years ago and look at him now! Like they were the ones that helped them get to the next level. A great coach will not boast about his success. He will stay quiet and humble and let his results do the talking for his clients.

Why you should consider a kicking coach 

As already mentioned in this video a great coach will help you develop your skillset and shorten your learning curve. Make sure to choose a coach that doesn’t put you and a possible injury-prone position and is always looking out for your best interest. 

He will work smarter in a way that allows you to work more efficiently so you can increase your results. They will be more process-driven than results-driven. As they understand the process is what gets you the results. Other coaches just want your results so they can post it online. A great coach lets the process speak for itself. 

All that being said, I would highly recommend a kicking coach, just be sure to do your research on which one you choose as there are a lot of bad ones out there and only a handful of high-quality coaches.

If you haven’t already head over to Amazon and get the Art of Kicking both the book or the ebook as they are changing a lot of Kickers and Punters’ lives. Leave a comment below on who your favorite kicking coach is and I’ll talk to you soon!