What's a Mega Camp? · KICKERSCAMP: Kicking Skool

What's a Mega Camp?

Yesterday, I headed up the Special Teams session of the Minnesconsin Mega Camp at UW-RIver Falls. The head coach, Matt Walker, first established this camp/combine three years ago and it is now one of the top 5 Mega Camps in the country.

Over 1,400 high school athletes participated. The morning session was for the "big guys" (OL & DL) and the afternoon session was for "skill players" (QBs, WR's RBs, DBs, LBs)... leaving us, the "specialists" (K, P & Snappers) smack-dab in the middle for 2 hours.

For the other sessions, it's mostly filled with testing in vertical jump, broad jump, 40-yd. dash and other ability tests. Linemen had the chance to do some 1-on-1 drill work in helmet and shoulder pads. The skill players did the same, but did a little 1-on-1 pass coverage and cut-n-run type drills to showcase their skills.

There were 45 specialists (about 10 being snappers). Our group did not participate in any physical charting drills, but got straight to work on charting our kicking skills. Snappers had their FG and punt snaps charted for speed and accuracy, while kickers and punters got the chance to kickoff and punt for hang time and distance and kickers finished the session with field goals (once again, everything is recorded). Sound fun? 🤔

The charting is both for the athlete to have a record of where they're at, as well as put into a database that's shared with all of the coaching staffs that were in attendance for the day. In the case of this Mega Camp, about 60 universities from around the Midwest.

To be honest, I wanted to see how it was going to run.

I have been a part of other combines, but never one with so many kids at one field. The 3 Sessions was a good idea. In retrospect, I should have had more timers, charters and spotters to give our specialists more opportunities. It just takes too much time — so most of our kids only got 3 KOs, 4 punts and 4 FGs.

I suspect that's true of any of these kinds of camps. So go into the camp knowing that "it's game time."

You probably would only get than many chances in a game. Once you've taken the 15 minute warm-up, be prepared to make each kick count. I think a lot of you go into your practice session thinking that you'll "really kick" about 15 minutes into the practice. Try taking your warm-up and then stating, "IT'S GAME TIME!" and see how you kick or punt. It's a good mental drill to be ready to go when the ref first blows the whistle.

Should you go to a Mega Camp?

Know that it is not an instructional camp. The whole point is to be seen by the scouts — to get on someone's radar. But know this, of all 3 Sessions, the Kicking Session is the least attended by the scouts. We probably had 20 scouts on the field while we were active. All 60 are on the field for the other sessions. There's no escaping being a "lowly kicker." 😡

It's unlikely that your performance will instantly warrant attention or cause them to look away. They'll check the charts later, just like with the linemen or backs and find the data that most "turns them on". On field, there's a lot of serendipity that happens for them to notice a particular player. For most coaches, they'll simply see someone's physicality and take note. "You can't teach 6'7."

But for kickers, it might be one booming kick off or punt. Knowing this, I purposely went a little long on our session to steal some time on the field when the final session wanted to get started. I had a number of kickers at the 40 for a 50 yard field goal. Making a big kick in front of a crowd gets attention. A few of our guys came through in the clutch.

Wrap up:

I gathered everyone on the sidelines while the last Session began to give a little "pep talk". Here's the gist of it:

• the best thing about the camp was that you got to see so many other kids

• you get to see how you stack up against the competition

• you get to be in a college environment and experience the nature of college scouting

• you only get a few chances, make the most of them

• ultimately, you are only competing with yourself — did you win today?

Missed opportunities:

One thing that certainly is true of almost everyone in attendance is that they didn't do their homework. Did you know what schools were coming? Did you take the opportunity to introduce yourself to a coach from a school you're interested in? Do you know their record from last season? Is there something you can say that might help them remember you? Every high schooler with aspirations of getting recruited needs to learn that they have to take a more active role in getting recruited.

🏈 And lastly, there's this —

RECRUITING GUIDE LINE for K & P:

NOTE: it's a guideline, not a rule book — meet these stats and you're a prospect

KICK OFFS

D3: 60 -65 yds. (3.5+ HT) D2: 65-70 yds. (3.8+ HT) D1: 70-75 yds. (4.0+ HT)

PUNTS

D3: 45-50 yds. (3.8+ HT) D2: 50-60 yds. (4.0+ HT) D1: 60-70 yds. (4.3+ HT)

FIELD GOALS

D3: 50 yd. range. D2: 55 yd. range. D1: 60+ yd. range.

Of course, achieving these milestones puts you on the path... but achieving these numbers consistently (and in front of a big crowd, in pads and with something on the line) can prove to be a lot harder to accomplish.

_ _ _ _ _

Some of the schools that sent scouts:

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan State, Northern Illinois, Air Force, Indiana, Kansas, South Dakota, NDSU, North Dakota, Butler, Minnesota State, Winona State, Northern Iowa, SMSU, Moorhead, Augustana, U of Duluth, Central and many others. UW-River Falls was the host school (no other schools from their conference — the WIAC — were in attendance. "What a surprise." 😂)

0 comments