From left: Rowan kickoff specialist Frank Bobo, punter Mark Diedrichsen, kicking coach Jim Cooper, kicker Tyler Knighton.

Every week during football season we watch as the kicker, the little guy – in most cases – trot onto the field and do his thing: Kickoffs, extra points, field goals and onside kicks.

It is the ultimate love-hate position in sports, there is no in between
Kickers are the artists of football who do not hit for a living.

Over the years, kickers have not received much respect in many cases.

Detroit Lions legendary lineman Alex Karras, famously mocked kicker teammate Garo Yepremian for years after he hit his first NFL field goal and exclaimed to the coach “I keek a touchdown,” then told reporters he wouldn’t shower with kickers.

Truth is, kickers put in as much time into their craft as any player on the field: lineman or skill position player.

South Jersey based kicking guru Jim Cooper has spent a lifetime training and developing athletes for that role.

This week Cooper shared some of his experiences.

Now that the season is underway, Cooper was asked if kickers trained differently during the season as opposed to the offseason.

“In season training is quite different from off-season training in that in season training is more of a maintenance type of training where off-season training is where we implement all of our changes or tweaking of fundamentals as well as the physical side of training,” who owns and operates “5-Star Kicking” out of Winslow, but serves the entire Delaware Valley. “Off-season training is much more demanding and physical as far as weight training, flexibility and explosive movement and development. These types of training methods often require a good deal of time for the body to recuperate and that is why we do not train like this during the season because with games every seven days we don’t want to deplete our body of strength and explosiveness.”

Cody Parky struggled with pulls during his two years in Philly (he was cut this year). Cooper talked about how to avoid strains and groin pulls.

“First and foremost flexibility and range of motion exercises are crucial to a place kicker’s health, injury prevention and fundamental improvement,” said Cooper, who coaches kickers and punters for Rowan University football team. “The hip flexor has three basic movements in kicking: Flexion (cranking the kicking leg back towards the buttocks), Extension (Snapping the kicking leg down to make ball contact which releases the Elastic Energy stored in the hip flexor), Rotation, (Where the hips square off from their previous 45-degree angle and lock down towards their target downfield). If the hip flexors are not properly trained and maintained serious injury can result with a long rehabilitation and the opportunity to injure them in the future again. “

Cooper talked about coaching a kicker when he or she is in a slump. How does he coach the kicker when he or she is on a roll?…how does the kicker keep the streak going?

“Kickers like all positional players are creatures of habit,” said Cooper who kicked for the Temple Owls in the mid 80’s. “Of the 80 or so players that I train, I could tell you about each individual habit that relates to that athlete. Many of them are the same but a kicking coach must be aware of all the particular elements that relates to each individual player. I train kickers in four different states many of whom cannot see me on a weekly basis during the season. I may hear from their father or their coach about a problem that they’re having and can almost always identify what the problem is just because of my past experiences training them at my facility. I have a local kid that goes to a prep school in North Carolina that has been struggling a bit & his coach sent me film and I immediately identified the problem as his plant foot being too close to the ball.
“It is the responsibility of the kicking coach to be able to assess a students issue based on verbal communication or through the use of video tape. Kickers that start to struggle have a slight discrepancy in their technique or mechanics that they may not notice but through a kicking coach that has trained them can pick it up in an instant. That is why I personally video tape and store video on every player that I train.”

Cooper was asked if he thought high school and college football were going to move the kicking distance for extra points back, like the NFL did; maybe not as far back, but further back?

“I would not be surprised to see the NCAA move the extra point back to where the NFL is kicking from just to give scouts a better perception on how the kicker will handle a kick that is usually worth three points and is now worth just one point. I think it would be very unfortunate for high school to adopt that rule.”

Cooper is currently working with three kickers at Rowan University: Kickoff specialist Frank Bobo, who played his high school ball at Seneca, Tyler Knighton who played at Paulsboro and punter Mark Diedrichsen who played at Ocean Twp. High School.

Cooper talked about his guys and what each bring to the table.

“Frank Bobo, a senior, being a taller guy it provides him with great leverage and when he rolls his hips into the ball on his follow-through he generates incredible h height on his kickoffs and many of which are four seconds or more even when kicking into a strong wind which allows for very little distance on their return many times we hold them inside the 20-yard line.

“Tyler Knighton, a junior, has been a great scoring weapon for us over the last three years. One of the hardest working kickers I’ve ever been around he constantly strives to get better and improve his mechanics. He’s a dependable kicker and I’m glad I have him through the remainder of next season.

“Mark Diedrichsen currently leads the NJAC in punt average and has been a great asset in bailing us out and flipping the field. Against Widener he was our single biggest weapon hitting six punts into the wind of more than 50 yards with a long of 61 yards.”
Cooper talked about his kicking training facility and how parents or kickers can reach him.

“I continue to run sessions at my 5-STAR KICKING Training facility in Winslow New Jersey,” Cooper said. “In January as always I will move my students in doors to the Total Turf facility in Pitman New Jersey where I run training four days a week.”

Cooper’s website is 5starkicking.com, phone 609–576–9560, Twitter: @5starkicking

Follow Al Thompson on Twitter @thompsoniii