Football Kicker Training: Approach, Lifts and Speed Benchmarks

The field goal approach: steps back, steps over, plant

Before every field goal you mark your starting point from the spot of the hold. A common teaching setup is three steps straight back and two to the side. Former 49ers kicker Joe Nedney described his as three back and three to the right. The count matters less than repeating it. One coaching guide puts it bluntly: bigger steps do not equal a bigger leg. What matters is that every step has the same length and angle, so your starting point never moves.

Where the plant foot lands decides where the ball goes. That same guide puts it about one foot length to the side of the ball, with the heel roughly even with it. Plant too far back and you end up reaching for the ball, a mistake 440's coaching cues flag. Crowd the ball and you strike its outside panel. The kicking approach drill grooves the walk-off, the first step and the plant until you hit the same spot without hunting for it.

Operation time: the clock starts at the snap

Nedney said it took him about 1.3 seconds from snap to kick, and that any longer risks a block. Inside The Pylon's long snapper glossary puts snap to kick on field goals and extra points at roughly 1.2 seconds. You start moving when the ball moves, so your approach has to be rhythmic, never rushed and never late.

You can't control the snap or the hold, but you can own your tempo. Ask a coach or teammate to time you in practice and write the number next to the result. Hang time charting gives you a simple log for distance, hang time and operation time on every rep, so you judge your week on all of your kicks, not just the ones you remember.

Field goals vs kickoffs

A field goal comes off a hold with a rush coming, so the approach is short and fixed. A kickoff comes off a tee, and you get a running start for more power. Nedney used a seven step kickoff approach that began about 10 yards back, and his key was controlled aggression: use all the power you can without losing a clean strike, the way an overswung golf club misses the ball.

440 adds kickoff approach reps and directional kicking to the kicker skill block, 3 sets of 5 with 45 seconds rest, so both kinds of kick get practice. Coverage sprint is one of the three speed priorities in the kicker plan, which is why its speed drills list 20 yard sprints next to approach-step tempo and a hip mobility flow.

Mobility and single-leg strength

Every kick happens on one leg: you balance on the plant side while the kicking leg whips through. 440 builds the kicker's strength around that. The rear foot elevated split squat (4 x 6 per leg) and trap bar deadlift (3 x 5) train the base, and cable hip flexion (3 x 10 per leg) loads the muscles that drive the kicking leg forward. A 2019 study of 33 experienced rugby place kickers compared groups: the short kickers, whose kicks left the foot slower, did substantially less positive hip flexor and knee extensor work in the downswing than the long kickers.

The accessories work the hips from other angles: Copenhagen planks for the adductors on the inside of the thigh, band hip rotations for the hip rotators and Pallof presses for resisting rotation through the trunk. A hip mobility flow sits in the speed work, so you take the hips through their full range before you ever swing at a ball.

Kicker drill menu

Position training references. The generated daily plan varies with equipment, phase, schedule and readiness. Each drill links to cues, common mistakes and a demo.

Kicker workout: main lift references

Accessories: Copenhagen plank, Band hip rotations, Pallof press.

These are baseline offseason prescriptions for experienced lifters. Teens should train with qualified supervision, begin with light technique work and progress only when form is consistent. Daily loads vary with level, phase and readiness. High-school and recreational plans cap percentage loads at 85% of estimated 1RM.

Protein target

440 sets kickers at 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight per day.

• 160 lb128 g
• 180 lb144 g
• 200 lb160 g
• 220 lb176 g

Kicker training FAQ