Practicing with Purpose
Rex Robinson
Article posted on 4/19/2003

Tiger Woods dominates the sports pages these days, but one of my heroes as a young athlete was Jack Nicklaus. You know, the one Tiger aspires to equal and possibly surpass in career wins. He influenced my thinking as much as anyone.

As I began to take kicking and football more seriously, Jack Nicklaus impressed upon me the two principles that guided my steps. The first was the idea that every off season he went back to his old coach and said these words, "Teach me to play golf, all over again.". The focus on the fundamentals was the hallmark of his stellar career. He never took for granted that he knew it all. We shouldn't either. As a kicker and as a coach I never want to settle for the status quo. I want to get better.

The other aspect of his teaching was actually the name of one of his videos. Practicing with purpose became my mantra. I never went out the same way again. I never settled for kicking one hundred balls and actually felt like I had accomplished something special. From that point on, my focus became quality vs. quantity.

It has been said that practice makes perfect, but many of you know that only perfect practice makes perfect. Go out next time with a specific goal in mind for that day...Perfect on field goals inside 40 yards...better hang-time on punts or kickoffs...improve your directional abilities on punts or kickoffs...control your emotions better...the list goes on and on.

So many young kickers go about their business in an unconscious manner.

Be aware of everything you do and don't do to achieve your goals. I have coached very talented kickers who thought they were all that and they have underachieved because of their attitude. One is 20 years old, and out of football completely because he wanted to do it his way. Be coachable, seek to understand rather than be understood. Work hard, be the best.

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	Baseball was for me, too, a form of spirit-discipline, a way to make myself a better person-although I surely never sought discipline for such a reason. It became my Way, as the tea ceremony or flower arranging or the making of poems were the Ways of others.
	-- Sadaharu Oh

Doug and Tommy's Frequently Asked Questions: "I have been kicking lately and seen that something just isn't right. My steps are the same, but my point of contact on the ball changes from kick to kick. On kick the ball might be on my ankle, and then the next time it might be on my toe. Then I will have a series of kicks where I hit the sweet spot. What are some things I can do to improve my contact?" -- Click here to read our answer