The art of kicking and punting a football is one of the most underappreciated aspects in the sport of football. Kickers are called on in clutch moments to win games and punters are pressured to pin opponents deep in crunch time as well. Several coaches, players, and fans focus on the talent side of things in special teams, but the mental state is far more important for kickers and punters. For One On One Kicking’s Cincinnati division founder, Dick Seitz, the mental game is focused on before anything else.
“I wrote a book when I was a regular coach called, “Action to Excellence” and it’s just for my players, it isn’t on the market or anything but the first part of this book focuses on potential,” Seitz stated on his core values – not only as a punting and kicking coach, but as a human-being. “I believe many people don’t realize what their true potential can be in life and that begins with the subconscious mind. The subconscious brings about how we excel in life and what we accomplish but it can’t differentiate what happened five years ago or five seconds ago,” Seitz added, “That’s why you’ll see kickers and punters have bad days, it’s about how you bounce back from a bad kick. Some hang their heads and focus on it, but I tell my trainees to forget about it, clear your mind and get back out there.”
Aside from the mental focus, Coach Seitz and his trainees also focus on drill-work and fundamentals, “Coach Mike McCabe and all of One On One Kicking focuses on drill-work and fundamentals, we’re the same way,” Coach Seitz added, “Drill-work is absolutely essential and we also focus on that.”
The focus on the mental mindset combined with the fundamental training has led to extreme success for several of Coach Seitz’s trainees, including punter Drue Chrisman of Cincinnati LaSalle high school. Chrisman, a transfer from Lawrenceburg, Indiana after his freshman year of high school, saw the opportunity in Cincinnati not only for athletics, but for academics as well.
“We moved my freshman year because we saw it as an excellent educational route,” Chrisman stated on his relocation.
The move would pay off. Due to his athletic ability, Chrisman found himself playing quarterback at LaSalle high school. However, a nagging injury left him cautious towards a comeback at signal-caller, which led to a change to punting. As he began punting, Chrisman would attempt to look up Ray Guy YouTube videos and teach himself the art. That’s until one random day on a football field changed Chrisman’s training method forever.
“I met Drue last year actually by accident,” Coach Seitz recalled on his initial meeting with Chrisman, “I was working with some trainees on the field when Drue was walking towards me so I asked him if I was here to train with me,” Seitz stated. “He replied with a no and asked me who I was so I told him that I coach kickers and punters through One On One Kicking and he was interested. He ended up punting a few balls for me and we went over his weakness and strengths and some film of him punting.”
From there on, Coach Seitz and Chrisman would build an inseparable bond between coach and player. Now, after getting a few years of training under his belt, Chrisman received large amounts of college interest – but one school truly stood out. Once the Ohio State Buckeyes came calling and a visit was taken by Chrisman and his parents, the recruitment was over. Chrisman gave the 2015 National Champions his commitment in early May to join fellow One On One Kicking trainee, kicker Sean Nuernberger in Columbus.
“It’ll be great to be with Sean,” Chrisman stated following his commitment, “We’ve kicked together and I’ve trained with him so it’ll be nice to already know someone once I get there.”
From Coach Seitz’s perspective, it’s certainly surreal to have coached two Ohio State specialists. “To be honest with you, it’s pretty outstanding to see them both at Ohio State,” Seitz stated on his trainees, “Not because I’m their coach but because I’ve never really heard of two college kickers or punters being trained at the same high school or by the same person. Plus they’re both local and I really like that they’re close to home,” Seitz added.
Once Chrisman enrolls at Ohio State, the core of the Buckeye specialists will be trainees of One On One Kicking and Coach Dick Seitz, who prepares all of his trainees to be ready for any game situation.
“He’s a great coach with excellent credentials,” Chrisman said on Coach Seitz, “He focuses on the mindset aspect of things rather than the physical. Every session, about two of the three hours I’m with him will be focused on the mental side of things; I could train with him an entire day and only kick three balls.”
The mental focus during training with Seitz will prepare Chrisman for nearly any punt he will face, even in front of 100,000+ fans in Ohio Stadium. Without Coach Seitz, Chrisman says he would still be in front of a computer attempting to teach himself how to properly punt a football.
“I’d still be watching Ray Guy YouTube videos attempting to teach myself if I never had found One On One Kicking,” Chrisman laughed, “They’ve honestly been able to transform me and now I train six days a week.”
For Chrisman, the sky is the limit following his commitment to The Ohio State University. Chrisman will join Sean Nuernberger at Ohio State as the One On One Kicking trainees continue to invade Columbus. As Coach Seitz puts it, both Chrisman and Nuernberger are hard-working players with level heads on their shoulders.
“I would love to have Drue or Sean (Nuernberger) as a son,” Seitz laughed, “They’re both extremely hard-working kids with great heads on their shoulders. They both get good grades, and they’re very dedicated individuals.”
DRUE – He goes to LaSalle, he will be a senior, last year LaSalle won the division two state championship, I met Drue last may and it was just by accident. He was training and I asked him if he was here to see me and he said no who are you so I told him who I was and he said I need coaching on punting, so I asked him to punt a few balls for me and I videoed him and I showed him his weaknesses and strengths and I asked him do you know why there’s not a lot of great punters compared kickers. Kickers will go out and work for two hours and work on drills but punters work for about half an hour if that and think it’s so simple. Drue has always remembered that, he’s a very good athlete, he played quarterback but got injured but he didn’t want to take a gamble. I’m always working on kickoffs. He’s a fine young man, he truly is, he’s a good head on him and good grades, goes to church every week, a hard working and dedicated individual. Ohio State wasn’t even looking for a kicker, I told him look before you make a decision let me take you up to Ohio State and introduce you to Coach Meyer, so I called and made an appointment. Look we aren’t looking for a punter, but I’ll tell you what after meeting you let me talk to my coaches and we will keep in touch with you. A week later he was invited to bring up his mom and dad to take a tour and they told him we had a meeting and decided we’re so impressed with you we will open a scholarship for you. I would like to have a couple of weeks before a decision, he weighed everything heavily and talked to his parents and myself and decided. He’s the one that has to live those four or five years, he better make his own decision. That’s great I said.
MENTAL FOCUS ASPECT – My feeling about it, I wrote a book when I was a regular “Action to Excellence” just for my players not on the market. First part of the book is about their potential, I don’t believe many people believe what their true potential can be in life, in the second one is about the subconscience mind. Subconscience brings about how we excel in life, what we accomplish, a whole another book about the subconscience mind and how we can use it. I get them to understand that and talk to them during the season, “your competitive edge” is your last part, setting goals and visualization and that’s strictly on working on self talk and their belief system, modeling and resilience, it’s how you bounce back when you get knocked down, are you going to mope about it or relieve about what you should have done? You go back to the sidelines and you put that out of your head, the subconscience mindcan’t differentiate what happened 5 years ago or five seconds ago, when you have a kicker with a bad day, they don’t understand how to bounce back. Any athlete that will be very good you need to train them at that level, treat them like college players, not high schoolers. Drue really worked hard and went from worked from about forty or five yards he’s booming that ball about 65 yards or more.
WHAT’S IT LIKE SEEING TWO PLAYERS YOU TRAINED AT OHIO STATE? To be honest with you it’s pretty outstanding not because I’m their coach but I’ve never really heard of two kickers and punters being trained by the same person or high school, he’s going to be local and I really like that he will be close.