Long Snapping Lesson with Bronson Bruneau

Sunday February 3rd I met up with Bronson Bruneau a junior long snapper from Lakeville MN for our very first long snapping lesson. Bronson is 6'5" 200lbs, which is a great frame for a snapper! I wish I had those genetics!

Like any first lesson I like to warm the student up and then watch them snap for a little while I film and critique to see what we need to be working on. As Bronson started snapping at 12 yards I noticed that he puts good velocity on the ball already with very raw form.

Long Snapping Lesson with Nick Clements

Today I had a long snapping lesson with Nick Clements who just recently got back with his tryout with the Nebraska Danger, an arena football team. Nick snapped very well and we will hopefully hear back from them soon.

Nick has decided that he not only wants to give arena football a try, but he wants to try and snap at the highest level he can. Nick has a long way to go but is very determined and works hard.

My first time meeting Nick was at camp this past December. During his charting, his snaps were averaging 1 second back to the punter at 15 yards and were all over the place. Obviously this is not ideal... Over the past month Nick and I have refined his snapping through long snapping lessons and he has now brought his snap time down to .88 seconds along with boosting his accuracy.

Long Snapping Lessons with Nick Neumann and Jordan Winegar

Today I had a long snapping lesson with Jordan Winegar and Nick Neumann. Nick is from Inver Grove Heights Minnesota, Jordan is from Hammond Wisconsin, both are going to be freshman in high school.

Jordan attended long snapping camp on Dec 29th but this was my first lesson with both students. We started today very basic working on proper hand position and how to properly release the ball to get a tight spiral.

Long Snapping Lesson with Nick Clements

Today was the 3rd lesson between Nick and I. Nick has a tryout with the Nebraska Danger of the IFL this Saturday and came to me to work on his short snapping on his way down there.

When I first met Nick his short snaps were fairly accurate, but they lacked speed and consistency. Today we worked on how to be more consistent, speed, accuracy, and situations. We started with the usual warm up and like always drilled tight wrists and fast hands.

We then moved into making some slight adjustments to his short snapping form. Nick was using almost 100% upper body so we talked about using the legs slightly to gain a little extra speed on the ball. This is what I do and found that it helps me when switching between the two snaps, it takes them from being two completely different forms and gives them some common ground while giving me a little extra pop with the ball.

After drilling this new form for a little while I could tell Nick's ball was coming back faster, with a tighter spiral, and more consistent!

While Nick's snaps were looking a lot better I decided to start throwing some different scenarios at him. If you are a long snapper you know that the scenario is not always the same.

Sometimes you have to rush, and sometimes you have to break your routine. While working some of these scenarios we ran into some difficulties that were used as great teaching/learning moments! We fixed things like not changing his routine when being rushed, and what to do in a loud stadium when you cannot rely on hearing a set call alone.

Special Teams University Long Snapping Lesson with Nick Clements

Today I met up with Nick Clements (former College of St.Scholastica long snapper) for our 2nd private long snapping lesson. Last week we really focused on leg drive and the proper positions to be in while long snapping.

This week we took it a little further and really fine tuned some things. The more a student progresses with their overall form the more I can pick out smaller and smaller details to focus on to help them become a great long snapper!

Long Snapping Lesson with James Ring and Nick Clements

Jan 6th 2013 was my first lesson of the new year which I have a feeling is going to be a great year for my long snapping students and myself! I have been working with James Ring for a few weeks now and he has been progressing nicely.

Nick Clements is a new student who I first worked with at our Dec 29th camp in Vadnais Heights MN. Nick is a post college long snapper who played for St. Scholastica in Duluth MN. He has had a few arena football tryouts but wants to enhance his long snapping in hopes that it will help him latch onto a team.

Special Teams University Long Snapping Lesson with James Ring

December 30th 2012 I met up with James Ring and his father Dave for our second long snapping lesson. We met in Stillwater MN at the Stillwater Soccer Dome.

This facility is great because it is very large and is a great distance for me to get into MN and work with my clients there. The last time we had a long snapping lesson we focused on very basic aspects of snapping due to the fact that James was a beginner that had no previous long snapping instruction.

Winter NCS Camp Hosted by Special Teams University and Husted Kicking

December 29th 2012 Brady Beeson and I partnered up Husted Kicking and Special Teams University to put on a National Camp Series evaluation camp in Vadnais Heights Minnesota.

The camp was held in the Vadnais Heights Dome which was an extremely nice facility. We had enough room for all 15 of our athletes to compete and learn. I had a total of 4 long snappers attend the portion of the clinic that I was coaching.

Special Teams University Long Snapping Lesson with James Ring

Dec 27th 2012 I met up with James Ring and his father Dave for our first long snapping lesson together. James is a student at The Blake High School in Minnesota. While talking with James I found out that he has snapped in 8th grade and this past year for his football team but has had no prior instruction to long snapping.

Usually during a first lesson I like to cover the basics of what I teach and get a feel for what the student knows and can do already. We started off by checking his grip which was good, we were on the same page, then we went into how to properly release the ball. James was able to get a spiral before but was not releasing the ball quite the way I would like him to.