Detroit Jock City
Fansided

Lions Kickers Using Arena Football Goal Posts to Improve Accuracy

By Zac Snyder

facebooktwitterreddit

Kicker has been a problem position for the Detroit Lions since the retirement of Jason Hanson. Matt Prater steadied the position late in the season last year and will hopefully carry that into the 2015 season.

One of the ways he’s working to make that happen is to change up the way he trains.

More from Detroit Lions

Regulation goal posts aren’t the only goal posts at Lions practices these days. At Prater’s request, the Lions have added a set of arena football goal posts, which are a little less than half the width of their NFL big brother.

Jim Caldwell talked about the narrow goal posts during his media availability following Wednesday’s mini-camp practice:

"Well, I think they’re challenging, obviously, because of the fact that if they get accustomed to kicking on those, they certainly can kick on the wider brands that they typically face during our game day activities. He wanted those because of the fact that he was accustomed to doing it. It was something that he uses to focus in on and narrow his scope and I think you can see that it does indeed help him."

In the words of Mel Gibson’s character Benjamin Martin in The Patriot, “aim small, miss small.”

It seems like a natural training technique – not unlike a baseball player swinging a heavier bat or a bat with a donut on it so that his normal bat feels lighter. Both Prater and undrafted free agent Kyle Brindza are making use of the narrow goal posts as they sharpen their skills.

Prater offered to purchase the goal posts himself according to the Detroit Free Press, but the team saw the value in it and took care of the bill. The narrower goal posts are something Prater used as a member of the Denver Broncos.

Next: Ebron has good first day of mini-camp

More from Detroit Jock City

Quotes provided by the Detroit Lions unless otherwise noted

Home/Detroit Lions