Need help with youth football kicking game

[Coach Big B]

I don't know about your league, but in our league, kicked PATs are also worth 2 points, AND you can't rush the kicker. It's a free play. So all I do is just send my kicker and holder over to the goal posts and kick for 5 or 10 yards.

Hmm let me check on that one about not rushing the kicker. I know we have a rule that you can't line up over the center when punting.

[Roden10]

The other day at practice I remembered something about kicking the ball right below the half way point. I went over to some kids who were trying to kick the way I had been trying to get them to with the lace area on the big bone of the foot. I said try kicking it with your toe right below the half way mark. One kid kicked 8 in a row! I don't remember where I learned this, I just had a vague memory pop into my head and it worked. We will find out tomorrow if it works in a game!

[Coach D]

Reps, Reps, Reps...
The biggest problem most of us face is that we don't really want to spend that much time practicing PATs.  I don't like it!  I don't even like the kicking part of the game LOL.  But here's my two cents.  Have your kicker practice kicking the ball without looking to see where it goes!  Keeping his head down.  Have him kick off a tee and then a block with a holder but watch his head and eyes and don't let him look up.  I can't believe how much this helped my kickers.  Kids always wanna see where the ball is going and they look up before they make contact, pulling their chest off and head up... striking the ball in the wrong spot. 

[Roden10]

Just an update on how our kicking went after we changed how we were doing it. In the next game we made our first PAT ever. We missed one and lost by 2 points. But it would have been 4 points.

Then in our playoff game for 3rd place, our kicker made all 3 PAT's and we won by 2 points.

Now we will have to wait and see if I have a kid next year that can kick using the same method. Then I will know whether or not it was a fluke.