LOCKER-ROOM BLOG
DALES: Punting and golfing similarities
July 30, 2008
Hey Stamps fans,
To start off, I would like to say that I am very pleased with the progress of this football club. There is certainly a new energy around this organization and I am very excited to be a part of it. I like the direction our team is going and feel that we could very well be 5-0 right now. But, as I have learned and experienced first hand, adversity is not always a bad thing. To be quite frank, I think that losing a couple of tight games will pay off for us down the road. We hate to lose and never want to experience those feelings again, especially in games that come down to the wire.
I was fortunate last week to be invited to play in the Stampeder Alumni Golf Tournament at Heritage Pointe. What a spectacular golf course. Although my team never won any prizes, I had a blast and the weather was perfect. One tip I received from my fellow teammates was to keep my head still and swing easy through the ball. Essentially he was telling me not to try and kill the ball. That seemed a little foreign to me, as I like to consider myself a big hitter. But I took his advice and began hitting the ball a lot cleaner. I was noticing that my slice was slowly disappearing and my balls were landing in the fairway and not the rough. That was when I realized how closely related punting is to golf.
Before I go out to punt the ball during games and in practice, Sandro DeAngelis and Wes Lysack always tell me the same thing . . . “swing easy.” I find that when I try and crush the ball, it often comes off my foot the wrong way. When I am relaxed and smooth through the ball, I give myself a much better chance for a successful punt. I need to focus in, keep my head down, provide myself with a great drop, keep my toe pointed and swing through the ball, nice and easy. That is when I have the most success. Golf, I am finding is the same way. When I was keeping my head still, my eye on the ball and swinging through with a controlled and relaxed motion, I was making much better contact with the golf ball. It is not rocket science, but sometimes it is a little easier said than done.
So in summation, to give you an idea what is going through my head before I step up to punt a ball in a game situation, I tell myself to relax, nice and easy, and keep my toe pointed. I get into my punting stance and then give myself a cue to get ready for Randy Chevrier’s perfect snap. I tap my right leg twice with my right hand; this is my trigger, which essentially clears my mind, wiping all thoughts away. I do not want to be thinking about mechanics at this point. My body has done this a million times, so it should know exactly what to do without me thinking about it. The last thing I say after I have picked my target before the kick is, just kick the damn ball.
I am not going to lie to you, I am a much better punter then I am a golfer, but I am trying hard to improve my golf game. And hopefully someday I will break 100.
Go Stamps Go!
Burke Dales
