Jonathan Doerer pays careful attention to the nuances of his stance, swing path and ball contact—both on the football field and golf course. His dad says the senior place kicker for the Fighting Irish rarely shows frustration in either sport. “You hit a bad shot in golf, and you have to go hit another one,” he said. “I’m sure there’s carryover there.”
The University of Notre Dame kicker Jonathan Doerer often frequents the driving range, a habit that increased when he was home in North Carolina over the spring and summer, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. His father tagged along on his kicking and golf outings and saw plenty of both swings.
“He really approaches golf the same way,” Brian Doerer said. “He’ll try to hit the same shot, just one shot. He’ll practice on hitting the pin at 90 yards, and practice just on that very methodically.”
That mindful approach has been integral to Doerer’s kicking success and helped vault him to an eye-catching season in 2019, The Tribune-Review reported.
“Going into my junior year, I realized I had to make a lot of technical advancements in my game if I wanted to play at the level that I wanted to and needed to,” Doerer said.
Doerer said he doesn’t dwell on the misses, The Tribune-Review reported.
“The most important kick is the next kick,” he said. “The most important play in football is the next play.”
The same can be said for golf, and Brian Doerer noted his son rarely shows frustration in either sport, The Tribune-Review reported.
“You hit a bad shot in golf, and you have to go hit another one,” he said. “I’m sure there’s carryover there.”
Subtract the club, and there’s also carryover in the swing itself, The Tribune-Review reported.
“The repetitive motion is something that’s very similar,” said Dan Orner, Doerer’s Charlotte-based kicking coach. “The way you address the ball is very similar, and the way you use your body and the control you have to have over your body.”
Clearly, comparisons between kicking and golf are plentiful, The Tribune-Review reported. Both also require deliberate calibration to account for wind and other weather conditions.
“A lot of times you’ll see guys missing balls in warmups, and sometimes they’re trying to figure out the wind path,” Orner said. “Pregame, really for a lot of kickers, is used to find your pipeline and to find where you need to play your ball so that when the wind hits it, it’s used to your favor versus your enemy.”
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