There is perhaps no unit on a football team underappreciated more than specialists. Make a kick, coffin corner a punt or execute a perfect long snap — it’s expected. Miss a kick, shank a punt or snap a ball over a player’s head — you become a scapegoat.
Chris Shaw at KICKNATION specializes in coaching specialists. His team of coaches spans various regions, including Arizona and Dallas-Fort Worth. He’s spent more than 20 years mentoring athletes on and off the field, building a “boutique” coaching practice that consistently produces All-American and professional-level talent. Central to this success is using Onform as his exclusive coaching platform.
“It’s the book of success for my athletes and my coaches,” Shaw said. “We don’t do anything without Onform. The whole team, they won’t mess with anything else.”
Using Video to Perfect Kicking Form
By utilizing advanced features like 3D skeletal modeling and side-by-side historical comparisons, Shaw ensures that his specialized “daily method of operation” remains consistent across his coaching staff.
This applies to middle and high school players as well as specialists at the top of their game, including NFL veteran placekicker and Shaw’s good friend Justin Myers, who won Super Bowl LX with the Seattle Seahawks.
“He really has perfected his game to where if you ever watch him on film, his whole top body doesn’t even move through the kick,” Shaw said of Myers. “Back in the day we were all taught to rotate the hips, turn them around and then swing through. But that causes so much stress on the hips, causes back problems, and other issues. And so over the years we’ve gotten a lot smarter with how we’re coaching technique and form.”
With Onform, Shaw and the KICKNATION coaches can really hone in and analyze these best practices, easily identifying if a guy’s dipping their shoulder down during a kick. Shaw calls a kicker’s form “squishy” if they get too small in their approach.
“It’s really no different than a golf swing,” Shaw said. “When they’re dropped down or eating the grass and they’re trying to pull back up through, it’s the same setup. Onform allows us to zoom in and say, ‘Look, you just dropped 15 degrees on this step when you needed to be up here and stay up here so you’re not hitting the ground before the kick.”
Improving Consistency Through Historical Comparisons
Being a football specialist is all about consistency. KICKNATION coaches often practice “live” training scenarios with a snapper, holder and placekicker, recording the kicks through Onform using an iPad on a tripod and sometimes recording with a second device from a different angle.
Shaw will also take game film and compare it against practice reps.
“It helps us because then they can go back and mirror them and they can see where the success was and where it wasn’t,” Shaw said. “Especially when they complain about having a bad day. I’ll pull up recent film versus where they were a year ago. I’ll say, ‘Look at this snap or look at this kick or look at the speed or velocity or body position.’”
Shaw credits Onform for being the “reality check” for many of his athletes. He uses the app to build athlete confidence by providing objective proof of progress. His team’s mantra, “Quiet the Noise,” focuses on helping athletes ignore external distractions and trust their internal system through consistent video review.
“Guys can’t argue with the technology because they see it and they go, ‘Okay, I get it.’”
Using Onform as a Recruiting Tool for High School Football
For high school athletes, Onform serves as a tool for recruitment. KICKNATION athletes use Onform to curate highlight tapes and long-form training videos to showcase their skills to college recruiters.
Instead of traditional email, players share specific links to their performance sessions — often featuring 6 to 10 kicks or snaps — directly with college coaches via text or social media platforms like Instagram or X.
This also serves a benefit for players already committed but not yet enrolled at a college. Players take high-quality clips or links to clips from the app and can send them directly to their soon-to-be college coaches, allowing for a head start on development. Current college players do the same during offseason training away from campus.
“They’ll take those clips and then they’ll shoot that link off to the coaches and say, ‘Hey look, check out what I did today,’” Shaw said. “This allows their team coaches to get a glimpse into what they’re working on when they can’t be with them in person.”
Shaw uses the app to leave video notes, drawings, and written instructions for his staff, ensuring that the training an athlete receives from KICKNATION remains consistent with their school’s needs and expectations. By sharing practice footage, athletes can receive “extra eyes” from KICKNATION coaches who can respond with specific technical corrections even when they aren’t physically present at the school.
“This technology provides specialists with the same level of granular video oversight typically reserved for quarterbacks, tracking every step and shoulder movement,” Shaw said. “And that helps you trust in your system of what you’re doing, both for our coaches and our athletes.”