Sports: Pro athletes become teachers online

Pro athletes become teachers online

By GREG AUMAN

On Sundays, Doug Brien is a kicker with the New Orleans Saints.

The rest of the week, he's just a Webmaster with a strong leg.

Brien has made his living in the NFL, but since 1995, he also has run kicking.com, a site devoted to offering instruction to young place-kickers and punters.

"The site is everything I wish I had," said Brien, who took up football as a senior in high school, largely on his own. "Not many coaches know much about kicking, especially at the high school level and below that, so I get a lot of e-mails, at least six or seven a day. They ask, "How much should I kick each week? How can I increase my leg strength?' It's impossible to answer them all. Kicking's like golf. You're not going to find two people in the PGA with the same swing."

Brien responds to as many e-mails as he can and answers a few questions on his site, but he also refers people to an instructional CD-ROM called "Click to Kick' he created -- he already has sold more than 50 this fall off the Web site alone.

Many NFL players have their own Web sites, but most are strictly for fans -- players as celebrities, not teachers -- and few have as much personal involvement as Brien, who has helped teammates Jared Tomich and Rob Kelly build sites of their own.

"I do my entire site myself," said Brien, who got started with the Internet during an off-season internship and recently took a class in e-commerce while working toward an MBA at Tulane.

Brien's site has more than onside kicks and coffin-corner wisdom, however. There's a recipe page (he recommends the lasagne florentine), travel destination picks and pans, and a page for his charity, Kick for Kids' Sake. Brien said he's seeing more instructional kicking sites popping up, and he warns that not all of them are exactly between the uprights.

"A lot of sites are just Coach Joe Schmo and his kicking advice," Brien said. "Who is he? What credentials does he have? Why should young, impressionable kickers be listening to what he's saying?"

Web sites to check out

Looking for Internet sites to help make yourself a better coach? Many sites are sport-specific, but here are a few you can check out to learn more about coaching.

http://www.eteamz.com: Dozens of Tampa area teams have free pages here, and you can find drills, diagrammed plays and advice on the psychological side of coaching as well.

http://www.allcoach.com: Despite the name, the site specializes in basketball coaching, with a page full of fire-'em-up quotes to help motivate your players.

http://www.nflhs.com: NFL High School has insights from pros and their coaches. Bucs secondary coach Herman Edwards offered his thoughts in a recent column.

http://www.coachhelp.com: "Comprehensive Online Access to Coaching Help" is a nifty acronym, but this site also has helpful articles and a coaching job board.

http://www.sportsparents.com/coaching: Interviews with coaches like Mike Krzyzewski and Dean Smith, with features on coaching stereotypes like "The Big-League Know-it-All."

http://www.hit2win.com: Solid baseball coaching site has tips on proper fungo drills, picking the right lineup and selecting a good team prayer.

http://members.aol.com/howtoplay/coaching

: Topics include mental training, team building, essential coaching behaviors and child-parent connections.

http://www.volleyballseek.com: The forums here are interesting: topics Monday included "Am I too short?" and "Statistics: What is considered an assist?"

http://www.ihigh.com: The High School Internet Network has a coaching link, with features such as "Six Characteristics of Successful Coaches."

http://www.youth-sports.com: More good articles, such as "Stay Calm When Kids Make Mistakes" and "Remember Not To Take Myself Too Seriously."

- GREG AUMAN