Useful Tips to Improve Punting Technique
A good punter is a strong suit to a football team. With his punting ability, a punter can consistently earn the defense extra 10–20 yards. This is why a good punter can help a team win the field position battle.
Since there’s always room for improvement while learning something, the punters constantly seek ways and tips to improve their punting technique. If you’re someone who wants to learn how to punt accurately, then you’re landed on the right page.
Knowing the fact that punting is an art and an accurate punt can change the entire course of a game, the need to learn the right punting technique is unquestionably important. Your football coach may give you lessons to teach punting, but it’s your passion that would help you to master the art perfectly.
Therefore, we have described some fundamentals that would make a player a good punter.
So, let’s dig into it:
What is a Punt?
First off, let me clear you what a Punt is, how does it work? Who can punt? And which punt is effective?
A punt is when the ball is dropped or thrown from your hands and kicked in the air. Only a punter can punt and an effective punt must be higher and farther.
Also, punting isn’t merely restricted to American football, this is a skill that is frequently employed in soccer, too.
Basic rules to improve punting technique
Like any other skill, punting also involves some rules that a punter needs to know, learn, and follow. With practice and repetition, a goalkeeper can nail it down effectively.
The following are some steps punters can do to improve their punting technique:
Getting the right position:
The most imperative thing in punting starts the minute when a goalkeeper finds the right position — -that’s where all the magic begins.
According to an expert’s opinion: “you should hit the ball with the laces of your shoe.” This is important if you want a good follow-through. By hitting the ball with laces, you will get the greatest distance on your kicks. As the ball will be higher on your foot, the greater and higher the ball can travel.
Conversely, if a punter hits the ball lower on his toe, the ball will travel lower.
Similarly, if you start too high, then the ball won’t travel much farther. Therefore, contact should be made to a point slightly below the knee, with a decent follow-through.
Similarly, if you kick with your right foot, hold the ball in your right hand to turn it out to be an effective kick. Works vice versa if you’re left-handed.
Once you have learned “how” things work in punting effectively, you will eventually punt effectively.
Gripping the ball:
Supposedly, when you catch the football, its position won’t be the way you want. So before you punt, you must know how to grip the football effectively.
Make sure to keep the laces face straight up when you punt.
Ideally and the most basic way of gripping a ball is a “handshake” grip in which you grip the ball as if you’re handshaking someone.
In this gripping method, you place your thumb on one side of the seam and your middle finger on the other. With your fingertips, hold the ball so that the back tip does not come into touch with your hand. For added support, place your opposite hand softly on the ball’s underside.
If you’re right-footed, adjust the front tip to about an angle between 10 or 30.
This is the basic method that good punters observe while practicing punting. However, you can find your comfort zone and grip the ball whatever way you want the ball to hold. Here your football coach can help you find the right approach.
Stab step:
After catching the ball and positioning it correctly, the main process starts, i.e., punting. Take your first short and take quickstep with your kicking foot and try to cover more than a yard before you. This is the “stab step.”
Don’t take a lunging step if you want to prevent throwing off your center of gravity.
Dropping the ball:
After performing the stab step, you need to pay attention to your second step. The second step is as crucial as the stab step since it would create momentum into the punt.
Instead of pushing down the ball or throwing it, just let it drop. By doing this, you’re setting yourself to get the sweet spot and kick the tip.
In another case, if the ball tumbles, the tip could hit your shin and miss the sweet spot, leaving behind an unfruitful kick.
This is the reason that an angled position of the ball is required for giving your leg a clear path to kicking the sweet spot of the ball.
Practice is the key:
As a rule of thumb, you can’t learn punting overnight. Your football coach will also tell you that practice and patience are the keys. Practice it as many times as you can if you want to master the skill. This holds more if you’re a beginner.
Even the experts don’t deny the fact that: “It’s no secret that the key to improving punts is repetition, repetition, repetition.”
It’s better if you do punt practice into a net when there won’t be any distractions to keep you away from practicing.
Finding your pattern:
Once you have gained the skill, even to the fullest, then you may need to work hard to develop a pattern to improve punting.
You can observe minutely what veteran punters do before punting. Before they begin their approach, they may bounce the ball many times. They may tap the ground behind them with the toes of their kicking foot. To loosen up, they could do a pair of fast squats.
You can replicate the pattern adopted by your favorite punter. Once you go for adopting a certain pattern, you can focus and concentrate on your kicks to improve your skill.
Relaxing:
Relaxing during learning is a prerequisite if you want to learn in a healthy and more focused way. Instead of repeating the chore continually, take a deep breath to relax your nerves.
If you really want your punts to execute effectively and purposely, you must do something to relax you. This would improve your concentration and you can work better on the mechanics of your kicks.
Final say:
The above-mentioned tips would help you in improving your punting technique. Once you learn the skill, you can go on experimenting to find which style suits you the best.
