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Drill 2

Name: Head Down

Purpose:  To develop a habit of keeping the head down during and after a punt

Equipment:  A punter and an age appropriate football, teammate or coach if available

Procedure: 

1. When you have developed all the points from Drill 1, continue to this drill.  Keeping your head down during the punt won’t help unless you have a good drop to punt!

2. One of the biggest mistakes I see being made in punting is that the punter looks up to see their punt way to early.  This drill will help you not fall into the same habit.

3. To break this habit (or to start a good one), lineup in a good punting position (without the ball), and go through your punting motion.  OK, I’ll bet your form was perfect and your head was down even after you swung your leg right?  Great!

4. Now, using the football this time go through you’re punting motion again and punt the ball.  Did you have the same form?  Did you really keep your head down after the leg swing, or did you maybe “take a peek” and see how good of a punt you made?  If you “peeked”, it’s fairly normal.  Let’s break that habit so you’ll have the best punt possible.

5. Place a towel or piece of paper or even another football about 5 yards ahead of where you start your punt.  Lineup in a good punting position (without the ball), and go through your punting motion.  This time after the motion, walk forward and reach down to touch the towel/football/paper that you put out in front of you – then look up.  Repeat this for as many times as you can stand it.

6. Using the football this time, go through your punting motion again and punt the ball.  DON’T LOOK UP!  Walk forward and touch the towel/football/paper.  NOW look up.  Great punt?  Hopefully it was!  Tell yourself over and over that you will not look up to see that beautiful punt until AFTER you’ve touched the towel/football/paper.

7. In a game situation, you can to the same thing and not look silly.  Instead of having that towel/football/paper in front of you, just reach down and pick a piece of grass or just touch the ground.  This will keep you in the good habit, and help you continue great punts.

Coaching Points:

1. This also sounds like a simple drill, but if the punter has the habit if lifting their head up during the contact portion of the punt (when the foot hits the ball), it will be very hard to change.  The best way to overcome the problem is to make sure the punter thinks/visualizes the punt BEFORE starting the motions.  Have them stop and take a breath and think about what they’re going to do during the next punt.  That thinking should include keeping their head down.  YOU can tell them if it was a good punt or not.