11. Technique of Punting

STANCE

Since every punter kicks somewhat differently from the next, he should take the stance that is most comfortable to him. The stance should be such that the kicker will have proper balance and control. This is important because he may have to reach out to either side or jump for a bad snap from the center. Keep arms and hands flexed and in a relaxed position.

The kicker should stand with feet slightly spread, the left foot a bit in advance of the right (see Fig. 18). These instructions, of course, are for right-footed kickers. A maximum of three steps should be taken forward while punting; but if more than three steps are taken, the kicker should be instructed to move back two to three yards.

The punter should face squarely to the front, looking at the ball on the ground through the center's legs. Before the ball is snapped, he should be completely relaxed with the body weight distributed equally on both legs. The weight will be shifted to the left leg as the ball is snapped. The kicker must keep his eyes on the ball at all times in order to avoid a fumble and to mold the ball properly for the actual punt.

HOLDING AND  DROP OF THE  BALL

The ball should be held in one hand and guided by the other as the kicker advances in his steps. The ball is held in front of the body, out over the kicking leg. The forward point of the ball should be slightly to the left and slightly depressed (see Fig. 19). The lacing will be on the top, or possibly to the right of center.

The left hand should support the left forward side of the ball, well toward its front. Do not put the left hand over the point of the ball, as is the practice among many novices. The right hand should hold the ball at its rear point. The fingers are spread and up, with the thumb to the left of the laces and the point of the ball lying in the hollow of the hand.

The drop of the ball should be as slight as possible. The kicker should practice kicking the ball out of his hands, thus learning how to avoid a long drop from hands to foot.   A long drop of the ball can cause a wobbly, inaccurate kick.

If the kicker is getting too much height and no distance, the ball is possibly being dropped with bent arms too close to the body. Another reason for the kick that is too high could be the position of the toe—it is being pointed upward instead of being kept depressed.

Fig. 19.     First step with the foot, and molding the ball.

STEPS AND SWING OF THE LEG

As the ball approaches, the kicker may take a short half-step with the left or lead foot. The ball should be molded into kicking position as the punter takes the first step (see Fig. 19).

Fig. 20.    Second step, with the right foot.

The kicker now takes a full step forward with his right foot (see Fig. 20). He keeps his eyes on the ball as he molds it in his hands. In fact, he should not take his eyes off the ball until it actually leaves the kicking foot and is lofted in the air.

Fig. 21.     Last step and start of the kicking  leg's swing.

The next and last step will be directly forward with the left foot. As the left foot reaches the turf, the whip of the right leg should be started.

Fig. 22.    The follow-through.

The right leg starts from an extended position and becomes fully flexed to create the potential energy for the kick. The toe should be pointed forward, downward, and slightly inward.   The ball should be met on the instep when the swing of the leg is about the height or a little above the hip. This will vary with kickers as nature seems to tell the individual when his leg is at the highest point of acceleration.

For proper distance, a high trajectory, and a good spiral, the punter must follow through  with  his  kicking leg   (see  Fig.  22).   Without  the follow-through, his timing and distance will suffer. Lack of follow-through will indicate that the kicker's timing is off and that he has made contact too late, causing a shanking of the ball off the side of the foot. I'm sure we have all experienced this type of kick.

To get a spiral effect, the ball should be placed on the instep of the foot just a little back of the center of the ball. Do not use a side swing of the leg to get the spiral.   The swing of the leg should be straight forward.

The low, line-drive kick, permissible in the Mills system in a quick-kick situation, is dangerous when used against the pros from the regular punt formations. The main trouble is that it does not stay in the air long enough for proper coverage of the receiving team by the kicking team. Furthermore, it is liable to bounce crazily, permitting one of the two safety men to pick it up on the bounce at a full run and dodge through a scattered pursuit.

If the ball is kicked low inadvertently, it is being dropped out too far from the body and the leg swing is too late. This can be corrected by constant practice, which is so necessary to create a secure feeling in the execution of the perfect punt.

Size does not seem to have much bearing on a man's ability to get distance into his punts. The only really heavy man I can think of off hand who is also a fine punter is Sam Baker of the Redskins and later the Browns. And Sam—his full name is Lauris Hoskins Baker—weighs only about 225 pounds, which is just a junior miss size in our league. This fellow, incidentally, is an accomplished place kicker who can kick off, too. In this age of specialization he is a real triple threat—or maybe a quadruple threat because he helped beat the Eagles in 1955 with a scoring run from a fake punt formation.

This is a maneuver I would never advise for myself, and only for other punters under the most propitious circumstances. Jerry Norton, the Car­dinals' long-distance punter who also served five years with the Eagles, turned the trick successfully on two occasions several years back, but then went to the well once too often. He was smothered so badly that the run from a fake kick formation was put on the Eagles' list of forbidden plays. And Jerry, mind you, was a hard-running, offensive halfback at SMU.

The punters who always intrigue me—and disgust the safety men-were the left-footed kickers. The most notable of them in recent times were Pat Brady of the Steelers, and Frankie Albert the 49er and ex-Stanford quarterback. Brady was a specialist. He could kick a tremendous ball and did little else. In one game I saw him toe four successive punts, none of them under 70 yards. But, finally, he was forced out of even his limited action by a mass rush that resulted in a crippling injury.

The reason I say that left-footed punters disgust the safety men is that the southpaws like Brady and Albert put reverse English on their spiral, making it about as easy to catch as a greased pig.

People have asked me whether I study wind currents and direction when I enter the different stadiums around the league. I certainly do. I watch the way the flags are whipping, wet my finger, and stick it into the breeze to find which way the prevailing zephyr is blowing.

But, seriously, some playing enclosures are easier to kick in than others. I got off my best punts in Briggs Stadium in Detroit, with the Coliseum in Los Angeles a runner-up.

I never did find out what made my ball sail in Detroit, but I do know that the Coliseum in Los Angeles had a sort of a jet stream carrying the ball once it reached a good height. The air, though, was absolutely stagnant on the playing surface.

Adrian Burk, a skinny punter with a strong leg and excellent timing, told me that if he could kick all the time in the Coliseum, he would surpass Sammy Baugh's 51.4-yard average set in 1940. Adrian had kicked a couple of 80-yarders when he visited Los Angeles with the Eagles four or five years ago, and he had an idea he could do it almost any time he pleased.

I reminded him, however, that the jet-stream didn't always move in a favorable direction in the Coliseum, and besides, Baugh's 51.4-yard average was achieved in the days of the single wing when the rolling quick kick was a favorite weapon.

My own punting average over the years has been about 43 yards. I have never booted the ball much over 70 yards at one time, and compared with kickers like Wilbur (Pete) Henry and my old teammate, Bob Waterfield, I guess one would have to call me a weakling.

Henry holds the National Football League record—a 94-yard punt in a game between Canton and Akron on October 28, 1923. The guy must have had a gale behind him, or else one of those Zucchini circus cannons up his leg. But then, come to think of it, his space shot probably was legitimate. Just before I joined the Rams, Waterfield lofted an 88-yarder against Green Bay in 1948. Bob, incidentally, also could place-kick with the best and kick off, too.

PUNT RETURNS

Football, like life, is full of ironies. And one of the more ironical situations in football has been provided by the Giants, titlists in the N.F.L. Eastern Conference twice in a row. In Don Chandler, they probably have the best punter extant, a booming kicker who has pulled them out of  numerous  holes  and jammed  up  the  opposition  deep  in  their  own territory. Yet, the Giants are still looking for a brace of runners who can do something with rivals punts. For while they were winning the Eastern title, they finished low man on the totem pole in the statistics on punt returns.

Fig. 23. Norm Van Brocklin shows the punting form that made him one of the most consistent kickers, year after year, in the National Football League. Here he is kicking from behind the Eagles' goal line as the New York Giants' Cliff Livingston (89) and Sam Huff (70) attempt to block the boomer. This was a 55-yarder that took the Eagles out of the hole.

Compounding the irony is the fact that the Giants once had the finest punt returner in the league in Emlen Tunnell. This pleasant lad from the University of Iowa set an N.F.L. punt return record of 38 in 1953, for a total of 223 yards. Over the years, most punters would kick away from Tunnell, fearing his ability to break away for long gains. Now that there isn't any Tunnell at the Giants' safety spot, a punter just puts it in the air and doesn't care who catches it.

There are, though, some very good punt returners operating in the N.F.L., although one would never think so from the generally low average yardage recorded by all teams in this department. The leading punt returner in 1958 was Jon Arnett with a 12.4-yard average per return.

In 1959, the Rams' rugged rambler finished third in this category to the Bears' Johnny Morris whose average was 12.2 yards.

The average distance per return doesn't sound like much; in a way, it is a tribute to the spread punt formation that I described in the previous chapter. The comparatively short yardage also is due to the league statisticians' practice of including fair catches when figuring out the averages. But, at a meeting in Dallas early in 1960, the league publicity men, who also double as statisticians for their own teams, decided to scrap inclusion of the fair catch when compiling punt return averages. This action should increase punt return averages considerably. The thinking behind it was that a runner should not be penalized for the orders of his coach when the latter decided to play it safe by ordering a fair catch.

Punt returning, however, will still remain a hazardous occupation because of the technique of high kicks, aided and abetted by the spread punt formation, which is also used universally in the colleges. Pervis Adkins, a speedy University of New Mexico halfback, led all collegiate punt returners in 1959 with a 15.1 average, only three yards more than the averages of Morris and Arnett.

There are no nimbler or more elusive runners than Morris and Arnett. The latter, a gymnast, has incredible balance, which enables him to give a tackier "the leg," then dart away from him without slowing a step.

From a punter's point of view, the low return average is ideal. But, the fans have become restive, claiming that because of the prevalence of the fair catch, together with the high spiral and the spread punt formation, one of the most thrilling plays in football has become almost extinct. As a result, there has been a clamor in some quarters for adoption of the Canadian rule on punting.

In Canadian football, a punt must be fielded and run out, even if it is caught in the end zone, which happens to be considerably larger than the American end zone. But, to compensate for this command peril, tacklers must stay five yards away from the receiver until he has caught the ball.

Canadians claim this makes for a more open game and that it has kept the punt return in football. That may be so in Canada—I haven't had the opportunity to make a personal tour of inspection—but I believe the defensive master-minds in this country would devise ways and means to nullify the safety man's advantage.

For myself, I would think that kicking the ball as high in the air as possible and surrounding the receiver with a cordon of huge, menacing tacklers would be sufficient to put a crimp on the Canadian caper.

Or, we could even revive the old Mills system. Properly trained in precision punting, a kicker could tell the whole team in the huddle just where he was going to place the ball.   The players would sprint down field under the punt, run to the designated spot without wasting time watching the direction of the ball, and then when assembled, say on the 10-yard mark near the sideline, fall upon the receiver en masse.

But, you ask, how could a punter gain such accuracy? I asked Don Kellett about this and he said that under the Mills system, markers were placed at various places on the gridiron. The punters then lined up in practice and kicked for the markers instead of for distance.

"Mills could hit a dime with his 50-yard punts," Kellett recalled, "and could also call the direction of the bounce as well.

"He told me," Kellett added, "that with practice, I could become the world's greatest punter. Well, I practiced all right, but I never had enough time to catch up with the old master." Mills had been practicing his precision punting for more than 20 years.

"The old boy really had something, though. I remember my best punting day with his system. It was against Navy, the game in which I placed four punts out of bounds within the ten yard line. Do you know that Navy ran back our punts for a total of only seven yards? Our punt returners got 107 yards simply because Mills had never made a visit to the Naval Academy."

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