Inside the Numbers - Onside Kicks

“Survey Says…”

AFM asked survey respondents to share what they do to increase their chances of recovering onside kicks.

Kick’em in the Chest
“Instead of overloading a side and using the traditional onside kick, from our normal alignment, we have our kicker drive the ball directly at one of the front lineman. We hope the ball will kick-back toward our approaching players. We prefer to use this early in games to surprise the receiving team.”
Tom Dickinson,
North Penn High School (PA)

Develop Competition in Practice
“We practice our onsides in a game-like situation. We will put the varsity kickoff team on the field to recover and the J.V. hands team out to stop the recovery. We will start our 2-minute drill this way and give the ball to whatever team makes the recovery. This inter-squad competition has helped us not only with our onside kicks, but also with our entire programs’ ability to execute in a game situation.”
Chad O’Brien,
Mariner High School (FL)

6 Strategies to Recovering Onside Kicks
1. Put your fastest players on kickoffs –
regardless of talent.
2. Practice onside kicks at least three days
a week.
3. Have multiple ways to run onside kicks
and multiple looks - surprise, pooch,
roller ball, slow roller ball and squib
at the worst looking athlete.
4. Onside kick to start the game or start the 2nd half.
5. Onside kick right after you score early
in the game.
6. Onside kick from the huddle – just huddle, wait for the whistle and everyone just go from there with a slow roller ball.
Thomas Barnes,
Long Beach – Jordan High School (CA)

The Surprise of Mr. Softie
“We will use surprise onside kicks if we see that the front line players of the return team bail early. We use what we call “Mr. Softie” where the kicker will tap the ball forward and the four players next to the kicker (2 on left and 2 on right) will go after the front middle players. It takes some practice, but the kicker is usually able to recover the kick easily.”
Dan Vito,
East Rockaway High School (NY)

The Huddle Strategy
“We huddle as the kicker puts the ball on the tee. While still in the huddle, the kicker kicks the ball on the ground 10 yards directly at the middle player on the front line of the return team. The first five players hit the middle-front return player and the second five players are used to recover the ball after the returner is hit.”
Donovan Steele,
Woodbridge High School (NJ)

Scouting
“The first thing you need to do is watch a lot of tape and break down how your opponent plays their kickoff returns. Recognize how quickly their front line takes off to set up their blocks and what type of blocking scheme they are using. Notice if they have a preference to left and right returns versus middle returns. Look carefully at their personnel for any weakness as many teams put back-ups in, especially on the front line. Use this to your advantage. I feel that it is important to set up the onside kick by normally kicking off in a unique way such as favoring a side line or a pooch kick. Many teams will adjust their players’ positions on the field to return your normal kickoffs and many times this leaves an opening on the field to execute your onside kick.”
Bob Vick,
Chaparral High School (AZ)

The Specialist
“We have an onside specialist who only kicks onsides. The past few years our kicker did not kick our onsides.”
Patrick Pringle,
Bismarck Century High School (ND)

How many onside kicks did your program attempt during the 2008 season?
0 – 15.4%
1-3 – 50.4%
4-6 – 23.5%
7-10 – 6%
11-15 – 2.7%
16 or more – 1.9%

What percentage of onside kicks did your program recover this year?
0% - 34.2%
1-25% - 22.8%
26-50% - 23.4%
51-75% - 9.6%
76-100% - 10%