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Play Keep-Away: Each time your team punts, the goal is to kick it 40 yards and out of bounds.by: John LillyHead Coach, Woodrow Wilson High School (WV) © More from this issue It’s that time of year when coaches are in clinic research, upgrading playbooks and pushing the weight room as hard as possible. One area that is overlooked in a lot of playbooks is special teams evaluation. In most cases, special teams is the difference between two evenly-matched teams. Often overlooked and under-practiced, special teams play effects the overall efficiency of your program. In high school, we all face that very special player in the kicking game that can score any time he touches the ball. It’s that one player that can turn the game around. If he touches it, you may lose field position for sure and/or the game as well. If you have a punter that has a very effective hang time, that may be your best weapon to counter a dangerous punt returner. However, that’s a luxury most high schools don’t have. When teams are kicking to outstanding return players, I wonder why an opponent would kick to them. Numerous college coaches have told me that this situation is a challenge that they welcomed and was a true test of their team. Our philosophy is to never allow any return by any player in any game. We have a distinct punt team model that we use. Many times in my coaching career we faced a superior player that we could not match up with. Our punt game begins on the first day of practice in the early periods in order to emphasize its importance. Our long snappers began on the first day of weight training in the off season by using medicine balls and weighted footballs to improve the speed of their snaps. With this in mind, our punt team is graded on yards allowed. Our goal is allowing zero yards on punt returns in every game. Over the last 31 games, we have allowed two returns over 10 yards and one allowed for a touchdown because of a poorly placed punt. Our base plan is simple and direct. We want a forty-yard punt that goes out of bounds. Our punter’s goal is to punt the ball inside the hash, and never outside the bench hash, and the closer to the sideline the better. By never allowing a return, I want to make our opponent drive the ball and increase their percentage of making a mistake. Our challenge is to win the game and, by keeping our kicking game simple and effective, we have a better chance of being successful. Our punt team makes game planning easy. W do not need to spend large amounts of time working on how to stop your opponent because our goal remains the same on every punt – 40 yards downfield and out of bounds. Use the rest of the time on other parts – offense and defense – of your game planning. In diagram 1, you will notice the alignment we have is from the middle of the field. The personal protectors will be the responsibility for the alignment of the front 8. They will give them the “Bench Right” and “Bench Left” calls. Our bench defenders are our best and most aggressive defenders that have speed. The basic goal is to have the F1 and B1 players pin the defender if the ball does not go out of bounds. Their ending point is one yard in front and one yard behind the returner. The field defenders are our best tacklers because their ability to hit landmarks is essential if the ball is poorly placed. In the diagram you can see the specific route for each bench and field player as well as the personal protectors. More on this subject: • Rowan University’s Punt Team Techniques - April, 2014 |
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