How to Grip the Football when Punting

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm John Miller here with Expert Village to teach you how to punt a football. How to grip the football when punting. You want to use all fingertips which can be dominant with your right hand when you're kicking with your right leg. You want your hand underneath the ball which is going to be important later on as you release it you need to push that ball out this needs to be all that fingertip tension. You should be able to completely grasp the ball and control it with one hand. I can turn upside down right now and I'm in complete control with just one hand. Now as I take my last step, my left arm is going to come off the ball so I'm using only one hand to control it. I've got my hand at the back half of the ball and that's because my arm is shorter than my legs I need to push that ball out as far as I can as I release it so I don't want to be holding it here or in the center, I want to be holding it at the end. What I don't want to do is hold the tip thought. If I hold the end of the football, its going to be an inconsistent drop, it can get caught on something. I just want to keep that exposed right there but I still got a good grip. My hand is underneath it. The first thing you do when you catch that ball is you turn the laces up then you get a good grip on the football you'll use both hands. You always want the laces up, that's the dead spot if you kick it right there, its not going to go very far, it could hurt your foot a little bit too. Another dead spot on the ball is the nipple where you put in the needle to pump up the bladder thats got a dead spot there thats why you always want to get those laces up so you're just going to hit that nice sweet spot of the ball with your foot. So you've got your right hand in complete control of the football with your fingertips, your left hand is going to be coming across your body because the ball is lined up on the right half of your body, you want the left hand towards the back. The more forward you get with your left hand on that ball, the more it pulls the balls across your body and if you have the ball in the center of your body, you're more likely to swing your leg across your body to try and line up with that. So you want that left hand towards the back so it can evenly be on the right side of your body."