Squib Kick vs Onside Kick: Two Very Different Situational Kicks

The distinction in one line: a squib kick gives the ball away deliberately in exchange for preventing a big return. An onside kick tries to get the ball back. One is defensive, one is aggressive, and they are struck differently because they are trying to achieve opposite things.

Kickers routinely conflate them because both are short, low, bouncing kicks that look superficially similar. Understanding what each is for changes how you strike it and when you would use it.

Opposite Purposes

Start here, because everything else follows from it.

A squib kick accepts that the other team will get the ball. What it refuses to accept is a long return. By kicking low and tumbling, you force the receiving team to field an awkward ball on the ground, usually with a player who is not their designated returner, and you eliminate the possibility of a clean catch and a full-speed runback. You are trading field position for safety.

An onside kick refuses to give the ball away at all. You are attempting to recover it yourself, which means the ball must travel the required distance before your team may legally touch it while remaining contestable. You are trading field position for a chance at possession.

Those are genuinely opposite intentions. The squib is a risk-reduction play; the onside is a risk-taking play. A kicker who does not know which one has been called is likely to produce the wrong kick entirely.

A squib says “you can have it, but not cheaply.” An onside says “we want it back.” Same rough shape of kick, completely different objective.

The Squib Kick

A deliberately low, tumbling kick that skids and bounces along the turf rather than travelling through the air.

What it achieves. It removes the returner from the equation. A bouncing, tumbling ball is difficult to field cleanly, and it is usually collected by a blocker rather than a specialist returner. Even a clean pickup rarely produces a return of any consequence, because the receiving player has to secure the ball before doing anything and your coverage has time to arrive.

What it costs. Field position. A squib typically leaves the receiving team with better starting position than a well-placed deep kickoff would, because it does not travel as far.

When it is worth that trade. Most commonly at the end of a half, when a long return would be catastrophic and the yardage cost is irrelevant because there is little time left. Also used against a particularly dangerous returner, or in conditions where a conventional kickoff is unreliable.

The kicker’s job. Get it down and get it tumbling, past the front line of blockers, without sending it so far that a returner can gather it comfortably.

The Onside Kick

A short kick intended for your own team to recover.

What it achieves. Possession, if it works. It is the only mechanism by which a kicking team retains the ball after a score, which makes it the standard play when a team is behind late and needs another possession.

What it costs. Substantially, if it fails. A short kick that the receiving team collects gives them excellent field position, and an illegally short one may carry a penalty on top.

The narrow target. The ball must travel the required distance before your team may legally recover, but not so far that it is easily collected. That window is genuinely tight, which is what makes the kick difficult.

The rules caveat. Onside provisions — distance requirements, permitted formations, and in some rule sets whether alternatives exist — vary by level and have been revised repeatedly in recent seasons. Confirm the current rules with your coach rather than relying on general knowledge. Our onside kick guide covers the technique in detail.

Side by Side

How the Technique Differs

Both involve striking higher on the ball than a normal kickoff, driving it down rather than launching it. Beyond that they diverge.

The squib prioritises getting the ball past the front line and tumbling unpredictably. You want reasonable distance — enough that it is not simply collected immediately — combined with a low, skidding, awkward flight. Power is moderate to firm. Precision of distance matters less than making sure it is genuinely low and genuinely awkward.

The onside prioritises hitting a narrow distance window. Power is more restrained, and the strike is often designed to produce a specific behaviour — a high bounce that comes down around the minimum distance, or a spinning ball that behaves unpredictably. Precision of distance is the whole skill, and overhitting is the most common failure.

The approach differs too. A squib can be struck from something closer to a normal kickoff approach. An onside kick generally uses a shorter, more controlled run-up, because sprinting at a kick that requires precise distance control is a reliable way to overhit it.

When Each Gets Called

The decision is a coaching one, but understanding it helps you anticipate.

Squib situations tend to involve time pressure where a return would be dangerous but possession is not urgently needed. End of a half with a few seconds remaining is the classic case — giving up twenty yards of field position is irrelevant if the clock expires, whereas a long return could produce points. Squibs also appear against exceptional returners and in poor conditions where a conventional kickoff might not be controllable.

Onside situations divide into two categories. The obvious one is late and behind, needing another possession, where the receiving team is fully prepared and recovery rates are correspondingly low. The surprise attempt, made when the receiving team has a standard return unit on the field and is not anticipating it, succeeds considerably more often but requires a coordinator who trusts the kicker to execute on short notice.

That second category is the strongest practical argument for practising onside kicks regularly even in seasons where they never appear in a game.

Practising Both

Neither takes much time, and both belong in a weekly routine if your team uses them.

Squibs: around ten a week is sufficient. Set a target zone past where the front line would be, and focus on getting the ball genuinely low and tumbling rather than on precise placement. Because the tolerance is wider, this is the easier of the two to develop.

Onside: five to eight a week, with cones marking the minimum legal distance and a few yards beyond so you can immediately see whether an attempt was both legal and recoverable. Film the bounce — behaviour after contact is hard to judge in real time.

Both with the unit: once you can deliver consistently alone, run them with coverage. The timing relationship is a large part of what makes either work, and solo repetitions train only the strike.

Practise the call. Have someone name which kick immediately before your approach, rather than letting you settle into a rhythm of one type. In a game the decision may come late, and the ability to switch cleanly is part of the skill.

Common Confusions

Frequently Asked Questions

The Third Option: Directional Kickoffs

Worth mentioning because it sits between the two and is frequently the better answer to the problem a squib is trying to solve.

If your concern is a dangerous returner, a squib is not your only tool. A well-placed directional kickoff toward a sideline shrinks the field the returner can work with, lets your coverage funnel them toward a boundary, and — crucially — does not surrender the field position that a squib gives away.

The trade-off is that a directional kickoff still allows a clean catch and a full-speed return, whereas a squib eliminates that possibility entirely. So the choice depends on how confident you are in your coverage and how dangerous the returner is.

In practice, many coordinators prefer directional kicks as the default response to a good returner and reserve squibs for genuine time-pressure situations where field position has stopped mattering. If you can place the ball reliably, you are giving your staff that option. Our placement drills guide covers how to develop it.

This matters for how you allocate practice time. Directional kicking is used far more often than either squibs or onside kicks, and it is a skill with genuine week-to-week value rather than a contingency.

Reading the Game Situation

You will not be making these calls, but recognising the situations helps you be mentally prepared rather than surprised.

Late in a half with a small lead and a few seconds remaining is squib territory. Nobody cares about twenty yards; everybody cares about a long return producing points before the clock expires.

Trailing by more than one score with limited time points toward an onside attempt, because possession is worth more than field position at that point.

Trailing by a single score with reasonable time remaining is genuinely ambiguous, and different coordinators go different ways. This is the situation where a surprise onside is most likely, precisely because it is not obvious.

Poor weather with an unreliable conventional kickoff can prompt a squib simply because it is more controllable than a high kick in swirling wind.

The practical point for a kicker is to be thinking about it before the call comes. If you have already registered that the situation looks like a squib scenario, receiving that instruction is confirmation rather than a surprise, and you are less likely to rush the adjustment.

What Success Looks Like for Each

These two kicks need different success criteria, and judging one by the other’s standard produces bad conclusions.

A successful squib is one where the receiving team fields the ball awkwardly, on the ground, with no meaningful return. You have not failed if they end up with the ball — that was the plan. You have failed if a returner gathered it cleanly and ran it back, or if it stopped so short that it turned into an accidental onside kick.

A successful onside is genuinely harder to judge, because recovery depends on ten other players and a considerable amount of luck. The kicker’s contribution should be assessed on whether the ball travelled the correct distance, went in the requested direction, and behaved awkwardly enough to be contestable. A perfectly executed onside kick that the other team happens to fall on is not a failed kick.

Judging your onside work purely by recovery rate will make you conclude you are bad at it, because most onside kicks are not recovered even when well struck. Judge the delivery, not the outcome — the same principle that applies to everything else in this position.

Building Both Into a Season

Situational kicks have a habit of disappearing from practice because they never feel urgent. A little structure keeps them alive without costing much.

Off-season is when to actually learn them. No consequence attached, plenty of time, and you can experiment with different striking styles to find what you execute most reliably. This is also when to establish your distance control with cones, because that is the part that takes repetition.

Pre-season is when to integrate with the coverage unit and when your coordinator forms a view on whether these kicks are available to them. If you want either called during the season, this is the window that decides it.

In-season is maintenance. Ten squibs and five onside attempts once a week keeps both alive at negligible cost. Increase briefly if your coach flags a game where one is likely.

Before a game where one is probable, a handful of reps in warm-up is enough. You are refreshing a pattern, not learning, and over-practising beforehand tends to make kickers tentative on the real attempt.

Across a full season that adds up to a few hours in total, which is a modest price for two options your team would otherwise not have.

Learn both, keep them distinct in your practice, and make sure the call reaching you is never ambiguous.

Fifteen minutes a week covers both, and it turns two contingencies into genuine options your coordinator can reach for.

Keep Going

Kickoff and onside provisions vary by level and have been revised frequently. Confirm current rules with your coach or governing body.