Common Kickoff Mistakes: Why Your Best-Struck Kick Can Be the Worst Outcome

Here is what makes kickoff mistakes distinctive. On a field goal, a good kick and a good outcome are the same thing. On a kickoff they are not. You can strike the ball perfectly, send it further than anyone else on the roster, and hand the opposition better field position than a mediocre kick would have.

That disconnect is why kickoff errors persist for whole seasons. The kicker is doing something that feels excellent, gets complimented on it, and never learns that the coverage unit is arriving late every single time.

This guide covers the mistakes that actually cost field position — the strategic ones first, because they do the most damage, then the technical ones that produce them.

The Strategic Mistakes

These cost more field position than every technical fault combined.

1. Out-kicking your coverage. The defining kickoff error. A kick that travels further but arrives sooner gives your coverage unit less time over more ground, and the returner space to build speed. More distance actively makes the outcome worse when the coverage cannot get there.

2. Not knowing what the coach wants. Deep? Directional? Maximum hang? Squib? Away from a specific returner? A technically excellent kick that ignores the plan is still a mistake, and this takes ten seconds to ask.

3. Kicking down the middle by default. The middle of the field gives the returner the full width to work with and the coverage unit the widest area to defend. Directional placement shortens both.

4. Not knowing your touchback rules. Where the ball is spotted after a touchback determines whether kicking it through the end zone is a good outcome or a wasted opportunity — and it varies by level and has changed repeatedly. Our rules by level guide covers why this needs checking every season.

5. Never measuring hang time. It is the number the coverage unit runs on and most kickers have never been told theirs. You cannot manage what you have not measured.

The most common kickoff mistake is a genuinely good kick sent to the wrong place, at the wrong height, for reasons nobody ever explained.

The Technical Mistakes

Now the mechanics, most of which produce the flat, low kick that causes the strategic problem above.

Striking too high on the ball. Produces a low, driving kick with poor hang. The most common technical cause of out-kicking your coverage.

Plant foot too far ahead of the ball. Your body has already travelled past it, so the foot arrives descending onto the upper half. Same flat result, different cause — and this one is invisible without film. Our plant foot guide covers the diagnosis.

Over-running the approach. Kickoffs allow a longer, faster run-up than field goals, and kickers routinely take more speed than they can control. Excess approach speed arrives as an unstable plant, not as distance.

Swinging at maximum effort. Flattens the trajectory and degrades contact. The same trap as long field goals.

Inconsistent steps. The kickoff approach is longer, which means more room for drift and less frequent re-measurement. Most kickers check their field goal steps and never check their kickoff ones.

Head coming up early. Watching the ball go is more tempting on a kickoff than anywhere else, and it pulls the whole body up and out.

Poor balance on landing. A kicker who finishes off-balance has leaked energy and is also the last line of defence on the play about to develop.

All of Them Ranked

Look at the fix difficulty column. Four of the top five most costly mistakes are trivial or easy to fix — they persist because nobody measured or asked, not because they are hard. That is unusual and it makes kickoff work one of the highest-return areas available to a kicker.

Tee and Setup Errors

Small, avoidable, and they quietly add variance to every kick.

Not seating the tee properly. Particularly on soft or wet ground, where an unseated tee shifts at contact.

Not checking the tee’s condition. Tees degrade — supports splay, material softens — and a tee presenting the ball lower and flatter than it used to produces exactly the flat kick you are trying to avoid. Our tee care guide covers spotting it.

Inconsistent ball orientation. Placing the ball differently kick to kick changes what your foot meets.

Not checking the ball. A soft or cold ball behaves differently. Ten seconds with a gauge removes the variable.

Using an illegal tee height. Permitted heights vary by level and change. Worth confirming before buying, not after a penalty.

Rushing the setup. The kickoff has more time available than most kickers use. Setting up hurriedly costs consistency for no benefit.

Situational Mistakes

Right technique, wrong moment.

Kicking deep when the plan called for directional. Usually because nobody asked.

Booming it with a strong tailwind into a touchback. Free yards turned into a giveaway, depending on your touchback spot.

Ignoring the wind entirely. Kickoffs spend a long time in the air, which makes them more wind-affected than field goals.

Not adjusting for a dangerous returner. Sometimes the correct kick is shorter, higher and away from them.

Squibbing badly. A squib is a specific skill with its own technique, not simply a mishit kickoff. Practise it if it is in your playbook.

Not communicating with coverage. Your unit plans their lanes around where the ball is going. Telling them helps.

Physical and Load Mistakes

Kickoffs are the most expensive reps a kicker takes, and treating them as ordinary is a mistake in itself.

Doing kickoffs before field goals. The most common practice-order error. Near-maximal reps first means precision work on a tired leg.

Taking too many. A kickoff costs considerably more than a controlled field goal. Twenty kickoffs is not equivalent to twenty field goals in load terms.

Kicking off cold. Full effort through full range on unprepared tissue is the classic injury scenario.

Not counting them in your weekly volume. Multi-role specialists especially tend to undercount. Our multiple roles guide covers weighting them properly.

Chasing distance with volume. Repeated maximum-effort kickoffs build fatigue and habit, not range.

Equipment

Fixing Them in Order

1. Ask what your coach wants. Profile, direction, and whether a touchback helps you this season. Ten seconds, biggest return on the list.
2. Measure your hang time. Five kicks, averaged. Now you have the number your job is judged on.
3. Check your tee and your ball. Rule out the equipment before the technique.
4. Test 80 per cent effort against maximum. Time and measure both. Most kickers find the controlled set performs better.
5. Move your plant cone back two inches. Ten timed kicks. This is often the fastest trajectory fix available.
6. Run a contact point ladder. Ten kicks slightly lower on the ball, ten slightly higher, all timed.
7. Re-measure your kickoff steps. Separately from your field goal steps, every session.
8. Practise directional placement to cones. Only once the trajectory is right — placement of a flat kick does not help much.

Quick-Fix Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Two Kickoffs, Compared

The abstract argument about distance versus hang becomes obvious when you lay two realistic kicks side by side. Both are struck well. Only one of them helps.

The final row is the reason this mistake survives. The kick that hurt your team gets praised, and the kick that helped it gets no comment at all. A kicker relying on sideline feedback to tell them which kick was better will be systematically misled all season — which is precisely why the stopwatch matters more here than in any other part of kicking.

It is worth noting what is not different between those two columns: the steps, the plant, the contact quality and the follow-through are identical in both. This is not a comparison between a good kick and a bad one. It is a comparison between the same kicker choosing two different profiles, one of which they were never told to choose.

Keep Going

As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. General training information, not medical advice. Kickoff formats, touchback placement and permitted tee heights vary by level and change — check your current rulebook.