Extra Point Kicking: Why the Easiest Kick in Football Is the One That Ends Careers

Here is the asymmetry that defines this kick. Make it and nobody notices — it was supposed to go in. Miss it and it is the story of the game, replayed on every highlight package, remembered for the rest of the season.

No other kick in football has that payoff structure. A missed 52-yarder is unfortunate. A missed extra point is a failure, and everybody watching understands it as one. That asymmetry is what makes a technically simple kick psychologically difficult, and why extra points deserve far more deliberate attention than they usually get.

This guide covers what actually makes extra points go wrong, why the longer distance in modern rules changed things, how to practise a kick you assume you can already make, and how to handle the pressure of a kick where the only available outcomes are “fine” and “disaster”.

The Psychology of a Kick You Must Make

Start here, because the technical section is short and this one is the actual problem.

Every other kick has upside. A long field goal that goes in is a moment. A punt pinned inside the five is a contribution. Those kicks can earn you something. The extra point cannot — the best available outcome is that nobody mentions it.

That changes how it feels. Kicks with upside produce a mild approach motivation: you are trying to achieve something. Kicks with only downside produce avoidance motivation: you are trying not to fail. Avoidance tends to make people tentative, careful and slow — which are exactly the qualities that ruin a kicking motion.

Guiding is the specific failure. A kicker who is trying not to miss decelerates through contact and steers, because steering feels safer than swinging. It is not safer. A guided kick has softer contact, less predictable direction and no margin, which is why “easy” kicks miss in ways that long kicks do not.

The extra point is not a shorter field goal. It is the same kick performed under a completely different reward structure, and the reward structure is what you have to manage.

What the Modern Distance Changed

Extra point distances vary by level, and where the ball is spotted matters more than people assume.

The NFL move to a longer extra point is worth understanding even if you never kick at that level, because it demonstrates something useful: once the distance moved out to roughly a 33-yard attempt, conversion rates dropped noticeably. The kick did not become hard in absolute terms — a 33-yarder is comfortably within any professional kicker’s range. What changed was that a kick with zero tolerance for error was given enough distance for small errors to matter.

At 20 yards, a slightly poor strike still goes in. At 33, it might not. That is the entire difference, and it explains why the shorter extra point at high school and college level fails for different reasons than the longer professional one.

Why Extra Points Actually Miss

The causes are specific and mostly not what people assume.

Deceleration through contact. The single most common cause. Trying not to overhit a short kick, the kicker slows the leg, producing weak and unpredictable contact.

Steering. Consciously aiming a kick you normally strike instinctively. The moment the swing becomes a guided action rather than a committed one, direction gets worse rather than better.

Rushing the routine. Extra points come immediately after a touchdown, in celebration, with a crowd and a chaotic sideline. Routines get compressed and steps get rushed.

Operation breakdown. A poor snap or a mishandled hold ruins short kicks disproportionately, because there is no room in the timing to recover.

Complacency in practice. Kickers practise long field goals because those feel like the skill. Extra points get treated as a warm-up, so they are never practised under any pressure at all.

Plant foot drift. On a short kick some kickers unconsciously plant differently, closer or more open, because the target feels near. Small change, real consequence.

Technique: Same Kick, Different Mindset

The mechanical instruction is genuinely simple, and its simplicity is the point.

1. Use your normal steps. Do not shorten your approach because the kick is short. The steps that produce your best contact are the ones you measured, not an improvised smaller version.
2. Use your normal effort. Somewhere around your standard swing, not a reduced one. Distance control is not the problem here — the ball only has to clear and stay straight.
3. Plant exactly where you always plant. Same distance beside the ball, same toe direction. This is the point where short kicks quietly go wrong.
4. Strike the same spot on the ball. Nothing about the contact point changes for a shorter kick.
5. Follow through fully. Complete the motion, finish balanced. A shortened follow-through is the fingerprint of a guided kick.
6. Keep your head still through contact. Looking up early to watch it is more tempting on a kick you expect to make.

Notice that every instruction is “the same as usual”. That is deliberate. There is no extra point technique — there is your technique, performed without modification, in a situation that tempts you to modify it.

How to Practise Them Properly

Most kickers technically practise extra points and effectively do not, because they hit them at the start of a session with no consequence attached. Consequence is the whole variable.

The consequence streak is the drill that matters. Set a target — ten consecutive makes — and restart from zero on any miss. Suddenly the eighth kick carries real weight, because missing costs you seven. That manufactured downside is the closest thing to the actual emotional structure of an extra point, and it is far more useful than another twenty relaxed reps.

Practise them tired and elevated. Extra points arrive after a touchdown, which means adrenaline, noise and often a sprint onto the field. Kicking them at the calm start of a session trains none of that.

Practise the whole operation. At short distance, the operation is a larger share of the risk than your leg is. Solo reps miss the most likely failure point entirely.

Our field goal drills guide has more on building pressure into ordinary sessions.

Handling the Pressure

Given that the difficulty is psychological, the tools should be too.

Reframe what the kick is. Not “a kick I must not miss” but “a kick I have made hundreds of times”. The second framing is equally true and produces a committed swing rather than a careful one.

Protect the routine especially here. The chaos after a touchdown is exactly when routines get compressed. Slow yourself deliberately — the play clock has more room in it than the atmosphere suggests.

Commit to the swing. Whatever else happens, swing through. A committed miss is rare; a tentative one is common. Commitment is a decision you make before the approach starts.

Have a short memory. If you miss one, the next kick is unaffected by it in every way except the way you carry it. That is a genuine skill and it is trainable.

Accept the asymmetry rather than fighting it. Yes, nobody will praise you for making it. Kickers who accept that early stop looking for reward in a kick that has none, and simply execute. The full picture is in our guide to mental preparation.

Equipment

The Operation Matters More Here

On a 50-yard attempt, the leg is the limiting factor. On a 20-yard extra point, it is not — the operation is.

The snap. A snap that is high, low or off-centre costs the holder time, and there is no spare time in a short kick’s rhythm. Snapper consistency is a bigger contributor to extra point reliability than most kickers acknowledge.

The hold. Ball placement, laces out, tilt and stillness. A ball that is not quite settled when your foot arrives produces a mishit regardless of your technique. Our holding guide covers what good looks like.

The timing. The whole operation should be around 1.3 seconds. It is not the block that threatens a short kick so much as a rushed rhythm caused by a slow snap.

Practise together. The most productive extra point practice a team can do is full-operation reps with the actual snapper and holder, repeatedly, until the rhythm is automatic. Individually excellent components with no shared timing still produce misses.

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

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