Kicking Tee Care and Maintenance: Why Your Tee Is Quietly Changing Under You
A tee that has taken two thousand kicks does not present the ball the way it did on day one. Nobody notices, because the change happens at roughly the speed your technique drifts — and the two get confused constantly.
Here is the problem worth understanding. A kicking tee is a presentation device. Its entire job is to hold the ball at a consistent height and angle so that your kick meets the same target every time. When it degrades, that consistency degrades — and because the change is gradual, kickers almost always blame themselves.
The result is a familiar and entirely avoidable sequence: a kicker starts hitting kickoffs slightly lower, spends six weeks working on trajectory, films their plant, changes their steps, and eventually discovers their tee has been sitting a few degrees flatter since August.
This guide covers how tees actually degrade, how to spot it before it costs you weeks, storage and cleaning that genuinely extends life, when to replace, and how to keep your practice tee and your game tee consistent with each other.
📋 What’s in this guide
Why Tee Condition Matters
Four specific reasons, and they compound over a season.
Ball height sets your contact point. Where the ball sits determines where on the ball your foot arrives, which determines launch angle. A tee sitting lower than it did presents a different target for an unchanged swing.
Ball angle sets your trajectory. Most tees hold the ball at a slight backward lean. If the supports soften or splay, that lean changes — and so does the flight of every kickoff you take.
Stability affects contact quality. A tee that shifts or wobbles as you strike costs energy and introduces variability that looks exactly like inconsistent technique.
Consistency is the whole point. The reason to use the same tee repeatedly is that it removes a variable. A degrading tee quietly puts that variable back without telling you.
Equipment drift and technique drift feel identical from the inside. The difference is that one of them costs almost nothing to rule out.
Our complete tee guide covers selection and types; this guide is about keeping the one you chose behaving the way it did when you chose it.
How Tees Actually Degrade
Different failure modes on different timescales, and only some are visible.
| Failure mode | Cause | Effect on the kick | Visible? | Timescale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support splaying outward | Repeated impact over time | Ball sits lower and flatter | Only by comparison | Months |
| Material softening | Heat, UV exposure, age | Less stable, ball settles differently | Barely | A season or more |
| Brittleness and cracking | Cold, UV, age | Sudden failure, unstable hold | Yes, once advanced | Seasons |
| Warping | Stored under weight or in heat | Uneven base, tee rocks | Yes, on a flat surface | Weeks if stored badly |
| Surface wear | Abrasive turf, grit | Ball grips less consistently | Yes | Months |
| Base damage | Being trodden on, kicked, thrown in a bag | Sits unevenly on the ground | Yes | Instant |
| Dirt and grass build-up | Normal use | Ball seats slightly differently | Yes | Days |
The top two rows are the dangerous ones, because they change how the ball is presented without ever looking wrong. A tee whose supports have splayed by a few millimetres looks completely normal in isolation — and only reveals itself next to a new one.
⚠️ Heat is the fastest killer, and a car boot is where most tees die. A closed vehicle in summer reaches temperatures well above ambient, and plastic left in one softens, warps and ages far faster than plastic stored indoors. A tee that lives in your car all season is being slowly cooked between sessions, and the degradation is entirely invisible until you compare it with a fresh one.
Spotting It Before It Costs You
Three checks, none of which take more than a minute.
- Keep a reference tee. The single most useful habit here. Buy two identical tees, use one, keep the other in a drawer unused. Comparing them takes ten seconds and turns an invisible drift into an obvious one.
- Check it on a flat surface monthly. Sit it on a table. Does it rock? Do the supports sit symmetrically? Does the ball lean the way it used to?
- Photograph it with a ball on it, from the side, when new. Then re-photograph every couple of months from the same position. The comparison shows angle changes you cannot judge by eye.
- Check it whenever your kickoffs change. Before you spend three weeks on your technique, spend one minute on your equipment. This ordering saves people entire blocks of training.
- Inspect for cracks after cold weather. Plastic gets brittle in the cold, and a crack that appears in January will fail suddenly rather than gradually.
💡 Buy two identical tees at the same time. Use one, keep the second unused as your reference. It is the cheapest diagnostic tool in kicking — and when the used one eventually fails, your replacement is already the same model you have spent a season calibrated to, rather than whatever is in stock in October.
Care That Actually Extends Life
Short list, because most tee care is simply not doing damaging things.
Clean off dirt and grass after use. A quick wipe. Built-up grit changes how the ball seats and accelerates surface wear on abrasive turf.
Let it dry before storing. Damp tees in a closed bag encourage mould on the bag contents and are unpleasant to handle. Rinse and air-dry after a muddy session.
Do not put it in a dishwasher or use solvents. Heat and harsh chemicals both degrade plastic. Warm water and a cloth is the entire cleaning protocol.
Do not stand on it, sit on it or throw it. Obvious, routinely done, and the cause of most sudden base damage.
Carry it where it will not be crushed. Not at the bottom of a bag under a pile of balls and boots.
Do not modify it. Cutting, sanding or heating a tee to change its height changes the properties of the material and, at most levels, makes it non-compliant with the rules. If you want a different height, buy that height.
Storage: The Big One
More tees are ruined by storage than by kicking, which is worth sitting with for a moment.
Store indoors, at room temperature. Not the car, not a shed in summer, not a garage that swings between extremes.
Keep it out of direct sunlight. UV degrades plastic steadily and invisibly. A tee that lives on a sunny windowsill ages considerably faster than one in a drawer.
Store it unloaded. Nothing on top of it. Weight over time is how warping happens, and a warped base is unfixable.
Avoid freezing conditions where you can. Repeated freezing and thawing accelerates brittleness in many plastics.
Store it flat and supported. Not balanced on a bag strap or wedged against something that presses on the supports.
Bring it in after every session. The habit that matters most. Tees left in cars survive a season looking fine and performing differently.
When to Replace
Tees are inexpensive relative to the cost of a season of confusion, which makes this an easy decision to get right.
| Sign | What it means | Action | Urgency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visible crack anywhere | Structural failure is coming | Replace | Immediate |
| Rocks on a flat surface | Warped base — unfixable | Replace | Immediate |
| Supports splayed vs reference | Ball height and angle have changed | Replace | Soon |
| Ball sits noticeably differently | Presentation has drifted | Replace | Soon |
| Material feels soft or chalky | Heat or UV degradation | Replace | Soon |
| Surface heavily worn | Ball grip inconsistent | Replace before the season | Moderate |
| Cosmetic marks only | Nothing | Keep using | None |
Replace before a season rather than during one. Changing tee mid-season introduces a new variable at the worst possible time. If yours is borderline in July, replace it in July.
Replace with the same model. A different tee presents the ball differently and requires recalibration. This is the argument for buying two at once.
Check the rules before buying. Permitted tee heights vary by level and have changed over time. Our tee rules guide covers the general position, but confirm the current requirements for your own competition.
Equipment
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Football Kicking Tee (Buy Two)
The Two-Tee Strategy
Buying two identical tees at once gives you a used one and an unused reference. Comparing them takes ten seconds and turns invisible degradation into something obvious — and your eventual replacement is already the model you are calibrated to.
✅ What’s good
- Makes degradation visible
- Replacement already matches
- Cheap relative to the confusion it prevents
- No recalibration when you switch
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Two purchases up front
- Check legal height for your level
👤 Best for: Every kickoff specialist. This single habit prevents a whole category of wasted training.
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Equipment Bag with Compartments
Not Crushing It in Transit
Most sudden tee damage happens in a bag, under boots and balls. Separate compartments keep the tee from being compressed, which is where warping starts.
✅ What’s good
- Prevents crush damage in transit
- Keeps muddy items separate
- Room for the whole kit
- Durable
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Bulkier than a simple holdall
- Another purchase
👤 Best for: Kickers who currently carry a tee loose at the bottom of a bag.
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Ball Pressure Gauge
The Other Half of Consistent Presentation
The tee holds the ball; the ball’s own condition decides how it sits and how it feels. Pressure changes with temperature, and a gauge takes ten seconds to rule that variable out too.
✅ What’s good
- Removes a second silent variable
- Very quick to use
- Pocket-sized and cheap
- Useful all season
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Match balls may not be yours to adjust
- Easy to lose
👤 Best for: Kickers ruling out equipment before blaming technique.
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Training Log
Recording When You Changed Equipment
Noting the date you replaced a tee, changed shoes or switched balls means that when performance shifts, you can check whether something changed underneath you before you start rebuilding your technique.
✅ What’s good
- Links performance shifts to equipment changes
- Saves weeks of misdiagnosis
- Cheap and simple
- Useful across seasons
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Requires the habit
- Easy to abandon
👤 Best for: Anyone who has ever spent a month fixing a technique problem that was a gear problem.
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Microfibre Cloths
The Entire Cleaning Protocol
Wipe the dirt off, let it dry, put it away indoors. That is the whole maintenance routine, and doing it consistently genuinely extends how long a tee presents the ball correctly.
✅ What’s good
- Prevents grit build-up
- Extends surface life
- Costs almost nothing
- Useful for the rest of your kit
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Needs washing itself
- Easy to forget in the bag
👤 Best for: Kickers practising on abrasive artificial turf where grit accumulates fast.
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Training Cones
Marking Tee Position Consistently
Consistency in presentation includes where the tee sits relative to your steps. A cone marking the spot means you are setting up identically rather than approximately each session.
✅ What’s good
- Removes setup variability
- Also the key drill tool
- Packs completely flat
- Trivially cheap
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Move in wind
- Need collecting
👤 Best for: Kickoff specialists who set up by eye each session.
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Practice Tee Versus Game Tee
An underrated source of inconsistency, and an easy one to eliminate.
The problem. Many kickers practise on a battered personal tee and then kick off in games on a pristine team tee — or the reverse. Two different presentations, and the one that counts is the one you have practised on least.
The fix is straightforward. Practise on a tee in the same condition as the one you will use in games. If the team tee is new, your practice tee should not be three seasons old.
Use your own tee in games where permitted. Rules vary, so check — but where you are allowed to, a tee you are calibrated to is worth having.
If you must use a team tee, get reps on it. Even a handful in warm-up. You are checking whether the ball sits where you expect, not learning a new skill.
Check the team tee’s condition too. Shared equipment gets more use and less care than personal equipment, and nobody is monitoring it. A worn team tee is exactly the invisible variable this guide is about.
Common Mistakes
❌ 1. Storing the tee in a car
Heat in a closed vehicle softens, warps and ages plastic far faster than indoor storage, and the damage is invisible until you compare.
✅ Fix: Bring it indoors after every session. This one habit matters most.
❌ 2. Having no reference tee
Gradual degradation is undetectable in isolation and obvious by comparison.
✅ Fix: Buy two identical tees; keep one unused in a drawer.
❌ 3. Blaming your technique first
Kickers spend weeks rebuilding mechanics that were fine while the equipment quietly drifted.
✅ Fix: Check the tee, the ball pressure and your shoes before the technique.
❌ 4. Modifying a tee to change its height
Cutting or heating changes the material properties and, at most levels, makes it non-compliant.
✅ Fix: Buy the height you want, after checking your competition’s rules.
❌ 5. Replacing mid-season
Introduces a new presentation at the worst possible moment.
✅ Fix: Assess in pre-season and replace then, with the same model.
❌ 6. Practising on a tee unlike your game tee
Two different presentations, and the one that counts is the less familiar one.
✅ Fix: Match the condition, or get warm-up reps on the game tee.
❌ 7. Storing it under weight
Sustained pressure warps the base, and a warped base cannot be corrected.
✅ Fix: Store flat, unloaded, out of sunlight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do kicking tees wear out?
Yes, in several ways. Supports splay outward under repeated impact, plastic softens with heat and UV exposure, bases warp under sustained weight, and surfaces wear on abrasive turf.
The dangerous part is that the two most consequential changes — splaying and softening — look completely normal in isolation and only reveal themselves next to a new tee.
How should I store a kicking tee?
Indoors, at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, lying flat with nothing on top of it. Bring it in after every session rather than leaving it in a vehicle.
A car boot in summer is where most tees die — the heat softens and ages the plastic considerably faster than indoor storage, entirely invisibly.
How do I know when to replace my tee?
Replace immediately for any visible crack or if it rocks on a flat surface, since a warped base cannot be fixed. Replace soon if the supports have splayed compared with a reference tee, if the ball sits noticeably differently, or if the material feels soft or chalky.
Do it in pre-season rather than mid-season, and replace with the same model so you are not recalibrating during a campaign.
Can I clean a kicking tee?
Yes — warm water and a cloth is the entire protocol. Wipe off dirt and grass after use, rinse after muddy sessions, and let it dry fully before it goes back in a bag.
Do not use a dishwasher or solvents. Both degrade the plastic, which is precisely the failure mode you are trying to avoid.
Can I modify a tee to change its height?
No. Cutting, sanding or heating a tee alters the material properties and, at most levels, makes it non-compliant with equipment rules.
If you want a different height, buy that height — after checking the current permitted heights for your competition, since these vary by level and have changed over time.
Should I use my own tee or the team’s?
Where the rules permit it, using a tee you are calibrated to is worth having. Rules vary by level, so check first.
If you must use a team tee, take reps on it in warm-up and check its condition — shared equipment gets more use and far less care than personal equipment, and nobody is monitoring it.
Tee Care Checklist
- Two identical tees bought — one in use, one unused as reference
- Brought indoors after every session, never left in a vehicle
- Stored flat, unloaded, out of direct sunlight
- Wiped clean of dirt and grass after use
- Dried fully before going back in a bag
- No solvents, dishwashers or heat used for cleaning
- Never stood on, sat on or thrown
- Carried in a compartment, not crushed under boots and balls
- Checked on a flat surface monthly for rocking
- Compared against the reference tee every couple of months
- Photographed from the side when new for angle comparison
- Inspected for cracks after cold weather
- Checked first whenever kickoffs change — before technique
- Never modified for height
- Replaced in pre-season, with the same model
- Practice tee condition matched to the game tee
The bottom line: your tee is a presentation device, and a presentation device that has quietly changed is indistinguishable from a technique that has quietly changed — except that one of them costs a minute to rule out. Buy two, keep one as a reference, store it indoors rather than in your car, and check it before you check yourself. It is the cheapest insurance in kicking against spending six weeks fixing something that was never broken.
Keep Going
📜 Tee RulesPermitted heights by level
📊 Measuring ProgressSpotting drift in your data
✅ Equipment ChecklistThe rest of the kit bag
As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Permitted tee heights and equipment rules vary by level and change over time — always check the current rulebook for your competition.