The head and follow through steps are broken up into three sections: Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced
Elementary
Place your punting foot on the line, swing your
leg and notice its motion. Your leg should swing effortlessly, like a pendulum,
from your hip to your foot. Swing your leg as high as you can, in a path
anywhere between your kicking eye side and your nose, but never let it cross the
center line of your body while maintaining your balance.
Some things to keep in mind when practicing your follow through.
- Be sure to lock your leg and point your toe at contact.
- Kick straight up through the ball.
Explode your hips up and through down your target line. Your
body position after you have completed the follow through will tell
you a lot about the actual follow through. If your leg
ends up to the left of your line (very common for a right-footed
punter), your body will end up facing that direction after the punt.
The ball will likely have gone in that same direction.
- The two pivot points in this movement are
the knee and hip. These two pivot points must stay forward and
facing down the field during leg swing, lock, and and impact.
- Try to maintain a forward body lean through
as much of the follow through as you can. Extend your leg as
high as possible. The height of your follow through allows you to
fully extend and accelerate up and through the ball. Perhaps the
greatest punter to play the game, Ray Guy, extended his foot above his
head in a perfectly straight line up from his right hip. A nice follow
through can make a punt a beautiful work of art. A great follow
through requires a lot of flexibility. The necessary flexibility
can be attained with a good stretching program, which is available in
the members section of this site...
To read more about Head and Follow Through, view specific drills and exercises, and view a year-long workout calendar, signup for a Premium membership...
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 Doug and Tommy's Frequently Asked Questions: "I have been kicking lately and seen that something just isn't right. My steps are the same, but my point of contact on the ball changes from kick to kick. On kick the ball might be on my ankle, and then the next time it might be on my toe. Then I will have a series of kicks where I hit the sweet spot. What are some things I can do to improve my contact?" -- Click here to read our answer
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