One of the most asked questions I get from young kickers and experienced kickers alike is “How can I get more distance on my field goals and kick offs?” Of course you have to have a good physical trainer that can help you with a challenging lifting and conditioning program. But specialists want to know what they can do on the practice field to improve strength and distance.

I have a great little secret to share that has remarkable effect. Go through your normal kicking routines in the beginning of practice with a heavy ball. The best heavy ball to use is the same ball your league plays with. Soak the ball in a bucket of water. Use an old ball. If you use a new ball, it will become an old ball from sitting in the bucket of water just one time. Let the ball get good and heavy. This is better than using the rubber weighted balls that the quarterbacks use because a normal wet ball still has most of the flex properties of a dry ball. The rubber balls are usually very hard and too heavy.

Hitting a water-logged ball for an hour is like a baseball player swinging a lead bat before he steps in the batter’s box. I have a couple old, soaked, footballs ready for the beginning of practice at least a couple times per week. The guys love the feel of the dry ball after hitting the wet ball.

The ball will collapse even though it is wet, so a heavy, water soaked, ball feels much like a dry ball. Get used to hitting the heavy ball and it will strengthen your leg. You must concentrate on the point of impact and make sure you hit the ball high on top of your foot. Hitting a heavy ball will let you know right away if you are hitting the ball too close to your toes. You will certainly feel that.

You will see an immediate improvement in distance and accuracy after you warm up with the heavy ball. Remember, a driven ball is always more accurate than a floater. You need to have a strong leg to drive your kicks. This trick will help.

The repetition and feel of hitting the heavy ball will make the dry ball fly!

At the beginning of a recent interview, a newspaper reporter asked me, “What is the most important skill to a punter?” The reporter looked at me incredulously when I responded “He has to have great hands first and foremost!” All great punters have great hands! There is no exception to this rule. I went on to further explain to the reporter, that it really makes no difference what you tell a prospective punter if he can’t ‘catch and ready’ the ball quickly.

'Catch and Ready' is everything to a punter. Punters need to create time for themselves so that they can do all of the other things right when they actually punt the ball. All of my punters spend a minimum of 20 minutes per day catching snaps. Whether it is from a Jugs machine or from the coach, a punter needs to receive 20 minutes of snaps every day. He needs to field good snaps, high snaps, low snaps, snaps to the left, snaps to the right and snaps that skip short and snaps that come right at his face. All of these snaps retrievals need to be very well rehearsed.

Snaps that are below the chin should always be received the same way. Thumbs up and fingers forward. If the punter is right footed, the right hand is slightly behind the left. But all the fingers are pointing forward and both thumbs are up! The punter must practice the rapid shuffle of the ball as he takes his first step so that the laces are up. I really don’t care if the shuffle is a clockwise spin or a counter clockwise spin. I just want that done the same way every time.

At the chin the punter will roll his hands so that the fingers are pointed up and the thumbs are pointed back. High punts are extremely dangerous, especially if the punter has to leave the ground to catch the ball. It simply takes to long to get back down to the ground. The ball then gets rolled because the hands are up. This usually adds a minimum of .3 seconds to a punt routine. This process needs to be practiced over and over.

Low snaps and snaps that skip a not as much of a problem where time is concerned. The punter can explode up, he can’t explode down from a high snap. Oh yeah, if you are thinking that low snaps are bad too, you are right. Many things get thrown off. But the get off time is not affected as much as a high snap. And there are techniques to practice over and over for the low snap and skip snap. But it all starts with the hands. You have to 'Catch and Ready' the ball before you can punt it. And you have to do that before those guys with the big numbers on their jersey can find you!

Snaps left and snaps right also cause different problems from each other. There are specific drills for each snap retrieval, so that the punt process can be the same each time. Still, you have to 'Catch and Ready' the ball quickly.