Directional Punting: How to Pin It on a Sideline

Directional punting is the cheapest yardage in football. You do not have to add a single mile per hour to your leg speed — you just have to stop giving the returner the whole field. A punt placed toward a sideline cuts the returner’s usable space roughly in half, turns the boundary into an extra defender, and lets your coverage unit run to a spot instead of chasing a decision. Coaches notice punters who can do this long before they notice punters who occasionally hit a 55-yarder.

Why the sideline is worth more than ten yards

Think about what a returner has to do on a punt down the middle of the field: he can go left, right, or straight, and your ten coverage players have to stay honest to all three. Now put the same punt fifteen yards from the right sideline. His entire right side is gone. Your coverage can leverage the boundary, funnel everything inside, and rally to one lane. That is why a 40-yard directional punt frequently produces a better result than a 48-yard punt down the gut.

It is also why net punting average and directional ability tend to travel together. If you have not read it yet, the trade-off logic in punt hang time vs distance is the same idea one layer down: the goal is never the biggest number, it is the most useful punt.

Two ways to punt directionally — and only one of them is reliable

Method one: aim the ball. Keep your body pointed straight downfield and try to steer the punt to the sideline by changing your contact or swinging across it. This is what most young punters do instinctively, and it is the reason most young punters shank directional punts. Steering at the last instant means changing your swing path mid-motion, which is exactly how you catch the ball on the outside of your foot and send it out of bounds at the 40.

Method two: aim your body. Turn your entire operation — your alignment, your approach line, your hips, your follow-through — toward the target, and then hit your normal punt. Your swing does not change at all. This is the method that holds up under pressure, because you are not asking your leg to do anything new. You are asking your feet to point somewhere new before the ball is ever snapped.

Say it as a rule: your body aims, your leg repeats. Every directional punt you will ever hit well is built on that sentence.

Setting your line before the snap

Pick your target first. Not “right,” but a specific spot: the right numbers at the opponent’s 15, for instance. Then set your approach line so that walking your normal steps carries you toward that spot. In practice that means you shift your alignment behind the ball a yard or two, and your entire two-step approach travels on the new line rather than straight ahead.

Your plant foot is the giveaway. On a well-executed directional punt, the plant foot points at the target. If your plant foot is aimed downfield and your punt went right, you steered it — and you will not be able to repeat it. This is the same measure-backward-from-the-ball discipline that makes kickoff approaches consistent; the method in how to find your kickoff steps transfers directly to setting a punt line.

One practical caution: the more you angle, the more protection matters. Talk to your special-teams coach before you start turning your line ten yards, because your shield or your wing has to know which way the ball is going. Directional punting is a unit decision, not a punter’s secret.

Aiming points that actually work

• The numbers, not the sideline. Aim at the numbers on your target side. If you aim at the sideline itself, your miss goes out of bounds early and you hand back yards.
• Give yourself a 10-yard window. Between the numbers and the hash on your target side is a big, forgiving target. Hitting inside a window is a skill you can actually train; hitting a spot is not.
• Coffin corner is a bonus, not a plan. The punt that dies out of bounds at the 3 is beautiful and low-percentage. Play the window, and let the corner happen when it happens.
• Left-footed punters spin the ball the other way. A right-footed punt drifts naturally right at the end of its flight; a left-footed punt drifts left. Factor your own natural drift into the aiming point instead of fighting it.
• Wind beats intention. Check the flags. A crosswind can turn your careful right-side punt into a middle-of-the-field punt, and you should adjust the aiming point, not the swing.

The window drill

Four cones and a bag of balls. This is the drill that turns “I can kind of punt right” into a skill a coach will call.

1. Set four cones downfield forming a rectangle roughly ten yards wide, spanning from the numbers to the hash on the right side, about 40 yards out.
2. Set your line and your plant-foot aim at the middle of that box. Do not change your swing at all.
3. Punt ten balls. Count only the ones that land inside the box — distance does not count, hang time does not count, only placement.
4. Write the number down. Six out of ten is a real starting point. Eight out of ten is a punter who gets called on to do this in games.
5. Switch the box to the left side and repeat. Almost every punter is significantly worse to one side; that gap is your homework.
6. Only once both sides are consistent do you start moving the box closer to the sideline or further downfield.

Keeping a written number is the whole point. “I felt good today” is not data. “Seven of ten right, four of ten left” tells you exactly what to work on Tuesday, and it gives you something honest to show a college coach.

The five mistakes that ruin directional punts

• Steering at the last instant. Covered above, and it is the big one. Aim before the snap, then punt normally.
• Over-rotating the hips. Turning your body is good; spinning through the punt pulls your contact across the ball and produces a low hook. Turn the line, not the finish.
• Decelerating. Punters get careful when they are trying to place the ball, and a careful swing is a slow swing. Same leg speed, new direction.
• Changing the drop. The drop stays exactly the same. If your drop moves because your body turned, you are back to fighting the ball — see how to punt a spiral for what a quiet drop looks like.
• Aiming at the sideline. Your miss has to land somewhere. Give it grass to land on.

Notice how many of those are contact and consistency problems wearing a directional-punting costume. If your normal punt is not repeatable, directional punting will just distribute your inconsistency across more of the field. The strike-point fundamentals in perfect ball contact come first.

When directional punting is the wrong call

Backed up inside your own 10, take the middle of the field and hit it as far as you can. The angle costs you yards you cannot afford, and a shanked directional punt from your own end zone is the single worst outcome available to a punter. Same in a heavy crosswind you have not measured, and same on the first punt of your career — earn the call before you ask for it.

And when one does get away from you, let it go. Directional punting means aiming closer to a boundary, which means the occasional punt will find it. Every punter who has ever attempted this has hit one out of bounds at midfield. What matters is the next one — there is a whole piece on how to bounce back from a shanked field goal or punt because this is a repeatable skill too, not a personality trait.

Frequently asked questions

How do you punt the ball to a specific side of the field?

Aim your body, not the ball. Set your alignment, approach line, and plant foot toward the target before the snap, then hit your normal punt with no change to the drop or swing. Steering the ball at contact is what produces shanks.

Where should I aim on a directional punt?

At the numbers on your target side, not at the sideline, and think of it as a ten-yard-wide window rather than a spot. Aiming at the boundary means your natural miss goes out of bounds early and gives yardage back.

Does directional punting cost me distance?

Usually a few yards of gross, yes — but it typically gains more in net by shrinking the return. The exception is punting from deep in your own territory, where you should take the middle of the field and maximize distance instead.

Bottom line

Your body aims, your leg repeats. Set four cones, punt ten balls to a window, write down the number, and do the same thing to your weak side until the gap closes. That is a genuinely new skill added to your game in about three weeks of Tuesdays — and it is the kind of thing that gets a punter on the field.

Everything above is yours to go use tonight, no strings. If you want the whole specialist system in one place — drops, trajectory, placement, and the mental side — The Art of Kicking lays it out. And if you would rather have your window numbers and your film looked at directly, coaching is open whenever you are ready. Keep crushing it.