Many kickers don’t think about the best football kickoff tee as it’s an area many kickers don’t pay attention to.
Having a great football kicking tee can be your best friend since it provides your team with a great position for defense.
By having a great kickoff tee, you help your team pin the opposing team deep on their side of the field. However, by having a poorly designed football kickoff tees, or one that is not optimized, it makes it that much more difficult to hit a consistent kickoff. Ultimately, a proper leg workout for strength and power will allow for higher hangtimes and farther distance kicks. but nonetheless;
Throughout this article, we will cover;
- What makes a good football kickoff tee
- What makes a bad football kickoff tee
- Things to look for in a kickoff tee
- Football tees are always evolving
- My recommendation for the best football kickoff tee
- How to get the most value for your money
What makes a good football kickoff tee
A good kickoff tee will allow the kicker to properly hit the football with little to no contact to the tee itself. On top of that, the football kickoff tee will allow the kicker to see the sweet spot without any objects in the way of the ball.
When a kicker hits a good quality football off a kickoff tee, it should not hurt the kickers distance much if at all.
The best kicking tee should allow the kicker to see the entire ball for increased confidence and sweet spot optimization. Traditional tees tend to block a large portion of the football making it difficult for the kicker to hit the right spot with his or her foot.
Therefore, designing a tee which does not interfere with the kicker’s vision should be a big Focus for developers.
While the kickoff is much more simple in concept, it can be hard to hit it in the sweet spot with all that momentum built up into the kick.
Understanding how to utilize your body and leverage it to get as much weight behind the kick as possible will give you the best chance for a big kick off.
Again, with the right tee the odds of you hitting a great kick off go up exponentially.
If you are wondering how to kick a football off a tee, or how to kick a football in general, use this post as reference
What makes a bad football kickoff tee
A bad football kickoff tee’s limit the kicker’s vision of The Sweet Spot, can potentially injure them, and the ball can easily fall off the tee.
There’s a wide variety of acceptable football kickoff tee’s, however there are a few that a kicker should stay away from.
Types of football kickoff tees to stay away from:
- Bulky
- Blocks Vision
- Gets in the way of the sweet spot
- Prevent kicker from leaning the ball back to where they want
- If kicker hits the football kickoff tee, it may injure the kickers foot
While a football kickoff tee may not have the ability to increase your kickoff distance by 15 yards, it can be the small advantage that a kicker needs in order to get an extra 3 yards on their kicks which can help them go D1.
On top of that, confidence is everything in kicking, so using any opportunity you can to increase the confidence by at least 1% will be a huge advantage in the game of football.
Things to look for in a kickoff tee
As mentioned above, finding a football kickoff tee that allows you to see as much of the football as possible without limiting distance or hang time would be optimal.
Giving the kicker an opportunity to kick the ball without having the tee get in the way of their swing path would be the most ideal thing to look for.
While there are so many kicking tees out there that essentially serve the same purpose, some perform the same task more comfortably.
Comfort relates to confidence so finding any Competitive Edge needs to be a focus.
Football kickoff tees are always evolving
Many years ago, the only football kickoff tee was the orange one with the devil horns on the side. If you are going to design a kickoff tee, do everything you can to make the material that holds the tea in place not get in the way of the kickers swing path.
After years of using the orange football kickoff tee, the day I found out about the ground zero kickoff tee (aka the nfl kickoff tee), I never looked back.
But even then, football kickoff tees are continuing to evolve.
There are tees that serve as both a field goal, and kick-off tee. Some tees have an onside kick feature built into them. The point is, tees are always getting better allowing kickers to consistently improve their game.
My recommendation for the best football kickoff tees
I have three recommendations or what kind of tea a football kicker should look for. (THEY ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
The most used – Ground zero football kickoff tee
The first would be the Ground Zero Football Kickoff Tee. This is the most popular option since it’s been around the longest. The Ground Zero Kicking Tee allows the kicker to use it as a standard kickoff, and as an onside kickoff tee. It’s a fairly versatile football kickoff tee. The ground zero kickoff tee is the only NFL kicking tee.
While it has some disadvantages such as being rather bulky, can limit distance on kickoff due to it’s weight, and also has limited range for the ball to be placed on the tee. If all you want is a tee that will hold the ball in place for the kickoff, this will do the trick, otherwise, the other two tees will provide more value.
With most things, designers come in and create a more Innovative product that allows the kickers to have other options available.
The most versatile football tee – The SKLZ kickoff tee
The second kick off tee that is even more versatile is the SKLZ Football Kickoff Tee. The tee can transition into a 1.75” or a 1” field goal tee. Therefore being both a kickoff and field goal tee, It’s the most cost-effective option out of any Football Tee I’ve seen.
Again the disadvantage to the tee is it does not allow for a wide range of lean for the ball positioning. In terms of being able to use it for field goals and kickoffs, it will do just fine, but in terms of kickoff tees, there is one that is new on the market that is revolutionizing the game.
The Best value for a football kickoff tee – The launchpad kickoff tee
Lastly, as far as a football kickoff tee goes, the Launchpad kickoff tee has to be the most versatile option for a comfortable kickoff that I’ve seen to date. You can lean it in any direction and it won’t fall over.
A common issue with me personally when I was doing kickoffs in my college career was if I got the ball in the perfect position that I wanted, as I would go back to do my steps, the ball would fall over either from the wind or from the excessive lean.
Therefore, finding a kickoff tee that would hold the ball without it falling over in the wind was a huge priority for me. Eventually, I found out about the Launchpad kickoff tee from a friend, I used it a few times and It is my go-to option from now on.
| Ground Zero Kickoff Tee | SKLZ Football Kickoff Tee | Launchpad Kickoff Tee |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
| Check Price | Check Price | Check Price |
How to get the most value for your money
These three different kicking tees all have their own benefits. Whatever makes the most sense for you would be fine with us. When it comes to value for your money, if you don’t already have a 1-inch field goal kicking tee, the SKLZ football kickoff tee would be your best bet. Since it serves as a kickoff and field goal tee, save money on a field goal tee and get the SKLZ football kickoff tee.
Otherwise, the Launchpad Kickoff Tee comes in at #1 for all kickoff related duties. Simply because of the wide range of versatility the kickoff tee provides. The Launchpad Football Kickoff Tee will definitely be the go-to option for any kicker wanting to upgrade their kickoff game.
Nonetheless, being able to hit the sweet spot without ever being nervous about the ball dropping from the wind has a huge benefit for football kickers. Learn to unlock the power of the LaunchPad.
Check out some of the other pages for advice for deciding on kicking holders, or field goal holders, kicking cleats, etc. More on this below!
Hopefully you enjoyed reading this post! If you are curious about the best football kicking cleats, kicking footballs, along with the best football kicking holder, click the links! The most recent article on the best football holder for kicking will provide insight on which one to purchase. on top of that, the best football for kicking is also covered in a recent article as well.
Also, check out the resources page to see all of our recommendations for kicking essentials, especially nfl kicker cleats, kicking shoes, and much more.
Lastly, the article pages have some great posts like the best football kicker workouts, etc. Leg workouts for kickers, the best shoes for football kickers, and the football field goal holder to choose from.
Other than that, feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Stay Amazing!
- Eric
