Covering Punts and Kickoffs

by Joe Marciano

Special Teams
Head coaches must believe in the importance of good special teams play. As a staff, you must

A.Sell it to your players

B.Place importance on selecting personnel
C.Understand that Special teams involves more areas of the field than offense and defense
D.Get the most out of your practice time
E.Emphasize special teams in pre season camp. Special teams time can be combined with
conditioning. It will help win early games. Remember, there are many facets of special teams
play to be covered prior to the first game.

Individual time in practice must be spent on coverage techniques. Here we see the punter working on his kicks,
the coverage men working on fundamentals of keeping leverage and e the punt returner working on his
techniques. This is a good use of precious practice minutes.
Photo: Coach Illustrated

Practice Design
I would like to share the following practice design so you can see how we work special teams into
our daily schedule. There are three main components of special teams practice breakdown.

Specialists Period (15 Minutes): Work these players at the same time.

1. Long Snap Punter. Punt Returners

2. Short Snap Holder. Kicker
3. Kickoffs. Kickoff Returners

Fundamental Period: Combined with the Specialists work

1. Group work, part-whole teach

2. Game related drills
3. Excellent evaluator of your personnel

Team Period
 1. Eleven on eleven
2. Special Situations

Practice Plan
Here are a couple key points to keep in mind on your overall practice organization. The first is to
organize your allotted practice time and plan…one fundamental per practice. The second point is
to have an organized way to teach. Here is a logical teach progression that I have found works
well. Work your teaching in this order.

1. Walk thru mode.

2. Jog mode.
3. ½ speed mode
4. Full Speed
5. Game Speed
6. Faster-Faster-Faster!!!!

Practicing kickoff coverage and returns in smaller groups is a very good way to improve individual
techniques in these areas as well.

Photo: Joe Marciano

Cover vs. Air

Here is how we practice covering versus air.

1. Alignment Check
2. Get off on the snap
3. Teach coverage principles

A.Hit landmark first...defend the field

B.Hit men...then coverage to the ball.
2. Head on swivel…Look for crack blocks and look for teammate…Leverage
helper
3. Tackle the outside leg

Practicing 2 on 1 Coverage
Objective:
Teach Leverage versus the returner
Method: Players (2) vs air simulate protection check, then cover thru their landmark first
before they become hit men on the returner.
Coaching Points: Do not allow ball carrier to split you or to bounce outside of you.
Coverage Concept: Coverage Team relies on leverage helper from the inside.
Teach players how to run through landmark. Coverage to ball carrier. Gather. Keep
working towards returner's outside leg.

Recommended Print Resource: Coaching the Kicking Game, by Earl Browning

Recommended Multimedia Resource: Inside Kicking: The Basics, by Mark Simon
Hey coach! Do you think your drills are better? Do you have a drill that you'd like to
share with fellow coaches? Contribute to Coach Illustrated and if see if you've got
what it takes to get your work published alongside the nation's best coaches. Click
here for more information.

Joe Marciano was recently named the special teams coordinator of the NFL expansion
team, the Houston Texans. He previously served in the same position with the New
Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Bucs. He is considered by his peers as one of the
most outstanding special teams coaches in football today. For more on Special Teams
play, visit the Archives.