How To Long Snap a Football

Step 1

The main purpose of long snapping is intended to be used on kicking situations such as punting, or field goals try's. Long snapping takes a lot of practice and will take a bit of time before it starts to become easy. Once you have practiced it and learned it, it will become second nature.

Step 2

The first step to long snapping a football properly in developing a proper stance. When you long snap you will be placing your head between your thighs and need great hip flexibility. The proper stance consists of placing your legs far apart with the ball slightly in front of you. You then flex your hips almost into a squatting position and grab the ball. If this feels uncomfortable work on developing the needed flexibility in your hips. This will allow you to easily reach down to the ball and look between your legs back to the punter.

Step 3

The second part of long snapping is determining where to place your hands on the ball. Once you have gotten in the right stance you need to grab the ball. Many coaches will teach different ways of placing your fingers and hands on the ball. Im going to tell you the way I was taught and you can alter that to suit your needs. With the laces facing upward place your most dominate hand on the ball. Your dominate hand is usually the one your right with or throw with. From there keep your fingers placed on the laces and rotate the ball so its now facing downwards. The nest step is to place your free hand near the top of the ball directly in the middle. Your dominate hand will be used to twist the ball, while your other hand will be used to drive to ball to the kicker.

Step 4

Once you have developed your stance and hand placement, it's now time to put it all together. When snapping the ball drive and twist the ball like mentioned above. The ball should rotate in s spiral fashion to the kicker. You will need to start slowly but over time your snaps will become harder, faster and more accurate over time.