Punter

“ Experience, however, being acquired in loading rapidly and in retaining his balance, the sportsman’s labors are easy; but the punter requires many different qualities, and upon his excellence mainly depends the final result. ”

“ That's what a fellow always thinks who doesn't know anything about the game. It takes something more than long legs to make a good punter."
"Perhaps; but there's one thing sure, Bart: that hayseed will be a better player than you at the end of two months--that is, if he gets taken on."
"I'll bet you he won't be able to catch a punt," growled Cloud. "A fool like him can no more learn football than--than--"
"Than you could learn golf," continued West sweetly.
"Oh, shut up! I know a mule that plays golf better than you do." ”

“ He must watch the enemy’s back-field and her right end too. If the latter goes out to receive a pass he must get to him promptly and block him. On the other hand, if a punt comes, as it is likely to nine times in ten, this defence puts three men where they ought to be able to sift through in time to hurry the punter if not to actually block the kick. ”

“ The other players are called punters. The banker places before him the sum he wishes to stake and the punters do likewise, unless a punter desires to go bank, signifying his intention by saying, Banco! ”

“ The Punter, or every player. 4. The Fasse, that is, the first card turned up by the talliere, by which he gained half the value of the money laid upon every card of THAT SORT by the punters or players. 5. The Couch, which was the first stake that every punter laid upon each card—every player having a book of 13 cards before him, upon which he must lay his money, more or less, according to his fancy. 6. The Paroli: in this, whoever won the couch, and intended to go on for another advantage, crooked the corner of his card, letting his money lie, without being paid the value by the talliere. ”

“ The most important person in our kicking game is our center. We believe if he can snap the ball back to our punter at a distance of 13 yards with a perfect pass in six-tenths of a second, we won’t get our kicks blocked. ”

“ To throw the bow to the right, ground the pole a foot or so wide of the boat, and then lean over and pull the boat up to it. That is not so easy, but you will learn the wrist motion in time. When all this comes like second nature, you will feel that you have become a part of the punt, or rather that the punt has taken life and become a part of you.
A RACING PUNT AND PUNTER
A particular beauty of punting is that, more 85 than any other sport, it brings you into personal contact, so to speak, with the landscape. ”

“ Another illustration relates to Clayton Webb, a very fine punter whom I had at the University of Kentucky. As a freshman he could “hang” the ball in the air for a relatively long period of time when he punted. Yet during his senior year I felt we had coached him down to a 29.4-yard average on his punts. Consequently we now do very little coaching of the kickers.
We like to have our punters use the step-and-a-half method, taking the first (half) step with the kicking foot, then a full step with the non-kicking foot. ”

“ From this formation plunges at any position, and runs, forward passes, lateral passes and punts could be got off without enough shifting to appraise the opponent of the character or point of attack. The center usually passed direct to the runner. The feature that was most important in Dick’s eyes, however, was that it not only concealed a punt but protected the punter. Fullback had only to drop back another step or two and quarter need only jump to the right out of the path of the ball to convert a rushing to a kicking formation. ”

“ Each punter looks at his cards, and any one having 8 or 9 turns his card up and announces it, the hand then being at an end. The player having the highest stake plays for both punters, and if the card turned is better than that of the banker, the latter pays each punter the amount of his stake. If not, the banker wins all stakes and the game proceeds as before. If no announcement is made, meaning that neither player holds 8 or 9, the banker deals another card to the player on his right, who, if his first card is 6 or 7, will refuse it, fearing to overrun. ”

“ Some people stand at opposite ends of the punt, with both poles one side, but I cannot recommend this method, because too much weight is then thrown on to one side, and a punt will not travel well unless properly balanced. In all double punting little or no steering should be required if both work well together. But wherever the punters may stand, the most important point is to keep time—perfect time. This is a sine qua non in all good double punting. Nothing looks so bad as to see two persons double punting when quite regardless as to time. ”

“ We refer to this as our One-Six Formation. We want our up-backs to go downfield and take the positions of linebackers behind our six-man coverage, as illustrated in Figure 86. They must be in a position to defend against the return up the middle. We want our personal protector and punter to take halfback positions to the outside behind the one-six-two coverage formation (Figure 86) .
Figure 86
We spend a great deal of time giving our players practice in executing their assignments on blocking and covering from spread punt formation. ”

“ We ask our punters to hold the ball 18 inches in front of the hip over their kicking foot. We watch our kickers closely, time them, and try not to over-coach them if they are kicking well in practice. However, we do have a meeting with our kickers to review every situation that might confront them in a game. ”

“ Don't let the punt swing round like that, man, I was nearly over, and my tackle's fouled.
G-sch-n (struggling with pole) . All very well for you to sit coolly there and criticise me, ARTHUR! Wh-o-o-of! Confound the punt, it's all over the place, and the stream's like a mill-race.
B-lf-r. Well, hold on to the pole, JOKIM, or we shall be all adrift. We'd better have kept to our first pitch; it was quiet there, and we hooked one or two sizeable ones. (Aside.) Fact is, you're such a fidget, you lose your fish, and then want to change the pitch. ”

“ Punt, punt, n. a flat-bottomed boat with square ends.—v.t. to propel, as a boat, by pushing with a pole against the bottom of a river: to kick the ball (in football) before it touches the ground, when let fall from the hands: to knock.—v.i. to pursue water-fowl in a punt with a punt-gun.—ns. Punt′er; Punt′-fishing, angling from a punt in a pond, river, or lake; Punt′-gun, a heavy gun of large bore used for shooting water-fowl from a punt; Punts′man, a sportsman who uses a punt. ”

“ When you went down the field on a punt you knew that if you missed your man he would tell you when you came back that two stone hitching-posts out of three could get past you in a six-foot alley. If you missed a punt you could expect to be told that you might catch a haystack by running with your arms wide open, but that was no way to catch a football. ”

“ As to the common punt, there are two styles, known as straight kicking and round kicking. The straight punt is made by facing the direction in which you wish the ball to go. The kicker stands from twelve to fifteen yards back of the line—that is, when the punt is made from a line-up. As the kicker receives the ball, he should step back with the right leg, and bring the body a little forward, and then he is ready for the swing. ”

“ A Punt out is a punt made after a touch down by a player from behind his opponents' goal-line, and from touch-in-goal if necessary, towards his own side, who must stand outside the goal-line and endeavour to make a fair catch, or to get the ball and run in or drop a goal. ”

“ But you cannot upset the punt any more than you can discompose the Englishman; the punt simply upsets you without seeming to be aware of it. And when you crawl dripping up the bank, consoled only by the fact that the Humane Society man was not at hand with his boat-hook to pull you out by the seat of the trousers, your mentor will gravely explain how you made your mistake. ”

“ George said he had often longed to take to punting for a change. Punting is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn how to get along and handle the craft, but it takes long practice before you can do this with dignity and without getting the water all up your sleeve.
One young man I knew had a very sad accident happen to him the first time he went punting. He had been getting on so well that he had grown quite cheeky over the business, and was walking up and down the punt, working his pole with a careless grace that was quite fascinating to watch. ”

“ When talking about the punting game, one must realize the importance of the length of time the ball is in the air over the field of play. We want our kicker to be able to kick the ball in such a manner that it will remain up in the air and over the playing field for a period of four seconds or more. Consequently a kick of four seconds’ duration in flight will be about a 40-yard punt. We are not interested in an 80-yard punt, as we cannot adequately cover such a long kick. ”

“ If a player, having the ball when about to punt it out, goes outside the goal-line, or when about to punt on advances nearer to his own goal-line than his mark, made on making the fair catch, or if after the ball has been touched down in the opponents' goal or a fair catch has been made, more than one player of the side, which has so touched it down or made the fair catch touch the ball before it is again kicked, the opposite side may charge at once. ”

“ And there is a good deal to be said on the other side, for the puntsmen stick themselves very often in the way of every one else; and if you analyse fishing for minnows from a punt you will not find it a noble sport. ”

“ In going down on a punt, the end must determine about where the ball will fall by the general movements of the men in the backfield or by snatching a glimpse at the ball over his shoulder as he runs. He should be very careful not to over-run the ball, which he is very likely to do in the case of a short kick. The end should always keep well outside the catcher, so that, if he does not down the man himself, he can at least turn him in toward his own men, who are following down the field close after him. ”

“ In the next half I want you to cut out the punting unless the other fellows have shoved you inside your twenty yards. You needn’t be afraid of a field-goal, I guess. When you do call for a punt see that your men are in their places and on their toes before you signal for the pass. If you get inside their twenty yards, Kingsford, hammer Langton and Shaler at their right guard. ”

“ I had not been sitting there long before my attention became attracted to a man in a punt who, I noticed with some surprise, wore a jacket and cap exactly like mine. He was evidently a novice at punting, and his performance was most interesting. You never knew what was going to happen when he put the pole in; he evidently did not know himself. Sometimes he shot up stream and sometimes he shot down stream, and at other times he simply spun round and came up the other side of the pole. ”

“ The punt-about is the practice ball, which is just brought out and kicked about anyhow from one boy to another before callings over and dinner, and at other odd times. They joined the boys who had brought it out, all small School-house fellows, friends of East; and Tom had the pleasure of trying his skill, and performed very creditably, after first driving his foot three inches into the ground, and then nearly kicking his leg into the air, in vigorous efforts to accomplish a drop-kick after the manner of East. ”

“ How soon to let the man through is also an important question. When the ball is to be punted, the tackle upon the kicker's side must block long and hard, while the tackle upon the other end should block sharply, and then let his man through for the sake of getting down the field under the kick. When a drop is to be attempted, the blocking upon both sides must be close and long, much longer than for a punt. ”

“ Some people have straps on the outside of their punts for extra poles, but these are apt to be a nuisance in locks, and they spoil the trim and neat appearance of a punt. Beware of a wooden bottom to a lock, for the shoe of the pole may stick fast in the wood and the bow of the punt swing round across the lock-gates.
A punt has one great disadvantage. ”

“ The ball dropped, not tossed; the leg well swung, the power coming from both leg and hip with all the advantage that the poise of the body may add; the foot meeting the ball with the forward part of the instep on a punt, with the toe on a drop, and in either case just after passing the lowest point of the arc of swing, rather later on a punt than a drop, because the ground helps the latter to rise, while the rise of the former must come entirely from the foot. The next step in the education of the kicker is the side swing. ”

“ Aim for the man with the ball, Crail. Never mind the interference. It’s the runner you want.”
“On punts by the other side your place is twelve or fifteen yards back. It’s up to you to put out anyone coming through between tackles, and after that to get into the interference for the runner back. Kicking you won’t have. Not this year, anyhow, although if you make good it will be worth your while to learn that end of the game. At present you will move up into Winslow’s place when he drops back to punt.” ”

“ The feeling of being run away with in a boat is glorious, and a good punt is hard to beat at this. The excitement keeps you in a glow, though the water breaks all round and over you. The first race in which I steered we won, and then began a record on our own river. Punt after punt was built to beat us, but still Sea Maiden came in first. ”