It is an intentional short kickoff in football that is done with the intention of the kicking team maintaining possession of the ball. A revised set of rules has changed the rules surrounding this football play, making it increasingly difficult to complete an onside kick in recent years.
What’s the Point of Trying an Onside kick?
It is most common for teams to onside kick late in the game when they are trailing by multiple scores. By recovering an onside kick, you can maintain possession of the ball, which gives you another opportunity to score.
The chances of converting the onside kick are very low, but it can be your only chance if you need multiple more scores to win the game.
In spite of the solid reasoning behind these changes, onside kicks have become so difficult to convert that teams rarely succeed in converting one.
An onside kick must touch the ground.
There is no need for the football to touch the ground on an onside kick. Instead, football spectators observe kickers bounce the ball off the turf to initiate their onside kicks.
The reason for this is because a fair catch can be called if the ball does not hit the turf. Sometimes the only way to recover the ball is to contact the opposing player.
In the event of a fair catch, you cannot make any contact with the player before or after he catches the ball. Therefore, kickers bounce the ball off the turf to increase the chances of an onside kick conversion.
It is not necessary for the ball to hit the ground on an onside kick. However, bouncing it off the ground is the most effective way to recover it.
How Effective are Onside Kicks?
A brand-new NFL rule drastically reduced the number of onside kick conversions in 2018 compared to 2017.
A mere six per cent of onside kicks were successful in the 2018-2019 NFL season. That’s roughly half what it was the year before.
In order to improve the onside kick in the future, the NFL is exploring other avenues.
In football, the hand’s team refers to the players who return the onside kick, which is one reason onside kicks are difficult to execute.
They are used for catching the ball because of their excellent hand-eye coordination.
What Are The New Rules For Onside Kicks?
In 2018, the NFL made significant changes to kickoffs and kickbacks in order to reduce concussions.
It was thought that these new rules would only affect kickoffs, but they ended up having a huge effect on onside kicks as well. As we stated earlier this year, the success rate of onside kicks was cut in half after these new rules were announced.
Here are the rules causing this problem. The first rule is the equal number of players on either side of the kicker. Before this rule, you could load up one side of the field with more players.
The NFL requires five players on either side of the kicker, so kicking the ball to one side of the field gave you a better chance of recovering it.
CFL wide receivers have previously been allowed to take a running start on kickoffs if they stay behind the kicker.
Players start the play at a standstill on the line of scrimmage due to a newly implemented league rule.
What Is the Alternative?
This kick can be replaced by a traditional kickoff or squib kick. Instead of a short kick that intends to recover, these kicks typically start a game or half. The opposing team is given bad field position by these kicks, which travel much further.