Onside kick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Onside kick is a term used in American football and Canadian football for a play on a kickoff in which the ball is kicked a shorter distance than usual in order for the team that kicked it to try to regain possession of the ball. Other benefits of kicking may be sacrificed to that end in an onside kick. The plural version, "onsides" kick, is a variant of the term.
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[edit] History and origin of the term
American football and Canadian football originate in rugby, and so does the onside kick. In rugby, while the forward pass is prohibited, the ball may be advanced by the team in possession on a kick, provided that the receiver of the kick was onside when the kick was made (i.e., level with or behind the kicker.)
This form of onside kick is still legal in Canadian football, just as in rugby. A player of the kicking team (at any kick, not just a free kick) who is "onside" may recover the ball and retain possession for his team. This includes the kicker himself and anyone else behind the ball at the time it was kicked, other than the holder for a place kick. The form of onside kick available at a free kick in American football (see below) is so in Canadian football for a kickoff as well; however, the kick may well be chipped high instead of bounced, because the players of the receiving team have no particular first right to the ball as in American football—both sides may play the ball equally, even in the air.
[edit] Modern American football usage
The term "onside kick" is now something of a misnomer in American football. Since at least 1923, the onside kick has been subject to additional constraints in most forms of American football. The receiving team in general has a presumption to a kicked ball. Unless the receiving team touches the ball and muffs or fumbles it, a kicking team may only recover and maintain possession of a kicked ball on a free kick (a kickoff, free kick after a safety, or the rare fair catch kick) that crosses the receiving team's restraining line (normally 10 yards in front of the kicking team's line) and hits the ground.
A player of the kicking side may not interfere with an attempt by a player of the receiving side to catch the ball. Thus the kicking team generally attempts to make the ball bounce early and be available around 10 yards in front of the spot of the kick. One technique, useful especially on a hard field such as one with an artificial surface, is to kick the ball in a way that it spins end-over-end very near the ground and makes a sudden bounce high in the air. The oblong shape of an American football can make it bounce off the ground and players in very unpredictable ways.
An onside kick from a free kick is usually a desperation technique used for a kickoff by a team trailing in the score with little time left in the game, in order to gain another possession of the ball and to hopefully allow scoring again. The risk is that if the receiving team does get possession of the ball — as they usually do — they will have much better field position, meaning they will have less distance of the field that they need to move the ball in order to score.
In 2004 in the NFL, 23% of onside kicks were successful (12 out of 52.) [1].
[edit] Offside "onside" kicks
There have been versions of American football that allow or allowed the kicking team to recover the ball once it hit the ground, regardless of onside or offside, and not only for free kicks. Any such kick recovered by the kicking team is often referred to as an "onside kick," even if the recovering player was in front of the kicker at the time of the kick (and thus, according to the original definition, offside.)
One such version, Arena football, is current. American football for approximately a decade in the 1910s and 1920s allowed all players of the kicking team except the kicker to recover the ball once it hit the ground beyond the neutral zone; after two years that was modified to require it be at least 20 yards downfield. The XFL of 2001 revived that rule, changing the minimum to 25 yards.
The idea of the early 20th century, XFL, and Arena rules allowing kicking side recovery on grounded balls was generally to force the receiving team to play the ball, encourage quick (i.e. surprise) kicking, and thereby loosen the defense. However, kicks have rarely been employed as offensive tactics even when these rules were present; the forward pass remains the more effective tactic to loosen and surprise the defense.
