# Pretty much the best onside kick ever **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 24, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578 "2013-09-24T13:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Haunted\_Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@Haunted\_Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haunted_Pasta)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/1 "2013-09-24T13:49:17Z")
In this past weekend’s college football action, Rice scored with two minutes to play to pull within five points of the University of Houston. Not surprisingly, they followed with an onside kick. The _second_-most impressive thing about the kick that followed was the Rice player falling on the ball after it went about 10.0001 yards. Watch to end: [http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2013/09/another-look-at-rice-kicker-boswells-amazing-onside-kick-vs-uh/](http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2013/09/another-look-at-rice-kicker-boswells-amazing-onside-kick-vs-uh/) Sadly, Rice couldn’t come up with the touchdown they needed and still lost. But, damn. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/2 "2013-09-24T13:55:27Z")
Was that Michael Flatley? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/3 "2013-09-24T14:16:46Z")
That was sweet. But why in the world wasn’t the UoH player moving forward? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/4 "2013-09-24T15:07:08Z")
That was the weirdest little step-shuffle-weakside-foot-kick I have ever seen. But can’t argue with success. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/5 "2013-09-24T15:13:55Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That was sweet. But why in the world wasn’t the UoH player moving forward? My thoughts exactly. #3! :smack: Why are you just waiting for the ball to come to you? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/6 "2013-09-24T15:32:53Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That was sweet. But why in the world wasn’t the UoH player moving forward? I might guess that he knew he had to be 10 yards from the kickoff line when the play started, and didn’t realize that he could move forward once the ball had been kicked. Either that, or he saw the ball coming right for him, and had his eyes on the ball rather than the incoming Rice player. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/7 "2013-09-24T18:42:30Z")
It looks much more impressive than it is. It’s a move taken from soccer, which is often called a ‘rabona’ (i.e. stopping your foot on one side of the ball and bringing the foot on the other side around to kick it). Kicking the ball with the ‘wrong foot’ isn’t much more difficult than kicking the ball normally with the same foot and takes comparatively little practice to do pretty well (for me anyway, maybe my long legs were an advantage). I would say with a little practice it’s easy to get 80+% accuracy compared to a normal kick. It’s also a fairly useless move as you don’t really gain anything from it over a normal kick. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/8 "2013-09-24T19:13:45Z")
But in this circumstance the misdirection is very important. The kicker’s approach to the ball made it look like he was kicking to his left, and the player on the receiving team was pretty clearly surprised when the ball came to him. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/9 "2013-09-24T19:21:25Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > It’s also a fairly useless move as you don’t really gain anything from it over a normal kick. As **borschevsky** said, it gains misdirection and surprise. They lined up for a kick to the other side of the field and it really showed that the Houston receiving team on that side of the field wasn’t ready for it. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/10 "2013-09-24T19:25:49Z")
> [@borschevsky](#): > > But in this circumstance the misdirection is very important. The kicker’s approach to the ball made it look like he was kicking to his left, and the player on the receiving team was pretty clearly surprised when the ball came to him. But if you look it takes a few fractions of a second to bring you other foot around and, ignoring the legs, the actual body shape is pretty much the same as if kicked normally. There’s actually a lot less misdirection in the kick than there looks: in soccer when a player does a rabona he’s usually showboating as opposed to using the move to gain a genuine advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/11 "2013-09-24T19:59:06Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > But if you look it takes a few fractions of a second to bring you other foot around and, ignoring the legs, the actual body shape is pretty much the same as if kicked normally. There’s actually a lot less misdirection in the kick than there looks: in soccer when a player does a rabona he’s usually showboating as opposed to using the move to gain a genuine advantage. This ain’t soccer. He’s not trying to get a shot past a goalie. He’s trying to fool the entire other team to give one of his guys a chance to recover the ball. He did it perfectly. In soccer, maybe this is “meh”. In football, particularly in this situation, it is freaking awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/12 "2013-09-24T21:48:23Z")
The ball was tee’d up on the right hash mark which is what you want for a kick to the left side of the field. The kicker is standing to the right of the ball when he starts moving forward as if he’s going to kick the ball to the left side of the field. By doing the fancy kick he keeps his body moving to the left and doesn’t tip the play until the final fraction of a second, and even then it’s not easy to see what he’s doing. It’s effective but also risky since that type of kick is pretty easy to mess up under pressure I would assume. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/13 "2013-09-24T21:56:12Z")
> [@borschevsky](#): > > and the player on the receiving team was pretty clearly surprised when the ball came to him. > [@Oakminster](#): > > He’s trying to fool the entire other team to give one of his guys a chance to recover the ball. Then the other team are fucking idiots. Seriously, unless I missed something there is only one ball on that field and everybody was looking straight at it. If that guy on the receiving team was so stunned by the kick that he couldn’t deal with the fact that the ball was now heading straight at him then he is too dumb to breathe. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/14 "2013-09-24T22:13:43Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Then the other team are fucking idiots. That’s far too harsh. It’s a misdirection play and the receiving team only has a second to react. They were all expecting the ball to go the other way. Granted he didn’t react well, and you can bet they’ll practice onside kick drills next week. But there’s a reason trick plays are in the play book - sometimes they work. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/15 "2013-09-24T23:22:03Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That’s far too harsh. It’s a misdirection play and the receiving team only has a second to react. They were all expecting the ball to go the other way. Granted he didn’t react well, and you can bet they’ll practice onside kick drills next week. But there’s a reason trick plays are in the play book - sometimes they work. Oh come on, how is this situation not the embodiment of “_You had one job to do!_”. Its nearly the end of the game, the losing team is now going to kick the ball forward towards the other team. There is nothing else needed than to watch where the ball goes, get it and take control of the ball. Nothing else. Instead the guy who should have claimed the ball was apparently flummoxed by the dastardly trick of kicking the ball right when it seemed they were going to kick it to the left. He’s an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/16 "2013-09-24T23:31:55Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Then the other team are fucking idiots. Seriously, unless I missed something there is only one ball on that field and everybody was looking straight at it. If that guy on the receiving team was so stunned by the kick that he couldn’t deal with the fact that the ball was now heading straight at him then he is too dumb to breathe. You never played the game, did you? If you had, you’d understand why this statement is ridiculous. In the heat of the moment, when something completely unexpected happens, it is very easy to get thrown for a loop. Like when a ball you expect to be on the other side of the field is suddenly kicked your way, and there’s an opposing player diving at your feet… ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/17 "2013-09-25T00:40:25Z")
Being Irish I suspect **bucky’s** disdain for the play goes deeper than this play. It is _American_ football, after all. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/18 "2013-09-25T01:49:33Z")
While the assessment is a bit harsh, the player on the receiving team made a big mistake. He wasn’t fooled – he clearly sees the ball heading directly toward him and got low to wait for it. The problem was that he stayed back and didn’t move up; he should have been right on the 45 yard line. If he had done that, the whole play would have failed. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/19 "2013-09-25T01:53:56Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > If he had done that, the whole play would have failed. Maybe. If he fielded the ball cleanly and hung on to it. If not, it’s a live ball assuming he touched it first. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578/20 "2013-09-25T12:20:15Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > You never played the game, did you? If you had, you’d understand why this statement is ridiculous. In the heat of the moment, when something completely unexpected happens, it is very easy to get thrown for a loop. Like when a ball you expect to be on the other side of the field is suddenly kicked your way, and there’s an opposing player diving at your feet… I don’t play American football and I have certainly never played a sport professionally, but I have regularly played a field sport in front of thousands of spectators, I am very well aware of what goes on during a game. I have been in the heat of the moment. To me the heat of the moment is during a play, when opposing players are flooding past you in all directions and you have to do three things at once. Thats not the case here. In this case, only one thing is happening on that field, the ball is about to be kicked. You have one thing to watch, that ball. You have one thing to be prepared for, the fact that in a few seconds the ball could land in your lap. If you are caught by surprise here then you have failed in the only thing you had to do. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Being Irish I suspect **bucky’s** disdain for the play goes deeper than this play. It is _American_ football, after all. :rolleyes: I hate using that smilie but sometimes it has to be done. I have been watching the NFL casually for about 15 years now, I think it is a fantastic sport that could only be improved by getting rid of the constant fucking advertisements. Why don’t you try responding to what I have said rather than who I am. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-much-the-best-onside-kick-ever/669578.md?page=2)