I remember it being a big deal in Ace Ventura, but it was just a movie and didn’t think anything of it. But watching games this weekend and having announcers talk about it and praising kickers when the holder can’t get them facing out I’m wondering why laces out is a big thing.
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Because the laces stick out a little bit from the surface of the football. If you hit them it can throw off the trajectory of the kick and make the kicker miss the field goal/extra point. You want a consistent surface that you kick every time and hitting the laces can throw that off.
So, the biggest this is that the laces are either perfectly out, or in, because footballs aren’t round, they’re lumpy. If you kick a football with the laces perfectly out, vs kick a football that’s turned 1/3r left or right, the shape of the surface your foot is hitting is different and might send it a different direction.
Then for just out vs in, kickers say that just that extra bit of lacing is enough to throw off their kicks. And football broadly as a community agrees and puts a lot of emphasis on laces out
A true ELI5:
Imagine dropping a football the side that doesn’t have laces. When it hits the ground it’s quite predictable where it should bounce up.
If you drop a football on the laces side, you’ll notice that it’s much more unpredictable and sporadic.
The same applies to a foot kicking the ball.
Follow up question, what does that even mean?
Is it about pointing the top of your picking foot outward so the laces aren’t the point of contact? Or lace the shoes with the aglets going into the shoe instead of coming out so the crossing happens under a layer of lace to dampen it?
Ever tried kicking a football on the laces? Not the nicest feeling
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