The small amount of investigation done in this technique makes it absolutely necessary to provide appropriate tools to the kicking coach. Another goal will be establish the relationships between the data that we collected in our previous studies on football (free-kick) and the “place-kick” in rugby, and the qualitative and quantitative data that we will gather from this experience. The purpose of this paper is to design a suitable device for the evaluation of the “place-kick” gesture in rugby as well as to provide to the coach a useful tool which will help him in his everyday practice sessions this tool should also help him to analyze these gestures at their key points. © 2016, University of Zagreb-Faculty of Kinesiology. The data suggests that larger torso rotations may promote kicking distance however, they impede kicking accuracy.

Place kick accuracy could be improved by full extension of the stance arm. Place kick distance could potentially be maximized by improving torso and pelvic rotations. Negative correlations between stance elbow flexion (r=-.78), torso rotation (r=-.74) and X-factor (r=-.79) with kick accuracy were noted.

Place kick distance (r=.24) or accuracy (r=.54) were not correlated to playing experience. The current study showed a positive correlation between torso (r=.76) and pelvis (r=.66) rotation with kick distance. Kick distance and accuracy were directly measured.

Twelve first-team university rugby players had their full body kinematics measured for five place kicks. The hypothesis of this study was that there was a relationship between distance and accuracy and the rotational kinematics of place kicking performance of rugby players in the field setting. By maximizing the distance and accuracy a kicker is able to achieve increases in the number of point scoring opportunities available to a team. The place kick is a means to score points. Little attention has been given to the rotational kinematics of the rugby union place kicking performance, especially in a field setting.

Kicking Goals Journal by Sam Kerr