Place kicking question (Rugby)?

Question

Why do you have to place the ball 80 degrees forward towards the goal posts?? Is there some reason for that?

Because i think its better to tip the ball towards your direction so it goes higher once you kick it. am i right??

Answer 1

different Techniques,some times different style balls.Grant Fox one NZ finest and only worldCup winning First five tilted the ball towards him,so did  Andy Irvine,Gavin Hastings,Micheal Lynah and Matt Burke.Its all to do with Technique, Hawkeye74 is rite about kickers, In recent years the ball is changing all the time.Its a preference thing some of the best kickers in the World League and Union tilt the ball towards them.tHE Great Don Clarke who played in the1950s and 60s for the AllBlacks tilted it towards the post and alot of the League players did too.It was called the torpedo stlye

Answer 2

I came from an soccer/ american football style of kicking, I tried tilting the ball towards me with little success. Once I kicked the ball with it tilted toward the goal I went from 3 out of 10 to making 9 of 10.  I'm not sure what it is, my guess is the characteristics of the ball is so much different; size, shape, and how it comes of the foot.

Answer 3

It's a power issue.  At the bottom there is all that stitching so the ball is firmer and compresses less therefore more power from the foot goes directly into driving the ball forward rather than compressing it.  As you compress the ball therfe is a physical conversion is from kinetic to potential energy and the conversion back from potential to kinetic is inefficient therefore you lose power and distance.

Height is not always a good thing in place kicks.  It exposes you to more wind in general which impacts the predictablity of the flight.  You only need enough height to guarantee the carry time and if you lose power by kicking the soft part of the ball you may not have enough power to get the distance anyway.

If you play golf you can see this in the different clubs.  I hit a 7 iron as hard as I hit a driver but as the 7 iron hits upwards more it goes less distance not further.  Same goes for any ball.  Start thinking in terms of power delivered along the horizontal axis rather than the vertical axis.

Cheers

Answer 4

Trajectory and power. Note that most (not all) of the more proficient kickers are slight in body build, not huge physical men. The reason for their effectiveness is based on the theory of kinetics, balance and movement.

By kicking the ball closer to the bottom (with base exposed) the trajectory and power are focused on movement not absorbtion of power (as seen when kicking in the centre of a ball). Greater power and distance is achieved rather than soaking up the energy (like a bullet).

The current arguments by most of the kickers about the current ball being used ar the IRB world cup, is because the stitching is in question. Even some of the best kickers are having real problems in direction (not power). Drop kickers concentrate on the bottom third of the ball because of the closer, less volatile and more stable structure of the ball.

If I was closer to the posts and needed more height rather than distance, I would tilt the ball upwards and towards me.

Answer 5

It's because the kickers are aiming to make contact near the bottom of the ball and so all their power goes "through" the length of the ball and so it goes further.  When the ball is tilted backwards, then all the power goes through the width of the ball and it doesn't go as far.

They lean back a bit on drop kicks to get the extra height, like on a kickoff.

Also, the flight of the ball is better so that the wind doesn't affect it so much.  When the ball is tilted back, it has backspin  and kind of "rolls" backwards in flight.