Monday 27 April 2015

Sports Vision Casebook - Rugby Place Kicking

There are two main visual components of place kicking in rugby: alignment and visualisation.

There’s not going to be one correct method for alignment or visualisation for everyone, so there’s likely to be a certain amount of trial and error, for instance in choosing the type of kicking tee that suits you best.



The first part of alignment is to align the tee, and then the ball on the tee. Leigh Halfpenny aligns the tee with the centre of the posts and the seam of the ball with the right hand post, taking into account the natural draw for a right-footed kicker. Similarly, Jonny Wilkinson tilts the ball a little to the left, and Dan Carter at the start of his run up, aims for the left hand post.

As you move forward to kick the ball, the focus should be on the precise point of the ball where you want to make contact .This means picking a spot within the pattern of the ball, as small as a dimple, and keeping a constant fixation on that spot.

Some players have a tendency to lift their head as they kick, to watch the path of the ball. Lifting the head too early will result in a loss of power and control. If this is a persistent problem, you can try keeping a tennis ball under your chin to keep your head down.

When Johnny Wilkinson was taking kicks for England, he’d imagine that there was a lady called Doris whom he could see through the posts sitting in the crowd. I think at one time he imagined she was reading a newspaper. Then he imagined she was holding a drink which he would try and knock out of her hand. He would then have an imaginary line, like an imaginary wire, the ball would follow on its way through the posts to Doris.

Leigh Halfpenny visualises a third post in the middle of the other two. He aims to hit that middle post. If it’s a windy day, he moves that imaginary post slightly to compensate. He imagines that the sweet spot of the ball is attached by a piece of string to that third post. He looks back from the post down the piece of string.

A combination of these ideas might be very effective: for instance, you might imagine a real or fictional character sitting on top of the imaginary third post and pulling the string. Your aim would be to knock that character off their perch.

Visualisation can also be effective in dealing with the pressure of taking the kick. Halfpenny, for instance, always imagines his old training ground of Gorseinon, even when he’s in the Millennium Stadium.

Then it’s just a question of practice, and more practice. If you practice the more difficult kicks, it will make most of the match day kicks seem easier. Halfpenny even takes kicks form the try line to hit the post as a test of his accuracy.

David Donner

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