The place kick is a type of kicking play commonly used in American football, association football (soccer), Canadian football, rugby league, and rugby union.
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Gridiron football
Place kicks are used in American football and Canadian football for kickoffs, extra points, and field goals. The place kick is one of the two most common forms of kick in gridiron-based football codes, along with the punt. The punt, however, cannot score points (except in Canadian football where it counts as a single). The place kick is the nearly exclusive method of kicking in arena football as well as most other indoor football leagues, since punting is not legal in arena football.
It typically involves placing the ball on the ground. To keep the ball in position, a mound of sand, a hole in the turf, or a plastic tee is sometimes used. A player called a holder is required to hold a ball upright during field goal and extra point attempts; a holder can also be used during kickoffs, but is usually only used when weather conditions prevent the ball from standing on its tee by itself.
In most forms of gridiron football, a place kick during timed play that travels through the uprights is a field goal worth three points; on a free play following a touchdown, it is worth one point. Some indoor football leagues also award one point for kicking a kickoff through the uprights, a feature not available in most other leagues.
In the comic strip Peanuts, Lucy frequently holds the football to allow Charlie Brown to place kick but invariably pulls it away at the last second, causing Charlie to fall on his back.
Association football
Place kicks in association football are the corner kick, free kick, goal kick, kick-off and penalty kick.
Rugby league
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The place kick is commonly used in rugby league for kick offs[1] and most kicks at goal (penalty goals and conversions).[1]
The lack of a consistently successful place kicker in a team can be detrimental to a team.[1] Anybody on the team can take a penalty or conversion kick although there is often a regular kicker. Sometimes teams will use different players to kick depending on what side of the field the kick is to be taken from.
Place of kick
Kick offs are taken from the centre of the halfway line.[2] A kick at goal from a penalty kick can be taken at any point along an imaginary line parallel to the touchline between the place the offence was marked by the referee and the kicker's goal line.[3] Conversion attempts may be taken at any point along an imaginary line parallel to the touchline from where the try was scored.[3]
Placing the ball
Most kickers use some form of aid to allow them to strike a preferred part of the ball. Popular aids used include kicking tees and mounds of sand on which to place the ball.[1] Players might also use their boot to mould the ground where the ball will be placed, making a divot behind the ball to allow greater access to the kicking foot.[1]
Kickers attempt to position the ball in a way that allows them to kick the ball's "sweet spot".[1] Kicking the sweet spot will result in the ball travelling further and is located about a third of the way up the ball.[1]
Kick
The most common kicking style is the round-the-corner kick, which tends to hook the ball to the left for a right footed kicker.
Kickers usually pace out their kick before taking it.[1] This begins with the kicker standing over the ball with their feet in kicking positions.[1] They then measure out a run up.[1] When the ball is kicked, usually with the instep of the foot, the kicker will follow through with their swing.[1]
Most of the top kickers can kick a goal from approximately 55m, or just inside their own half.
Rugby union
In rugby union, the most common position for a goal kicker to play is fly-half as that position requires good kicking skills from hand. Slightly less commonly, the fullback will kick (another position which requires kicking from hand). If the goal kicker is neither of those two positions, the remaining three-quarter backs and scrum-half might kick. Goal kicking forwards are extremely rare, but not unknown, the most notable in recent years having been the Australian second row John Eales.
Australian rules football
In the early decades of the sport of Australian rules football, place kicks were regularly used for taking set shots for goal after a mark or free kick, and occasionally for the purposes of kicking off after a behind. The use of a place kick in these circumstances was not required by the laws of the game, nor was it used universally, and many players preferred punts or drop kicks.
To execute with the oval ball, a divot would be created with the heel in the direction of the goal; and the ball would be placed at a slight upward angle in the divot with its long axis pointed at the goal. Place kicking was considered the longest and most accurate type of kick for a skilled practitioner, but more erratic than a punt for a player who was less adept.[4] The laws allowed a player to place the ball for a place kick, take a run up, then regather the ball and play on instead of kicking it, in order to catch defenders offguard.[5]
The use of place kicking declined rapidly from as early as the late 1910s,[6] and was considered a lost art by the late 1920s,[7] in large part due to the increased speed of the game and undesirability of pausing the game to execute one.[4] Some rare players continued to use place kicks until as late as the 1950s,[8][9] but the skill is entirely obsolete in modern football.
External links
- BBC: Rugby league - Skills - Kicking skills - Place kick (Includes animation)
See also
- Placekicker, a position in American football.
- Drop kick
- punt (American and Canadian football)
References
In-line
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k BBC Sport (2005-09-15). "Kicking skills". BBC. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ RLIF, 2004: 18
- ^ a b RLIF, 2004: 14
- ^ a b "Dearth of players who use the place kick". Westralian Worker. 21 May 1926. p. 8.
- ^ W.V.F. (12 June 1947). "Place kicking as a lost art". The Western Mail. Perth, WA. p. 17.
- ^ "The "Vanishing Place-Kick"". The Williamstown Chronicle. 7 August 1942. p. 2.
- ^ W. S. Strickland (20 April 1927). "Is Place Kicking a Lost Art?". The Sporting Globe. Melbourne, VIC. p. 8.
- ^ "Ainslie Football Club". The Canberra Times. Canberra, ACT. 23 August 1987.
- ^ "Snapshots from League Grounds". The Argus. Melbourne. 18 April 1955. p. 4.
General
- RLIF (2004). "The International Laws of the Game and Notes on the Laws" (PDF). Rugby League International Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2008-07-30.