The purpose of this study was to compare and clarify the difference between the side-foot kicking motion of a soccer ball, passed from the right front side and the right back side. The subjects were 12 male university soccer players. They aimed their kick at a target located in the center of a soccer goal, which was about 7m away from the kicking spot. The ball was passed by a 2-railed 1.5-m-long ball-feeding machine. An optical motion capture system was used to record their kicking motions in this study. The characteristics of the side-foot soccer kicking motion in this study were as follows: 1) When the ball was passed from the right back side, the hip joint of the kicking leg was in flexion from the midpoint of the kicking motion. 2) When the ball was passed from the right back side, the hips were rotated.
