The purpose of this study was to investigate kinematically the important technical points of side-foot kicks in soccer required to kick it high or low. The subjects were 14 male university soccer players. They performed side-foot kicks to hit targets placed seven meters away fro
When the subjects kick the ball to the high target, the characteristics of their kicking motions were as follows:
1. The ball launching angle was large.
2. The toes of the kicking foot contacted the lower part of the ball, which was close to the supporting foot.
3. The knee flexion angle while kicking was large.
4. The swing speed was high.
These results suggest that it may be important to markedly flex the knee during the back swing to increase the ball launching angle, and kick the lower part of the ball at a high swing speed when performing inside kicks toward high targets.
