What are the variable external sources that impact the rugby league place kick?

Projection angle: The angle at which the ball is released and continues to accelerate, is known as the projection angle (Blazevich 2007). For the rugby league place kick, studies show that the optimal projection angle is less than 45 degrees because the projection velocity that a player can produce decreases substantially as projection angle increases.

The Answer: A study (Linthorne & Stokes 2014) that incorporated more than 10 rugby league players partaking in 49 consecutive place kicks revealed the optimal projection angle to be 30.8 degree as it is less than 45 degrees, and had the greatest projection acceleration and distance traveled.

Air resistance:Air resistance can be defined as an aerodynamic force that acts to oppose the motion of the object traveling through space at a given time (Blazevich 2007; Elert 1998). The speed at which a rugby ball travels will always gradually begin to decrease after the player has kicked it due to air resistance (Watkins 2014). It should be noted that air resistance can be increased or decreased depending on the rate of the wind in that particular moment.

The Answer: Taking the effects of air resistance into account, it can be seen how important it is for a kicker to use summation of forces (i.e. building force through proximal to distal limbs) in order to impart as much force on the ball to enhance acceleration and distance travelled (Blazevich 2007). By maximising force imparted on the ball, the acceleration is greater and therefore, the effect of the frictional force that is air resistance will have less impact on the distance covered (Blazevich 2007).