Kicking a rugby ball well comes down to a few core principles: how you hold the ball, where your foot makes contact, and how your body generates power through the swing. The oval shape makes rugby kicking less forgiving than soccer, but the fundamentals are straightforward once you understand the mechanics behind each type of kick.
Rugby uses three main kicks, each with a distinct purpose: the punt for clearing territory, the place kick for conversions and penalties, and the drop kick for restarts and drop goals. A fourth, the grubber, is a tactical weapon along the ground. Here’s how to execute each one.
The Punt Kick
The punt is the most common kick in rugby. You use it to gain territory, contest high balls, or relieve pressure from your own end. The key to a clean punt is the ball drop, not the leg swing. Most missed punts go wrong before the foot ever touches the ball.
Hold the ball in both hands with one point aimed at your kicking foot and the other point aimed straight up at the sky. This vertical alignment keeps the ball stable in flight. Your hands guide the ball down rather than toss it. Think of it as placing the ball onto your foot from about waist height.
As the ball drops, strike it with the bone across the top of your instep, right where your boot laces sit. Your toes should point toward the ground at the moment of contact, not up or out. You’re hitting the bottom point of the ball with a flat, firm surface. If you let your ankle go floppy or strike with your toes, the ball will tumble unpredictably.
Your plant foot matters just as much. Step forward onto it so it’s slightly ahead of where the ball will meet your kicking foot, and point it toward your target. A consistent plant foot position gives you a repeatable kicking motion. Follow through high and straight, letting your kicking leg swing up toward the target rather than cutting across your body.
The Place Kick
Place kicks are used for conversions and penalties, where the ball sits on a tee (or a small mound of sand or dirt). Because the ball is stationary, your approach and body mechanics become the entire technique.
Most kickers use an approach of about three steps, angling in from the side rather than running straight at the ball. This angled approach lets your hips rotate through the kick and generate more power. The ball sits on the tee with its long axis pointing upward, and you strike it with the instep of your foot, the same laces area used in punting.
The optimal launch angle for a place kick is around 30 degrees. Professional rugby union players consistently kick at this angle, whether they’re going for maximum distance or clearing the crossbar. In a study of 14 English professional players, the average kick distance was about 54 meters with a launch angle of roughly 30 degrees. For a kick that just clears the crossbar, the ideal angle shifts slightly higher to around 32 degrees. You don’t need to think about angles mid-kick, but knowing this helps you understand what a good strike looks like: the ball should leave your foot on a trajectory that’s closer to a line drive than a skyscraper.
What Separates Long Kickers From Short Kickers
The biggest difference between powerful and weak place kickers isn’t leg strength alone. It’s how much work the hip flexors and the muscles around the knee do during the downswing of the leg. Research comparing long and short kickers found that long kickers generated ball speeds of about 27.6 m/s compared to 20.8 m/s for short kickers. That gap came primarily from greater hip flexor work and knee extension through the swing.
Short kickers tended to approach the ball with a more front-on body orientation, which limits how far the hip can rotate and accelerate. Longer kickers created what biomechanists call a “tension arc” across the torso, essentially a C-shaped curve from the kicking foot through the hip, trunk, and opposite shoulder. This stores elastic energy that releases into the ball at contact. If you want to kick farther, focus on opening your hips during the backswing and whipping through the ball rather than just muscling your leg forward.
The Drop Kick
Drop kicks are required for restarts (kickoffs) and are used during open play to score drop goals. The defining rule is simple: the ball must touch the ground before your foot hits it. If it doesn’t bounce, it’s a punt, and the kick won’t count for a drop goal or a valid restart.
Hold the ball the same way as a punt, with both hands guiding it vertically. Drop it from about waist height directly in front of your kicking foot. The timing is everything. You want your foot to connect with the ball at the instant it contacts the ground, or just a fraction of a second after the bounce. Hit it too early and it’s an illegal kick. Wait too long and the ball bounces away from you unpredictably.
Because the timing window is so tight, practice the drop itself more than the leg swing. A consistent drop from the same height, to the same spot on the ground, with the same hand release is what makes drop kicking reliable. The striking technique is the same as a punt: laces of the boot, toes pointed down, follow through toward the target.
The Grubber Kick
A grubber is a low kick that rolls end-over-end along the ground, used to exploit space behind a defensive line or push the ball into the in-goal area. It’s the most situational kick in rugby but one of the most effective when timed well.
Drop the ball from waist height onto the top of your foot or instep, just like a punt, but strike the ball with a shorter, more downward motion. Instead of following through high, keep your follow-through low and forward. The goal is to send the ball into the ground at an angle so it tumbles end over end rather than bouncing high. The oval shape of a rugby ball means a well-struck grubber rolls predictably in a straight line, while a poorly struck one can bounce sideways.
Aim to strike the ball slightly above its midpoint so the force directs it downward. The less backspin you put on it, the truer it rolls. Practice on grass first, since hard surfaces make the bounce less forgiving.
Ball Pressure and Equipment
A regulation rugby ball is inflated to 9.5 to 10.0 psi. That range is narrow, and it matters for kicking feel. An underinflated ball compresses too much at contact, absorbing energy and making punts flutter. An overinflated ball feels hard and can sting on cold days, but it flies more consistently. If you’re practicing regularly, check your ball pressure with a gauge rather than guessing by squeezing it.
Boot choice also affects your strike. Rugby boots with a clean, flat instep give you a more predictable contact surface than boots with heavy stitching or textured panels across the laces. Many dedicated kickers choose boots with a thinner upper on the striking foot for better feel.
Warming Up to Prevent Kicking Injuries
Kicking loads the hip flexors, inner thigh muscles, and deep groin structures at high speed and through a wide range of motion. The most common kicking injuries in rugby are tears to the rectus femoris tendon (the large muscle running down the front of your thigh, near the hip), strains in the deep hip flexor, and adductor tears along the inner thigh. These injuries typically result from spikes in kicking volume, poor warm-up habits, or a lack of strength in the muscles that control the hip during fast movements.
A jog and a few static stretches won’t prepare your body for the demands of real kicking. An effective warm-up includes dynamic hip flexor and adductor movements (leg swings, lateral lunges, controlled high knees), followed by progressive practice kicks that start at half effort and build to full power. If you’re kicking 30 or 40 balls in a session, your warm-up should take at least 10 minutes and mimic the speed and range of motion you’ll use during the session itself.
Strength work in the gym also matters. Exercises that build control through the full range of a kicking motion, like single-leg hip flexor drives, Copenhagen adductor holds, and deep lunges, help your muscles tolerate the repeated stress of kicking without breaking down. This is especially important if you’re increasing your kicking volume for the first time or returning after time off.