For a math major like me, sometimes it’s pretty interesting to consider the math… well, the physics involved in sports. So I found it pretty interesting that British researchers found that the swing of the arm is key to accurate kicking in rugby:

Using videos to analyse techniques of professional and semi-professional rugby players, the researchers discovered that the most accurate kickers swing the arm opposite their kicking leg clear across their chest when booting the ball.

They entered the information into a computer program that helped identify and measure trends in the techniques, showing that players with the exaggerated arm motion were on average twice as accurate, Trewartha said.

The key seems to be that as the arm swings across the body the motion helps to counteract the movement of the leg, effectively steadying the player and keeping the torso and shoulders facing the target for longer, he added.

“The arm motion helps the foot stay on the correct trajectory for longer,” Trewartha said. “This should increase their margin of error and their overall accuracy.”

Know what this means? That technically every aspect of sports can really be broken down into a numbers game. I bet there is a way to calculate the increased accuracy of field goal kickers as a function of arm swing…

This is the kind of info that Bobby Bowden would have killed for in the 90’s.

• Arm swing is key to goal kicking (Reuters)