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England rugby star Jonny Wilkinson owes his phenomenal goalkicking success less to his "praying mantis" style of preparation than a barely noticed movement of his right arm, scientists say.
Players who swing their non-kicking-side arm across their chest as they make contact with the ball are nearly twice as accurate as those who use this arm less or not at all, they say.
Researchers at the University of Bath, in England, asked five experienced kickers at university first-team level to carry out seven trials for kicking accuracy and filmed them simultaneously by a network of 11 cameras, with the resulting data transferred to motion analysis software.
