Kinematic Comparison of Successful and Unsuccessful Instep Kick in Indoor Soccer

Problem statement: Kicking is one of the most important skills in indoor soccer. Kicking accuracy is an important component of this skill. The instep kick is often used when tacking a penalty kicks, as a combination of increased ball speed and kick accuracy can be maintained. The purpose of this research was to compare selected kinematic parameters of the kicking foot during the performance of successful and unsuccessful penalty kick from a 6 m distance. Approach: Fourteen right footed elite players (seven males and seven females) with an average age of 23±1.7 and 23±2.4 years, height of 182.2±4.73 and 160.7±4.84 cm, weight of 72.4±4.04 and 53.7±4.33 Kg respectively, were selected. For sampling, a kinemetrix 3D motion analyzer with 3 cameras (50 Hz), was used. In the center of the indoor soccer gate a target with a 1 meter radius was marked. The kinematic parameters of successful and unsuccessful kicks were compared by using independent t-test. The level of significance was set to α = 0.05. Results: The results of analysis showed that the values of maximum linear velocity of ankle, knee, the mean value of velocity prior to the kick, angle of the ankle and mean value of angular velocity of the shank and thigh in women before the kick and, the linear velocity of toe, ankle, angular velocity of shank, thigh at the time of impact, the maximum and mean value of velocity in follow through in men before the kick was significantly higher in the unsuccessful kicks than the successful ones. Conclusion: Accurate kicks have lower linear as well as angular velocity compared to the unsuccessful kicks. However, these differences are more pronounced before the kick in women at the time of impact and after the kick in men.