Athlete Academy — Kicking Extras
Kicking Session 2
Session with a friend · 60–70 minutes
What you need
2 rugby balls · kicking tee (if you have one) · 4–6 cones · rugby posts
Main focus
Build a repeatable kicking technique off both feet. The most important thing about kicking is having a process that stays the same every time — not swinging harder when the pressure goes up.
Done at the Kicking Academy
Start every session with the same Athlete Academy Kicking Sequence you learned at the Kicking Academy. Set up with your partner 5–10 metres apart.
Work through, 10 kicks off each foot, for each type:
- Punt – normal ball flight
- Punt – low/punch ball flight
- Punt – high ball flight
- Drop kick
- Grubber
- Chip
Don’t rush the reps. Focus on ball drop, balance, contact and follow-through. Your partner should be able to comfortably catch it — aim to hit them in the chest.
Move back to roughly 15–22 metres apart and repeat the same sequence, both feet: Punt (normal, low/punch, high), Drop kick, Grubber, Chip, and Spiral (optional).
The challenge: your kick from 20 metres should look the same as your kick from 5 metres. Don’t suddenly swing harder or lose your shape — let the extra power come naturally.
Start on the 22-metre line, directly in front of the posts. If you’ve multiple balls, line them up for plenty of reps.
Your target isn’t the posts — it’s the crossbar. 20 kicks off the right foot, 20 off the left, keeping score against your partner.
The principle: aim small, miss small. The best kickers — think Thomas Ramos, Owen Farrell — don’t aim somewhere between the posts — they pick a specific target (a seat, a person, a pole) and aim directly at it. If your target is tiny and you miss it slightly, you’ve still probably produced an accurate kick.
Make it competitive — most crossbar hits wins. Loser buys the post-session coffee/treat.
Now the target gets even smaller. Move towards the touchline so you’re kicking at the posts from an angle. Start from a challenging but comfortable angle and kick through the posts — 10 kicks from each side.
Then make the angle tighter again. Move further towards the touchline until you can barely see the gap between the posts, and challenge yourself once more.
It’s not about power. It’s about picking the smallest possible target and trusting your technique. Don’t think “I’m trying to get this somewhere between the posts.” Think “I’m hitting that exact spot.”
This is where you get creative. Start at one end of the pitch and choose a small target in the distance — a bin, a cone, a post protector, anything safe to aim at. Just like golf, the goal is to hit the target in the fewest kicks possible.
Every shot needs something different. For example, a par 3 might be:
- Shot 1: long punt to cover distance
- Shot 2: controlled chip to approach the target
- Shot 3: grubber to hit the target
Move somewhere else and build another hole — new target, new distance, new obstacles. Play 6–9 holes and keep score against your partner. Lowest score wins — feel free to put a coffee or treat on it. This forces you to pick the right kick for the situation, not just boot it as far as possible — still reinforcing today’s principle: aim small, miss small.
Finish every session on the kicks you’re most likely to use in your position — this is the position-specific development Athlete Academy is built around. Find your position below.
Scrum-Halves
Contestable box kick: from around the 22m line, use the crossbar as your target. Aim for roughly 3–4 seconds of hang time, landing around the crossbar area. 10–20 quality reps, no rushing.
Exit box kick: move back to 30–35 metres and try to send the ball through/over the posts. Same technique — just changing distance and purpose.
Out-Halves / Place Kickers
Finish with 10–15 realistic shots at goal. Don’t just kick from the same spot — recreate the kicks you’d actually face in a match: different distances, angles and sides of the pitch.
Keep the same set of kicks each week and track your score. The score isn’t there to add pressure — it’s there so you can see whether the practice is working. e.g. Week 1: 8/15, Week 2: 10/15, Week 3: 11/15.
Centres / Back Three
Finish with a mix of high-ball work and finding space. Have your partner kick high balls for you to field before returning the kick. Place cones in different areas of the backfield — e.g. left corner, middle space, right corner — and your partner calls the target late so you have to adjust.
Mix in: high contestable kicks, long punts, finding grass, attacking chips, and fielding a high ball then immediately returning a kick. Keep it game-realistic rather than just kicking back and forth.
Session 2 Takeaway
Aim small. Miss small.
Don’t aim for an area. Pick a target. Whether it’s the crossbar, a specific point between the posts, a cone 40 metres away, or a bin during Rugby Golf — get into the habit of deciding exactly where you want the ball to go before you kick it. The more precise your intention becomes, the more accurate your kicking can become.
Optional Add-On
Drop Kick Control — Out-Halves
Start approximately 6 metres from the posts and practise drop kicking the ball over the crossbar. Once you’re consistently clearing the bar, begin moving closer: 5m → 4m → 3m → 2m → 1m. The closer you get, the more control you need to generate enough height in a very short distance.
Focus on:
- Consistent ball drop
- Timing your contact
- Kicking up through the ball
- Creating height rather than distance
- Understanding how small changes in timing affect ball flight
Particularly useful for developing contestable drop kicks and becoming comfortable creating height when you need it.
The challenge: see how close you can get while still consistently clearing the crossbar. If you can get to 1–2 metres away, you’re showing excellent control of your ball drop, timing and contact.
Any questions on the session, just reply to the email or drop us a message on WhatsApp.