Place kick
The place kick is a type of kicking play used in American football, association football, Canadian football, rugby league, rugby union. Place kicks are used in American football and Canadian football for kickoffs, extra points, field goals; the place kick is one of the two most common forms of kick in gridiron-based football codes, along with the punt. The punt, cannot score points; the place kick is the nearly exclusive method of kicking in arena football as well as most other indoor football leagues, since punting is not legal in arena football. It involves placing the ball on the ground. To keep the ball in position, a mound of sand, a hole in the turf, or a plastic tee is sometimes used. A holder is required to hold a ball upright during field goal and extra point attempts. In most forms of gridiron football, a place kick that travels through the uprights is a field goal worth three points; some indoor football leagues award one point for kicking a kickoff through the uprights, a feature not available in most other leagues.
In the comic strip Peanuts, Lucy holds the football to allow Charlie Brown to place kick but invariably pulls it away at the last second, causing Charlie to fall on his back. Place kicks in association football are the corner kick, free kick, goal kick, kick-off and penalty kick; the technique was once used in Australian rules football when kicking for goal, but fell out of favour in the mid-20th Century in favour of the drop punt. The place kick is used in rugby league for kick offs and most kicks at goal; the lack of a successful place kicker in a team can be detrimental to a team. Anybody on the team can take a penalty or conversion kick although there is a regular kicker. Sometimes teams will use different players to kick depending on what side of the field the kick is to be taken from. Kick offs are taken from the centre of the halfway line. A kick at goal from a penalty kick can be taken at any point along an imaginary line parallel to the touchline between the place the offence was marked by the referee and the kicker's goal line.
Conversion attempts may be taken at any point along an imaginary line parallel to the touchline from where the try was scored. Most kickers use some form of aid to allow them to strike a preferred part of the ball. Popular aids used include kicking mounds of sand on which to place the ball. Players might use their boot to mould the ground where the ball will be placed, making a divot behind the ball to allow greater access to the kicking foot. Kickers attempt to position the ball in a way that allows them to kick the ball's "sweet spot". Kicking the sweet spot will result in the ball travelling further and is located about a third of the way up the ball; the most common kicking style is the round-the-corner kick, which tends to hook the ball to the left for a right footed kicker. Kickers pace out their kick before taking it; this begins with the kicker standing over the ball with their feet in kicking positions. They measure out a run up; when the ball is kicked with the instep of the foot, the kicker will follow through with their swing.
Most of the top kickers can kick a goal from 55m, or just inside their own half. In rugby union, the most common position for a goal kicker to play is fly-half as that position requires good kicking skills from hand. Less the fullback will kick. If the goal kicker is neither of those two positions, the remaining three-quarter backs and scrum-half might kick. Goal kicking forwards are rare, but not unknown, the most notable in recent years having been the Australian second row John Eales. BBC: Rugby league - Skills - Kicking skills - Place kick Placekicker, a position in American football. Drop kick punt RLIF. "The International Laws of the Game and Notes on the Laws". Rugby League International Federation. Archived from the original on 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2008-07-30. How To Goal and Place Kick
Australian rules football
Australian rules football known as Australian football, or called Aussie rules, football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of eighteen players on an oval-shaped field a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval-shaped ball between behind posts. During general play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their bodies to move the ball; the primary methods are kicking and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled: for example, players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch the ball from a kick are awarded possession. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when mark is paid. Players can use their whole body to obstruct opponents. Dangerous physical contact, interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties or suspension for a certain number of matches, depending on the seriousness of the infringement.
The game features frequent physical contests, spectacular marking, fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring. The sport's origins can be traced to football matches played in Melbourne, Victoria in 1858, inspired by English public school football games. Seeking to develop a game more suited to adults and Australian conditions, the Melbourne Football Club published the first laws of Australian football in May 1859, making it the oldest of the world's major football codes. Australian football has the highest spectator attendance and television viewership of all sports in Australia, while the Australian Football League, the sport's only professional competition, is the nation's wealthiest sporting body; the AFL Grand Final, held annually at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, is the highest attended club championship event in the world. The sport is played at amateur level in many countries and in several variations, its rules are governed by the AFL Commission with the advice of the AFL's Laws of the Game Committee.
Australian rules football is known by several nicknames, including Aussie rules and footy. In some regions, it is marketed as AFL after the Australian Football League. There is evidence of football being played sporadically in the Australian colonies in the first half of the 19th century. Compared to cricket and horse racing, football was viewed as a minor "amusement" at the time, while little is known about these early one-off games, it is clear they share no causal link with Australian football. In 1858, in a move that would help to shape Australian football in its formative years, "public" schools in Melbourne, Victoria began organising football games inspired by precedents at English public schools; the earliest such match, held in St Kilda on 15 June, was between Melbourne Grammar and St Kilda Grammar. On 10 July 1858, the Melbourne-based Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle published a letter by Tom Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, calling for the formation of a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during winter.
Born in Australia, Wills played a nascent form of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School in England, returned to his homeland a star athlete and cricketer. His letter is regarded by many historians as giving impetus for the development of a new code of football today known as Australian football. Two weeks Wills' friend, cricketer Jerry Bryant, posted an advertisement for a scratch match at the Richmond Paddock adjoining the Melbourne Cricket Ground; this was the first of several "kickabouts" held that year involving members of the Melbourne Cricket Club, including Wills, Bryant, W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson. Trees were used as goalposts and play lasted an entire afternoon. Without an agreed upon code of laws, some players were guided by rules they had learned in the British Isles, "others by no rules at all". Another significant milestone in 1858 was a match played under experimental rules between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, held at the Richmond Paddock; this 40-a-side contest, umpired by Wills and Scotch College teacher John Macadam, began on 7 August and continued over two subsequent Saturdays, ending in a draw with each side kicking one goal.
It is commemorated with a statue outside the MCG, the two schools have competed annually since in the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, the world's oldest continuous football competition. Since the early 20th century, it has been suggested that Australian football was derived from the Irish sport of Gaelic football, not codified until 1885. There is no archival evidence in favour of a Gaelic influence, the style of play shared between the two modern codes was evident in Australia long before the Irish game evolved in a similar direction. Another theory, first proposed in 1983, posits that Wills, having grown up amongst Aborigines in Victoria, may have seen or played the Aboriginal game of Marn Grook, incorporated some of its features into early Australian football; the evidence for this is only circumstantial, according to biographer Greg de Moore's research, Wills was "almost influenced by his experience at Rugby School". A loosely organised Melbourne side, captained by Wills, played against other football enthusiasts in the winter and spring of 1858.
The following year, on 14 May, the Melbourne Football Club came into being, making it one of the
Goal kick
A goal kick, called a goalie kick in some regions, is a method of restarting play in a game of association football. Its procedure is dictated by Law 16 of the Laws of the Game. A goal kick is awarded to the defending team when the ball goes out of the field of play by crossing, either on the ground or in the air, the goal line, without a goal being scored, when the last person to touch the ball was from the attacking team. If the last person to touch the ball was a member of the defending side, a corner kick is instead awarded to the attackers. A goal kick is awarded to the defending team when the ball goes directly into the goal, having last been touched by the attacking team, from a situation in which the laws do not permit an attacking goal to be scored directly; these are: a throw-in, a dropped ball. The ball is placed anywhere within the defending goal area. All opposing players must be outside the penalty area; the ball must be kicked. The ball becomes in play as soon as it leaves the penalty area – if any player makes contact with the ball before it becomes in play the kick is retaken.
If the ball fails to leave the penalty area the kick is retaken. A goal can be scored directly from a goal kick against the opposing team. An own goal cannot be scored from a goal kick. A player may not be penalised for offside directly from a goal kick. Goal kicks are most taken by goalkeepers, however this is not compulsory under the laws of the game. Opposing players must retain the required distance as stated above. Failure to do so promptly so may be punished by a caution. If an opposing player enters the penalty area before the ball is in play, the goal kick may be retaken. If any player touches the ball after it is kicked, but before it is in play, the goal kick is retaken, it is an infringement for the kicker to touch the ball a second time once the ball is in play, before it has been touched by another player – this is punishable by an indirect free kick to the opposing team from where the offence occurred, unless the second touch was a more serious handling offence, punished by a direct free kick for the opposing team.
Analogues of the goal kick are found in early codes of football. The first published set of rules for any code of football, that of Rugby School, featured a "kick out" from ten yards or twenty-five yards after a team touched the ball down in its own goal area; this was the ancestor of the 22-metre drop out in modern rugby union. A similar 25-yard "kick out" is found in the first version of the Sheffield rules; the Cambridge rules of 1856 provided for a kick-out from "not more than ten paces", while the Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 stipulated a 20-yard "kick off". Published laws of the Eton field game and Harrow football, provided for a defensive kick-off from the goal-line itself whenever the ball went behind the goal without the attacking team scoring; the original FA rules of 1863 defined the "free kick from the goal line", the ancestor of the goal-kick, thus:In case the ball goes behind the goal line, if a player on the side to whom the goal belongs first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from the goal line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched.
If a player of the opposite side first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from a point 15 yards from the goal line opposite the place where the ball is touched. The opposing side shall stand behind their goal line. There are several differences between this "free kick from the goal line" and the modern goal-kick: It was awarded when the defensive team was the first to touch the ball down after it had crossed the goal-line; this contrasts with modern association football, which awards the goal-kick against the last team to touch the ball before it went out of play. It was taken from the goal line itself, it was taken in line with the spot. It was not possible for a player to be offside from such a kick, a feature of the laws that has remained constant to the present day. In 1866, the law was changed to award a goal-kick to the defending team regardless of which team touched the ball.. In 1867, following an amendment proposed by Wanderers FC, the law was simplified.
The goal-kick could now be taken from any point "within six yards from the limit of goal", the opponents were forbidden from approaching within six yards of the ball. In 1872, the law was changed again by the introduction of the corner-kick from Sheffield rules football. Under this 1872 law, a goal-kick could be awarded only when the ball was kicked directly over the crossbar of goal by either side.. This law was rewritten the next year on the basis of a proposal by Great Marlow FC: a goal kick was awarded when the ball was kicked out of play over
Canadian football
Canadian football is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play 110 yards long and 65 yards wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area. In Canada, the term "football" may refer to Canadian football and American football collectively, or to either sport depending on context; the two sports have shared origins and are related but have some key differences. Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s, over time, the game known as Canadian football developed. Both the Canadian Football League, the sport's top professional league, Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1880 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union; the CFL is the most only major professional Canadian football league. Its championship game, the Grey Cup, is one of Canada's largest sporting events, attracting a broad television audience. In 2009, about 40% of Canada's population watched part of the game.
Canadian football is played at the bantam, high school, junior and semi-professional levels: the Canadian Junior Football League, formed May 8, 1974, Quebec Junior Football League are leagues for players aged 18–22, many post-secondary institutions compete in U Sports football for the Vanier Cup, senior leagues such as the Alberta Football League have grown in popularity in recent years. Great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame located in Hamilton, Ontario. Other organizations across Canada perform senior league Canadian football during the summer; the first documented football match was a practice game played on November 9, 1861, at University College, University of Toronto. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was Sir William Mulock Chancellor of the school. A football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear; the first written account of a game played was on October 1862, on the Montreal Cricket Grounds.
It was between the First Battalion Grenadier Guards and the Second Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards resulting in a win by the Grenadier Guards 3 goals, 2 rouges to nothing. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick A. Bethune, Christopher Gwynn, one of the founders of Milton, devised rules based on rugby football; the game gained a following, with the Hamilton Football Club formed on November 3, 1869, Montreal formed a team April 8, 1872, Toronto was formed on October 4, 1873, the Ottawa FBC on September 20, 1876. This rugby-football soon became popular at Montreal's McGill University. McGill challenged Harvard University to a game, in 1874 using a hybrid game of English rugby devised by the University of McGill; the first attempt to establish a proper governing body and adopted the current set of Rugby rules was the Foot Ball Association of Canada, organized on March 24, 1873 followed by the Canadian Rugby Football Union founded June 12, 1880, which included teams from Ontario and Quebec.
Both the Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Union were formed, the Interprovincial and Western Interprovincial Football Union. The CRFU reorganized into an umbrella organization forming the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891; the original forerunners to the current Canadian Football League, was established in 1956 when the IRFU and WIFU formed an umbrella organization, The Canadian Football Council. In 1958 the CFC left the CRFU to become the CFL; the Burnside rules resembling American football that were incorporated in 1903 by the ORFU, was an effort to distinguish it from a more rugby-oriented game. The Burnside Rules had teams reduced to 12 men per side, introduced the Snap-Back system, required the offensive team to gain 10 yards on three downs, eliminated the Throw-In from the sidelines, allowed only six men on the line, stated that all goals by kicking were to be worth two points and the opposition was to line up 10 yards from the defenders on all kicks; the rules were an attempt to standardize the rules throughout the country.
The CIRFU, QRFU and CRU refused to adopt the new rules at first. Forward passes were not allowed in the Canadian game until 1929, touchdowns, five points, were increased to six points in 1956, in both cases several decades after the Americans had adopted the same changes; the primary differences between the Canadian and American games stem from rule changes that the American side of the border adopted but the Canadian side did not. The Canadian field width was one rule, not based on American rules, as the Canadian game was played in wider fields and stadiums that were not as narrow as the American stadiums; the Grey Cup was established in 1909 after being donated by Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, The Governor General of Canada as the championship of teams under the CRU for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada. An amateur competition, it became dominated by professional teams in the 1940s and early 1950s; the Ontario Rugby Football Union, the last amateur organization to compete for the trophy
Drop kick
A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player dropping the ball and kicking it when it bounces off the ground. Drop kicks are most used as a method of restarting play and scoring points in rugby union and rugby league. Association football goalkeepers often return the ball to play with drop kicks; the kick was once in wide use in both Australian rules football and gridiron football, but is today seen in either sport. The drop kick technique in rugby codes is to hold the ball with one end pointing downwards in two hands above the kicking leg; the ball is dropped onto the ground in front of the kicking foot, which makes contact at the moment or fractionally after the ball touches the ground, called the half-volley. The kicking foot makes contact with the ball on the instep. In a rugby union kick-off, or drop out, the kicker aims to kick the ball high but not a great distance, so strikes the ball after it has started to bounce off the ground, so the contact is made close to the bottom of the ball.
In rugby league, drop kicks are mandatory to restart play from the goal line after the defending team is tackled or knocks on in the in-goal area or the defending team causes the ball to go dead or into touch-in-goal. Drop kicks are mandatory to restart play from the 20 metre line after an unsuccessful penalty goal attempt goes dead or into touch-in-goal and to score a drop goal in open play, worth one point. Drop kicks are optional for a penalty kick to score a penalty goal and when kicking for touch from a penalty, although the option of a punt kick is taken instead. In rugby union, a drop kick is used to score a drop goal, it was one of only two ways to score points, along with the place kick. Drop kicks are mandatory from the centre spot to start a half, from the centre spot to restart the game after points have been scored, to restart play from the 22-metre line after the ball is touched down or made dead in the in-goal area by the defending team when the attacking team kicked or took the ball into the in-goal area, to score a drop goal in open play, worth three points.
Drop kicks are optional. The usage of drop kicks in rugby sevens is the same as in rugby union, except that drop kicks are used for all conversion attempts and for penalty kicks, both of which must be taken within 40 seconds of the try being scored or the award of the penalty. In both American and Canadian football, one method of scoring a field goal or extra point is by drop-kicking the football through the goal, it contrasts with the punt, wherein the player kicks the ball without letting it hit the ground first. A drop kick is more difficult; the drop kick was used in early football as a surprise tactic. The ball would be snapped or lateraled to a back, who would fake a run or pass, but would kick the field goal instead; this method of scoring worked well in the 1920s and early 1930s, when the football was rounder at the ends. Early football stars such as Charles Brickley, Frank Hudson, Jim Thorpe, Paddy Driscoll, Al Bloodgood were skilled drop-kickers. Driscoll's 55 yard drop kick in 1924 stood as the unofficial record for field goal range until Bert Rechichar kicked a 56-yard field goal in 1953.
In 1934, the ball was made more pointed at the ends. The creation of the pointed football is credited to Shorty Ray, at the time a college football official and the NFL's head of officiating; this made passing the ball easier, as was its intent, but made the drop kick obsolete, as the more pointed ball did not bounce up from the ground reliably. The drop kick was supplanted by the place kick, which cannot be attempted out of a formation used as a running or passing set; the drop kick remains in the rules, but is seen, effective when attempted. In Canadian football the drop kick can be taken from any point on the field, unlike placekicks which must be attempted behind the line of scrimmage. Before the NFL–AFL merger, the last successful drop kick in the NFL was executed by Scooter McLean of the Chicago Bears in their 37–9 victory over the New York Giants on December 21, 1941, in the NFL Championship game at Chicago's Wrigley Field. Though it was not part of the NFL at the time, the All-America Football Conference saw its last drop kick November 28, 1948, when Joe Vetrano of the San Francisco 49ers drop kicked an extra point after a muffed snap against the Cleveland Browns.
The only successful drop kick in the NFL since the 1940s was by Doug Flutie, the backup quarterback of the New England Patriots, against the Miami Dolphins on January 1, 2006, for an extra point after a touchdown. Flutie had estimated "an 80 percent chance" of making the drop kick, called to give Flutie, 43 at the time, the opportunity to make a historic kick in his final NFL game. After the game, New England coach Bill Belichick said, "I think Doug deserves it," and Flutie said, "I just thanked him for the opportunity."Dallas Cowboys punter Mat McBriar attempted a maneuver similar to a
Association football
Association football, more known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport; the game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal. Association football is one of a family of football codes, which emerged from various ball games played worldwide since antiquity; the modern game traces its origins to 1863 when the Laws of the Game were codified in England by The Football Association. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with hands or arms while it is in play, except for the goalkeepers within the penalty area. Other players use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may use any other part of their body except the hands and the arms; the team that scores most goals by the end of the match wins.
If the score is level at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shootout depending on the format of the competition. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, which organises World Cups for both men and women every four years; the rules of association football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time rugby football. The first written "reference to the inflated ball used in the game" was in the mid-14th century: "Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe"; the Online Etymology Dictionary states that the "rules of the game" were made in 1848, before the "split off in 1863". The term soccer comes from a slang or jocular abbreviation of the word "association", with the suffix "-er" appended to it; the word soccer was first recorded in 1889 in the earlier form of socca.
Within the English-speaking world, association football is now called "football" in the United Kingdom and "soccer" in Canada and the United States. People in countries where other codes of football are prevalent may use either term, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now use "football" for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is evidence. Cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net, it was remarkably similar to modern football. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established. Phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup. Athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda and harpastum were played involving hands and violence.
They all appear to have resembled rugby football and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified "mob football", the antecedent of all modern football codes, these three games involved more handling the ball than kicking. Other games included kemari in chuk-guk in Korea. Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other ball games played around the world FIFA has recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe; the modern rules of association football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the varying forms of football played in the public schools of England. The history of football in England dates back to at least the eighth century AD; the Cambridge Rules, first drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848, were influential in the development of subsequent codes, including association football. The Cambridge Rules were written at Trinity College, Cambridge, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Rugby and Shrewsbury schools.
They were not universally adopted. During the 1850s, many clubs unconnected to schools or universities were formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various forms of football; some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably the Sheffield Football Club, formed by former public school pupils in 1857, which led to formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. In 1862, John Charles Thring of Uppingham School devised an influential set of rules; these ongoing efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association in 1863, which first met on the morning of 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London. The only school to be represented on this occasion was Charterhouse; the Freemason's Tavern was the setting for five more meetings between October and December, which produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer, the representative from Blackheath, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting: the first allowed for running with the ball in hand.
Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA and instead in 1871 formed the Rugby Football Union. The eleven remaining clubs, under
Bicycle kick
In association football, a bicycle kick known as an overhead kick or scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before descending on the ground, making a shearing movement with the lower limbs to get the ball-striking leg in front of the other. In most languages, the manoeuvre is named after either the cycling motion or the scissor motion that it resembles, its complexity, uncommon performance in competitive football matches, makes it one of association football's most celebrated skills. Bicycle kicks can be used defensively to clear away the ball from the goalmouth or offensively to strike at the opponent's goal in an attempt to score; the bicycle kick is an advanced football skill, dangerous for inexperienced players. Its successful performance has been limited to the most experienced and athletic players in football history. Labourers from the Pacific seaports of Chile and Peru performed the first bicycle kicks in football matches as early as the late 19th century.
Advanced techniques like the bicycle kick developed from South American adaptations to the football style introduced by British immigrants. Brazilian footballers Leônidas and Pelé popularized the skill internationally during the 20th century; the bicycle kick has since attained such a wide allure that, in 2016, FIFA regarded the bicycle kick as "football’s most spectacular sight". As an iconic skill, bicycle kicks are an important part of association football culture. Executing a bicycle kick in a competitive football match in scoring a goal garners wide attention in the sports media; the bicycle kick has been featured in works of art, such as sculptures, films and literature. Controversies over the move's invention and naming has added to the kick's acclaim in popular culture; the manoeuvre is admired in similar ball sports in the variants of association football like futsal and beach soccer. The bicycle kick is known in English by three names: bicycle kick, overhead kick, scissors kick; the term "bicycle kick" describes the action of the legs while the body is in mid-air, resembling the pedalling of a bicycle.
The manoeuvre is called an "overhead kick", which refers to the ball being kicked above the head, or a "scissors kick", reflecting the movement of two scissor blades coming together. Some authors differentiate the "scissors kick" as similar to a bicycle kick, but done sideways or at an angle. In languages other than English, its name reflects the action it resembles. Sports journalist Alejandro Cisternas, from Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, compiled a list of these names. In most cases, they either refer to the kick's scissor-like motion, such as the French ciseaux retourné and the Greek psalidaki, or to its bicycle-like action, such as the Portuguese pontapé de bicicleta. In other languages, the nature of the action is described: German Fallrückzieher, Polish przewrotka, Dutch omhaal, Italian rovesciata. Exceptions to these naming patterns are found in languages that designate the move by making reference to a location, such as the Norwegian brassespark; this exception is most significant in Spanish, where a fierce controversy exists between Chile and Peru—as part of their historic sports rivalry—over the naming of the bicycle kick.
Regardless, the move is known in Spanish by the less tendentious names of tijera and tijereta—both a reference to the manoeuvre's scissor-like motion. A bicycle kick's successful performance requires great skill and athleticism. To perform a bicycle kick, the ball must be airborne so that the player can hit it while doing a backflip; the non-kicking leg should rise first to help propel the body up while the kicking leg makes the jump. While making the leap, the body's back should move rearwards; as the body reaches peak height, the kicking leg should snap toward the ball as the non-kicking leg is brought down to increase the kick's power. Vision should stay focused on the ball; the arms should be used for balance. Bicycle kicks are done in two situations, one defensive and the other offensive. A defensive bicycle kick is done when a player facing his side's goal uses the action to clear the ball in the direction opposite his side's goalmouth. Sports historian Richard Witzig considers defensive bicycle kicks a desperate move requiring less aim than its offensive variety.
An offensive bicycle kick is used when a player has his back to the opposing goal and is near the goalmouth. According to Witzig, the offensive bicycle kick requires concentration and a good understanding of the ball's location. Bicycle kicks can be done in the midfield, but this is not recommended because safer and more accurate passes can be done in this zone. Crosses that precede an offensive bicycle kick are of dubious accuracy—German striker Klaus Fischer stated that most crosses prior to a bicycle kick are bad. Moreover, performing a bicycle kick is dangerous when done as it may harm a startled participant in the field. For this reason, Peruvian defender César González recommends that the player executing the bicycle kick have enough space to perform it. For the player using the manoeuvre, the greatest danger happens during
