February 6, 2006
NEXT WEEK, THE PERFECT CURTSY (via Tom Morin):
How to throw a soccer ball: Physicists reveal how best to get speed and distance with a throw-in. (Philip Ball, 1/25/06, Nature)
Researchers have managed to confirm what many football players have already worked out: when it comes to throwing a soccer ball far and fast, the usual rules of projectile maths don't necessarily apply.The study, by sports scientists Nicholas Linthorne and David Everett at Brunel University in Uxbridge, UK, also holds some tips for soccer coaches as to how to get the best from their long-throwing players.
The 'long throw-in' is a classic, useful move in soccer: chucking a ball from the touchline into the opponents' goalmouth can catch defenders off guard, and an attacker receiving the ball from a throw can't be caught out by the offside rule.
If all of that sounds like gibberish, rest assured that the ability to overhand throw a ball a long distance is a very good thing. But the mechanics of it seems to defy standard wisdom in physics.
If they could throw overhand they wouldn't be stuck playing soccer. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2006 10:00 AM
Well, you may want to check out this sequence called a "flip throw":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamwithcam/sets/846728/
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at February 6, 2006 8:51 PMAnd a video of same here:
http://www.4skills.com/Move%20of%20the%20moment/moveofthemoment_index.htm#
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at February 6, 2006 8:52 PMThe revolution is coming, you will be assimilated.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at February 6, 2006 9:39 PMIf they allowed players to use something like a potato cannon to throw the soccer ball in, it would make the game a lot more attractive to American audiences.
Posted by: John at February 6, 2006 10:49 PMThis writer's use of "overhand" is awkward
in this case. What makes the throw-in difficult
is that it is overhead (and two-handed).
If it were merely an overhand throw it would be
a very different game.