Perfect throwing shots

Long throwing balls can be a powerful weapon in football. When the World Cup was taking place, Professor Nick Linthorne of the University of Brunei, England, explained the physical formula behind perfect throwing.

"A match between England and Germany. The ball rolled out of the German goal line, not far away. Gary Neville fired, Michael Owen picked up the ball, 1-0 for England ."

It was just a hypothetical situation, but it showed a throw-in that could make a big difference in the game. As a throw-in specialist in England, Neville could throw a shot up to 30-40 meters from the edge to create an opportunity for his team-mates to score. Song, how do a player throw the ball farthest? In other words, if you want the ball to fall as far as possible, what is the angle of throw?

In theory, the answer is 45 degrees . However, observing the throwing player, you will see their throwing angle is usually close to 30 degrees . The reason for the difference between theory and reality is the structure of the human body.

A Uruguayan player is preparing to throw a ball (Artwork: Yahoo) The distance of the ball line depends largely on the throwing speed and throwing angle. According to basic physics, the optimal throw angle is a balance between vertical velocity - to increase the time of balloons in the air - and horizontal velocity - to increase the distance. In theory, that optimal angle is 45 degrees, but that is usually not used in sports.

Professor Linthorne used video tape and a biomass analysis software to measure the variation of ball speed when changing the pitch angle. He realized, at a low throw angle, the player throws considerably faster , which is due to the construction of the muscles that make people throw the ball farther than throwing it up high. The average person also found throwing the ball up vertically harder than throwing the ball straight forward.

From the velocity velocity elements, the average force throws the ball, the acceleration field of the ball, the acceleration depends on the gravity, the height between the pitching point and the falling point . Professor Linthorne makes the formula The distance of the ball line depends on the throw angle, whereby the optimal throw angle is 30 degrees, which is also consistent with the players' experience.

GS Linthorne also took into account the aerodynamic factor caused by the spin of the ball. But it has little effect on the results. The variation of the throwing angle depends on the player, because they have different arm lengths, muscle strength and pitching techniques. Anyway, the optimal throwing angle of the players is still between 25 and 35 degrees.