Friday, January 27, 2006

How to throw a soccer ball

Good news for those of you who play football especially those who are full-backs and throw-in takers. Researchers have found out how best to get speed and distance with a throw-in. From Nature:
"People haven't been able to explain it," Linthorne says. He and Everett have now made a detailed study of the football throw-in, videoing a player making a series of throws at different release angles. They fitted the resulting release speeds, throwing distances and flight times to mathematical equations.

This enabled the researchers to find the best release angle for producing a long throw. The answer, it seems, is that it doesn't matter too much, provided that the angle is between about 20 and 35°.
(Thanks Raul Jo)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If u watch how some players throw the ball, they will usually wrap the ball around their jerseys first, removing any water or mud on it, making the ball dry, before doing the throw. The more grip the better.

Anonymous said...

Why are throw ins taken by full backs usually?

Anonymous said...

Throw-ins are taken along the flanks therefore usually the full back on that particular flank will take it so that the other outfield players -the midfielders and strikers- can be free to attack.

Sometimes throw-in takers are taken by other players. Defensive midfielders have been known to take throw-ins too.

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