Optimal Football Pressure as a Function of a Footballer’s Physical Abilities

Andrew Christenson; Pei Cao; Jiong Tang

doi:10.3390/proceedings2060236

Proceedings (Feb 2018)

Optimal Football Pressure as a Function of a Footballer’s Physical Abilities

Andrew Christenson,
Pei Cao,
Jiong Tang

Affiliations

Andrew Christenson: Edwin O. Smith High School, 1235 Storrs Road, Storrs, CT 06268, USA
Pei Cao: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Road, Unit 3139, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
Jiong Tang: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Road, Unit 3139, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2060236
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 2, no. 6
p. 236

Abstract

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Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. It is played by a diverse set of people, from little kids to professional athletes, who possess a large range of physical abilities and skill. One of the most important pieces of equipment is the football itself. This paper examines the physics behind the optimal football pressure as a function of ball speed, touch and force of kick, considering the vibration and dynamics of the football as it is kicked. It was observed that the pressure of a football plays a significant role in the dynamic interaction between the ball and foot. A low-order nonlinear lumped mass dynamic model of kicking foot and ball with mass, stiffness and damping was proposed and equations of motion were derived. Simulations were conducted and the optimal football pressure between 0.138 bar (2 psi) and 0.965 bar (14 psi) was proposed considering a multi-objective DIRECT optimization.

Published in Proceedings

ISSN: 2504-3900 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: General Works
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/proceedings

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