Sports Science

Football

Given only 4 steps, how much force do you think you can generate to run at someone and spear them?

• Ray Lewis was a ridiculous linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens.
• In only 4 steps till hitting someone Lewis can generate over 1,000 pounds of force!
• The only reasons he doesn't break bones on the daily is because shoulder pads absorb 50% of that force

Keep this equation in mind: U2 = 2gH. It explains why most of jumpers do the backward flip known as the Fosbury Flop.

The Fosbury Flop keeps one’s center of gravity low to the ground, and the lower one’s center of gravity, the less energy is required to successfully jump over the bar.

The Fosbury Flop

Basketball

Kyrie Irving is a well known basketball player.

• He may not run track but is very quick on the court.
• In only two strides, Kyrie goes from 0 to 12 mph.
• When he catches his defender off guard, he swings the ball behind his back at up to 21mph..... that is about three times faster than the strike of a copperhead snake!

High Jump

To master the high jump, you must have been practicing almost your whole life. A perfect example would be Javier Sotomayor

• He still holds the world record 2.45 meters!

Science!!

You would think sports is just sports but to others, sports is science. Science is not only the boring stuff in chemistry of physics but we can bring science into the sports

Acting: The swing starts when the brain sends signals the the legs to start the batter's stride. That takes at least 15 milliseconds

Contact: The bat must meet the three- inch spinning ball within an eighth of an inch of dead center and at the precisely millisecond

Deciding: The batter must then decide, in just 25 milliseconds, whether to swing or let the ball go by.

Thinking: It takes 75 milliseconds for the brain to process the information and gauge the speed and location of the pitch

Looking: It takes 100 milliseconds for the eye of the batter to see the ball

When a pitcher throws a 90 mph fastball, the batter has less than a quarter of a second to see the pitch

Baseball

1st: So if a player just stands there on the ice, he will continue to stand still until an opposing player hits him with a body check.

2nd: When two players collide, Newtons second Law allows us to calculate the what the final velocity of the two players will be. So when a large player strikes a smaller player at rest, that will create a large velocity in the small player

Hockey

Every action and reaction that hockey players make on the ice, follows the fundamental laws of physics; specifically Newton Three Laws of Motion

3rd: When the large player hits a small player he experience a force from the small guy pushing back on the big player. Even if the smaller player is not trying to do so, it slows the bigger player down.

1st Law:

An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

2nd Law:

Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to accelerate the object). F= M x A

3rd Law:

For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action.

Sports Science

By: James Saint-Amour