HOW DOES BECKHAM BEND IT?

ENGLAND; JAPAN; NEW Hampshire; UNITED States

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in England, at Yamagata University in Japan, and at Fluent Inc. in Lebanon, New Hampshire, have done scientific and engineering analysis of the soccer ball bend. The technique of bending the flight of a soccer ball during a free kick may often mean the difference between victory and defeat. The researchers used a combination of wind-tunnel experiments, highspeed video camera analysis, trajectory simulations, and computer modeling techniques to explain what happens when a soccer ball bends during a free kick. Takeshi Asai of Yamagata University's Sports Science Laboratory used MSC.Patran, a product of MSC.Software of Los Angeles, to model the stress and deformation of the foot and ball as the player strikes the ball.