Link to ESPN video:
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In a 2009 episode of “Sport Science”, the network wanted to find out who is more accurate – an Olympic archer or a NFL quarterback.
They asked a guy named Drew Brees to throw against an archery target – from 20 yards (18 meters). That is a questionable test to begin with, as Olympic archers shoot from 77 yards (70 meters) distance. Still, Drew Brees shows an impressive performance, hitting every time.
The show then goes on and on about why and how this is possible. The twist (600 rpm) and “the right amount of wobble” is supposedly needed to make a football fly with enough accuracy.
We here at The Slingshot Channel don’t know anything about NFL football, but we do know a bit about throwing oddly shaped objects. For 18 meters distance, we did not believe that any of that fancy spinning and wobbling is needed.
So we built a test device: A fixed mounted launcher that launches a football with the same speed (53 mph) as Drew Brees – but without any spinning, and with the flat side first.
See how the football flies without science! It turns out that we were right: For 18 meters, all you have to do is to just throw the ball the right way.
A “The Slingshot Channel” production.
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