Angle of Shooting in Soccer

It was about 3 minutes before the time was called. The red light from the score billboard showing “2-1” represented our team’s frustration to win that one more point in order to break even. The cheering sound of the crowd reverberated through the ground; chased by the other two players from the opposing side, I ran as fast as I could toward the opponent’s goal; it was our last chance of scoring. My heart started pounding rapidly, I ran closer to the goal, and took the shot. I missed.

My dad started teaching me to play soccer since I was very young. He used to be a soccer team’s captain when he was in university, so he was very good at soccer. Every weekend, he would bring my brother and me to a soccer field in our neighborhood, and we would play soccer with other people until sunset. Every time we go there, we always ended our days by practicing our shots. I still remembered learning to kick a power shot, a chip shot, and the trickiest one which is my favorite: a bending shot. Apart from this, watching soccer matches has always been my favorite pastime. When I have time, I like to watch soccer with my family because not only the fast-paced nature of a soccer game never cease to excite me, but also because I can observe and learn from real professional players themselves.

Only a couple of years ago, I learned that the concept of mathematics and physics plays an important role in sport. Formation in soccer for example is a crucial factor when planning. While the attacking 4-3-3 formation allows the offensive midfielders to cover more space, thus having more chance of scoring, the 5-3-2 formation is more appropriate to use for defense because it allows players to secure space nearby their goal. The dimension of a soccer field a...

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...t it also allows me to bend a ball at an angle such that the ball circumvent the human "wall" that is blocking me from making a straight shot. Of course professional players do this as well. After a little talk with my physics teacher and a bit of research on the Internet I found the formula to calculate the amount of bending of a soccer ball when it is shot.

As can be seen in Figure 5, the shooting angle when the player’s foot makes contact on the ball becomes wider if the ball were to be shot with a bending shot. As a result of this finding, I was intrigued to understand more about this type of kick, of how much it can help me increasing my shooting angle.

Works Cited

"Football Development." 1994. FIFA.com. 28 January 2014 .