Application of 3D stereophotogrammetry for characterising dynamic association football kick launch parameters and flight trajectories

Engineering of Sport 15 - Proceedings from the 15th International Conference on the Engineering of Sport (ISEA 2024)

In association football, ball launch parameters when kicked (velocity and spin vectors and magnitudes), fundamentally influence flight path and kick outcomes. Factors influencing launch parameters include player technique, ball properties, boot characteristics and environmental conditions. For decades, equipment manufacturers have sought to iterate ball and boot designs to promote competitiviely favourable launch parameters for players. Mechancal quantification of these parameters, and the influence of equipment interventions, has proven challenging. Human kinematic and outdoor environment inconsistencies challenge field assessment of such parameters, and many commercially available measurement systems (such as Vicon, radar guns and Trackman) are limited either by caputure speed, spin axis tracking capabilities, measurement accuracy, or by non three dimensional caputure. However, 3D stereophotogrammetry, using a GOM Aramis system, applied with a high-speed video camera pair, has been utilised in golf ball tracking, with excellent accuracy and demonstrable benefits over other commercially available systems. This study attempts to apply GOM Aramis 3D digital image correlation techniques, in a controlled laboratory environment, to capture dynamic launch parameters, and compare differences between independent variables such as ball, boot and environmental conditions, which are hypothesized to influence launch characteristics.