My New Chair

I think that it is interesting how a rear wheel drive wheelchair can make so much of a difference in hitting the power soccer ball. We unwrapped my new chair today, and even though it wasn't perfectly suited for me yet, we could put my sister in it to hit the ball around. It's pretty amazing how even at about half speed it was able to hit the ball just as hard as I can at full speed in my mid-wheel. Again, as I've mentioned in previous posts, it all comes back to physics and the idea that a longer turn radius allows for more angular velocity which conveys more force to the ball and therefore hits the ball harder. I wasn't really that much of a believer however until we played CNY United last month. I had watched videos on the Internet, but I was not sure how hard the ball was really hit simply because sometimes videos can distort reality slightly because of angle or lighting. I had two different games between the Circle City Rollers and the Atlanta Synergy, but it looked like in one of the games they were hitting the ball so much harder simply because of the low angle of the camera. Anyway, I'll try out my new chair hopefully tomorrow night at power soccer practice, and I hope I remember how to drive rear-wheel.I think that it is interesting how a rear wheel drive wheelchair can make so much of a difference in hitting the power soccer ball. We unwrapped my new chair today, and even though it wasn't perfectly suited for me yet, we could put my sister in it to hit the ball around. It's pretty amazing how even at about half speed it was able to hit the ball just as hard as I can at full speed in my mid-wheel. Again, as I've mentioned in previous posts, it all comes back to physics and the idea that a longer turn radius allows for more angular velocity which conveys more force to the ball and therefore hits the ball harder. I wasn't really that much of a believer however until we played CNY United last month. I had watched videos on the Internet, but I was not sure how hard the ball was really hit simply because sometimes videos can distort reality slightly because of angle or lighting. I had two different games between the Circle City Rollers and the Atlanta Synergy, but it looked like in one of the games they were hitting the ball so much harder simply because of the low angle of the camera. Anyway, I'll try out my new chair hopefully tomorrow night at power soccer practice, and I hope I remember how to drive rear-wheel.
Photo Courtesy of Power Soccer Shop

Legendary Stuff

Is possible that anybody can slow down the Phillies' offense? Well, it happened last night. One of the best offenses in all of baseball with one hit by a pitcher who has been up and down ever since his phenomenal entry into Major League Baseball from Japan. Daisuke Matsuzaka was thought to be the greatest thing to come out of Japan since Ichiro Suzuki, and he proved it making an initial splash into his new home. However, last year he fell victim to injury and was only average when he played last year. This year has also been average, but he fell just short of the no-hitter because of a bloop single into shallow left field.

For those of you who might not remember him because you don't live in New England or you don't really care about baseball, you might remember Daisuke because of the famed or perhaps legendary Gyro ball. The fabled pitch can be seen here on a YouTube video, but many people have wondered what on earth this offering could be. These videos on YouTube that show this seemingly impossible pitch have garnered millions of hits. I guess that even he has denied the fact that he throws this pitch, the legend will live on, and everyone will want to see it one more time.
Photo by Triple Tri on Flickr

Physics of Power Soccer

I wrote a few days ago asking why a mid-wheel drive wheelchair would have more problems generating power on a spin shot than a rear-wheel drive chair would. However, as I thought about this I knew the answer had to be physics related as my friends Ben and Evan pointed out. So, jumping off of what they gave me, I decided to do a little research of my own through the little I remember from physics to see why my chair seemingly has a disadvantage while spinning.

So, speed is obviously a factor. However, being that this is turn speed, we need to use the equation for angular velocity which is 2π/T where T is the period in seconds. However, all this proves is how many radians per second you are turning. Therefore, we need to multiply this by the radius of rotation to get the most actual velocity. So, the entire equation turns out to be v= (2πR) ÷ T where v is the speed, R is the turn radius, and T is the time period needed to rotate. Therefore, there are two ways to increase the velocity; either you need to increase your turn radius or decrease the time it takes to make that turn. Ideally, if you could increase the radius as well as decrease the time you make the most gains.

This is not the answer that satisfies me because I spin just as quickly as the rear wheel drive chairs. Therefore, I believe that the radius has the largest effect on shot power. The distance between them my rotational axis and the front of my guard is much less than that of a rear wheel drive chair. There is no way I can fix this in my current chair, but it is nice to know that there might be some rational reason as to why I cannot hit the ball quite as hard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naelyn/ / CC BY-SA 2.0