Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla
Damn, what did he think? It's obviously curving.
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The curve is the Magnus Effect; simple physics on a spinning object w/ a textured surface. The ball he threw to Escobar in the pre-season last year was the best example I've seen of it. He just throws with such high spin that the ball grabs the air and turns. For any spinning object it will do it over distance but most guys don't have the kind of spin rate to do it over the shorter distances that Mahomes ball will do it over. If anybody's ever played 1b with a shortstop that likes to overthrow the ball from the hole, they know exactly what I'm talking about - everything has an armside tail. It's easier on a baseball because it's a small sphere with raised seams, but a freak of nature like Mahomes appears capable of doing it with a football even if I'm not entirely convinced the curve is on purpose. He just has an innate understanding of how his body works - the end location is by design but I don't think he's truly cognizant in real-time of bending the ball.
Where I found it most interesting, though, was on the balls that reach their apex, nose over and then
drive down towards its target. I think it's the same cause, just a different manifestation of it. When most guys passes get to their apex they've lost enough velocity that they start to flutter, sorta like a heavy rifle round over distance. If they don't have enough muzzle velocity, they lose their ballistics properties relatively quickly. The spin becomes less extreme and they become slaves to the surrounding air.
But a high velocity rifle round will reach its apex with a lot of spin/speed still and it will continue to track true all the way to its target.
Mahomes ball has so much energy and spin all the way through its apex that my belief is that even when it noses down, it still has spin helping it drive accurately through the air. That's why they nose down so aggressively when he throws the shit out of them; they seem to do an immediate 30 degree peel over and then almost attack their intended target.
It's just a matter of spin rate, IMO.