How do does Energy/Work-Power relate to Football?
Energy, and the transfer of energy, is a crucial part of any sport. Energy itself, is the ability of a physical system to do work on other physical systems. When watching football, you can see energy being used and transformed to preform different abilities all over the field, whether it is jumping up for a ball, or making a tackle. Work, is what a force does when it acts on a body and creates a displacement in the same direction of the force. Work is being done on the football field all the time, when O-linemen push defenders around, and displace them, in order to create a clear path for their running back. Finally power, is just the rate at which energy is transferred. Power is just how fast you can transfer energy, for example powerful running backs with big legs can generate the power to explode into their full stride run a lot faster than a kicker can. They can transfer the energy must quicker.
Exploring Energy/Work-Power in Football
To explore Energy/Work-Power in Football, we will give our guest star "Sayf Al-Omaishi" a break and go into the life's of REAL athletes (past data shows Sayf isn't really an athlete...). We will first take a look at nutrition and how they would transform the energy they consume into energy used on the field. We will also take a look at the work produced, and the power generated, by an O-linemen blocking a defensive linemen.
Nutrition: Where it all Begins
The transfer of energy, from food consumed to energy being used, is something every human goes through. For athletes in particular, burning more energy means consuming more. Football players, (who are all over 250 pounds) need to consume large amounts of food because of all the energy drained during their football games and practices, plus they need to consume more since they way twice as much as the rest of us (Man's gotta eat).
The energy they consume is first transformed into chemical energy by their bodies. Throughout the digestion process, some energy will be lost. Energy will also be lost to keeping the body warm, and to the athletes perspiration (sweat).
The energy that is not lost will continue to be transferred into elastic energy. When the player's body tightens up, before a tackle, knees bend, and glutes lower, he produces elastic potential energy, so that he could explode into a tackle. Some energy will also be lost to heat again, as always, when moving body parts, or sweating.
Finally, the rest of the energy will be moved on to kinetic energy, so the player can explode through the ball carrier, making a big hit. Minimal energy will be lost to sound, when the player makes a big loud "POP" sound on the hit, like Dashon Goldson does in the video below...
The energy they consume is first transformed into chemical energy by their bodies. Throughout the digestion process, some energy will be lost. Energy will also be lost to keeping the body warm, and to the athletes perspiration (sweat).
The energy that is not lost will continue to be transferred into elastic energy. When the player's body tightens up, before a tackle, knees bend, and glutes lower, he produces elastic potential energy, so that he could explode into a tackle. Some energy will also be lost to heat again, as always, when moving body parts, or sweating.
Finally, the rest of the energy will be moved on to kinetic energy, so the player can explode through the ball carrier, making a big hit. Minimal energy will be lost to sound, when the player makes a big loud "POP" sound on the hit, like Dashon Goldson does in the video below...
The Block
A good offensive line that knows how to block is crucial for any good football team. Without a good line to block, a team's running back could get no where since he has no gaps created to run through, and their quarterback would be on the floor before he has time to make a decision to pass.
For these reasons, the O line is one of the most important parts of any team, but also the least recognized for their work on the field....
Talking about "work" on the field, we are going to take a look at the "work" generated by these athletes as they block D linemen out of the way.
Here's a clip showing just how strong O-linemen can really be...
For these reasons, the O line is one of the most important parts of any team, but also the least recognized for their work on the field....
Talking about "work" on the field, we are going to take a look at the "work" generated by these athletes as they block D linemen out of the way.
Here's a clip showing just how strong O-linemen can really be...
Work and Power Calculations
In the video above, you can see that both o linemen together exploded into the block with 2, 600 pounds of force. If we assume they both hit it with an even amount of force, than each linemen hit it with 1, 300 pounds of force, or 5783N. We will also assume, that an o-linemen needs to block (displace) a D-linemen by about 2m in order to create a sufficient gap for the running back...
F = 5783N
D = 2m
W = ?
W = F x D
W = (5783N)(2m)
W = 11 566 J
O-linemen have to do about 11 566 J of work, displacing D linemen, almost every single play in football.
No wonder they are considered to be some of the hardest working... too bad they do not receive enough credit.
To calculate power, we will assume that they do this work over a time span of 2 seconds. In 2 seconds, the gap must be created and the running back is coming through!
W = 11 566 J
T = 2 s
P = ?
P = W/T
P = (11 566J) / (2s)
P = 5783 W
O-linemen generate about 5783 W of power, blocking D-linemen, play after play. These big boys work hard, and are very powerful indeed...
F = 5783N
D = 2m
W = ?
W = F x D
W = (5783N)(2m)
W = 11 566 J
O-linemen have to do about 11 566 J of work, displacing D linemen, almost every single play in football.
No wonder they are considered to be some of the hardest working... too bad they do not receive enough credit.
To calculate power, we will assume that they do this work over a time span of 2 seconds. In 2 seconds, the gap must be created and the running back is coming through!
W = 11 566 J
T = 2 s
P = ?
P = W/T
P = (11 566J) / (2s)
P = 5783 W
O-linemen generate about 5783 W of power, blocking D-linemen, play after play. These big boys work hard, and are very powerful indeed...
It's not fair for some of the hardest working players to not receive as much glory. As you can see in the videos and calculations above, these hard working big boys do a lot of "work" (literally) on the field, and generate a lot of force and power play in and play out. Like kickers, these powerful monsters need to also be appreciated. Next time you watch a game of football, take some time to appreciate some of the other players on the field, other than the quarterback and flashy receivers.