Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. It is played by a diverse set of people, from little kids to professional athletes, who possess a large range of physical abilities and skill. One of the most important pieces of equipment is the football itself. This paper examines the physics behind the optimal football pressure as a function of ball speed, touch and force of kick, considering the vibration and dynamics of the football as it is kicked. It was observed that the pressure of a football plays a significant role in the dynamic interaction between the ball and foot. A low-order nonlinear lumped mass dynamic model of kicking foot and ball with mass, stiffness and damping was proposed and equations of motion were derived. Simulations were conducted and the optimal football pressure between 0.138 bar (2 psi) and 0.965 bar (14 psi) was proposed considering a multi-objective DIRECT optimization.
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