Data Teardown on the American Football Kicking Game using AI
Week 2 of Regular Season 2021 and as so common in NFL games, it’s the kicking game that often leads to a W or L. This week for the Dallas Cowboys, it was a WIN. As our ‘Boys know all too well, a highly accurate and precise kicking game is critically important. Getting there is not just a matter of ‘kicking’ though — the kicker and special teams are highly drilled and skilled. The proprioception (kinaesthesia), or the sense of one’s body movement and position, taking place in these split seconds is astounding. Particularly in a dynamic state of play and with the laws of physics at work, we have to salute all kickers and special teams!
In this video we are demonstrating how important it is to analyze the body in motion over time for kickers. Without factoring time, analyzing sequences and patterns of movement is not possible, and therefore isolates important context out of body movement analytics.
We apply linedanceAI’s 4D human movement analysis to find key segments of a kicker’s movement sequence. We’ve compared these movements together. After processing the data from this kicker’s full body motion (including hip, knee, ankle, foot) the greatest variability was found in his shoulder joint positions and movements. How does the shoulder joint position affect the ball trajectory: Watch to see.
