Sports Science Explores who has the hardest kick

in sports players usually control the

ball by throwing it catching it kicking

but there are two special situations

when a player's goal is to simply get

hit by the ball when standing in a

soccer wall facing free-kick and when

blocking a punt or a field goal in

football so what's more painful getting

blasted by a soccer ball to prevent a

goal or diving into a football at

point-blank range in order to find out

which kicker can bring more pain

football or soccer

we're going to measure pain the sports

science way by measuring force and to

find out what kind of damage soccers

free-kick does we brought in major

league striker that's in but oh

in 2008 playing on the LA Galaxy

alongside David Beckham Buddle

established himself as one of the

league's top scoring threats scoring

hat-tricks in two games by jet to score

goals and you know hit the ball as hard

as I can

standing in the wall 10 yards from a

free-kick spot is like facing a firing

squad except that you actually want to

get hit

the defenders objective is to help the

keeper protect the goal while protecting

their family jewels normally four or

five players stand in the wall but to

hone in on the force felt by a single

player we're going to use a one-man wall

stepping up to act as our human target

his sport science lab rat John Brenkus

John's used to taking this kind of

punishment he's been bit by a dog

launched by a lineman choked out and

nailed in the net and now our fearless

lab rat will find out how much force is

generated when you get smashed by a

soccer ball from point-blank range

I'm a one-man wall okay you want to get

hit so I give him what he wants

Edson gets wired up with a micro strain

wireless accelerometer which will

measure the force of the blast and its

impact

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how do you just stand here what's the

proper way to stand in the wall

well first you want to cover here then

you want to cover up here cover like

this but make sure you make sure you

don't cover your eyes just cover your

face a little bit to prepare yourself to

put it up here so you're promising me

that it's not gonna hit the side of my

foot I can't promise you don't we have a

crash-test dummy for this kind of thing

crash-test dummy not ringing any bells

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all right ready

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what that is insane I don't think you

want to run out the way of the ball if

you run from the ball your goal is gonna

be pissed off with any gonna be down one

nothing you want to square up and face

the ball alright but if I'm squaring up

it's gonna hit me in the face that's

what you want that's exactly one that

kick was traveling over 70 miles an hour

but since this test isn't about

flinching but about getting smashed it's

time to give it one more try

oh oh oh oh oh what a fan Oh take a

second Oh move how powerful was Edson's

kick data from the accelerometer reveals

that the 16-ounce ball left Edson's foot

traveling at 72 miles per hour

wind resistance slows it by nearly 20

miles an hour before impact but it still

smacks John upside the head literally

knocking him backwards with 158 pounds

of force

honestly throws my ears dangling from my

head shake it off so how does that

impact compare with a point-blank blast

from a football to find out will utilize

the powerful leg of former USC

all-american and current NFL punter Tom

Malone

today he'll be putting his boot -

working against professional stuntman

Chris Brewster

[Music]

your instructions are to kick the ball

as parties we possibly can now Chris you

have to literally throw yourself in the

harm's way you're gonna be laying out

just trying to block that kick to find

out how much damage a pun can do

we've wire Chris's hands with

one-of-a-kind textin clubs these gloves

have thousands of sense aisles to

measure the precise force of Tom's kick

here we go

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three two

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so how did that impact compare with the

floor spell by a soccer player blocking

a free-kick our sensors reveal that

Tom's foot generates 200 pounds of force

blasting the football into Chris's hand

at 55 miles per hour

that's exactly the same speed as the

soccer ball that drilled John

but amazingly the football impacts Chris

with only 16 pounds of force that's only

10% of the 158 pounds of force that John

felt when he got smacked in that hat

why does Chris experience so little

force it's because his hands and arms

flex and give like shock absorbers only

two inches of recoil reduces the force

of the impact by 80%

while there's potential for fracturing a

finger trying to block puns getting

blasted in the head by a soccer ball

going over 70 miles an hour impacts the

head with enough force to actually

bruise the brain and cause a major

concussion

of course lucky for John most of the

force is absorbed by his freakishly

floppy ear which deforms to one-fourth

its normal size

even though taking a soccer ball to the

ear hole is potentially more dangerous

than blocking a punt in the Kamikaze

defender dozen time the block right he

can get kicked right in this stomach so

how much force is generated by a boot to

the gut the only way to find out is by

blasting our step man right in the

breadbasket

that rocket generated an amazing six

times more force than the soccer ball to

John's head

all right yeah all right yeah set that

one I'm glad I'm not a football