Golf - the Fastest Ball On Earth

Golf - the Fastest Ball On Earth Sport Science Male: Sport Science is back and while boxer Chris Byrd and his wife are off working some horizontal science we’re ready to take on another old sports myth. Mission 188: Fast Ball(s) Male: According to Guinness World Records the fastest ball in sports is the Jai Alai Pelota with the top recorded speed of 188 mph. Jai Alai is that true or just a myth hooked up by some crazy basket weaver? Male: We want to know does Jai Alai really have the fastest moving ball in sports. Here are some comparisons, the fastest Major League Hit was recorded at 127 mph and the tennis serve rackets of the record at 153 mph. The only sport that even approaches Jai Alai speed is golf. Male: Tiger Woods gargantuan drives are routinely clocked at 180 mph that’s not as fast as a Jai Alai ball but its pretty close, so we figured golf was the best bet to challenge the fastest ball myth. But we need someone who hits the ball harder than Tiger so we brought in 5 time world long drive champion Jason Zuback. Male: Of the 61 Million people in world who play golf no one hits the ball harder, and farther than Jason. He’s current record 468 yards so can he launch this 1.65 ounce missile faster than 188 miles per hour and knock Jai Lai off its fastest ball perch? Male: To find out how fast the ball is traveling in flight, we have Jason hit into panes of tempered glass. John Brenkus: (Sport Science Team Leader) We’ve loaded the box with tempered glass but tempered glass is the same stuff that is used to make a car window, it’s harder than ordinary glas. Male: We wire up Jason with a high tech accelerometer and fire up a state of the art radar gun that will track the speed of ball off the tee. In order to break a single pane of glass Jason’s drive will have to exceed 100 mph, no problem. Smashing through the glass reduces the ball speed by 50% therefore in order to maintain the 100 mph necessary to break the 2nd pane of glass Jason’s drive would have to leave his club face in 200 mph. 12 mph faster than the record setting Jai Alai Pelota look out Guinness here comes Zuback. First Attempt Jason: One or two? John: Just one. Jason: I kind of have a little abrasion on the second one but it’s fairly thick tempered glass. It hit that pretty good and I just go through 1 pane. Male: Off the tee Jason’s ball is clocked at 185 mph losing 50% of it’s velocity upon impact. It drops down to 92 mph not enough to get through the 2nd Pane. Time for a science mull again. Second Attempt Jason: It’s only one. John: Yeah that was only one. It hit that pretty good though. Male: Jason’s second try reaches 187 mph. It smashes the first glass winces of the second. Still just short of Jai Alai, he’ll need to crank it up 13 mph more and he’ll break through the 2nd Pane. Jason: Let’s hammer. Male: Let’s tee it up 1 more time. Third Attempt John: Is that it? Jason: There we go. Female: Yeah he’s through. Male: The results are explosive. With one massive swing Jason has shattered 2 panes of tempered glass a one long held myth, the fastest moving ball in sport is no longer a Jai Alai ball. It’s a golf ball crushed by Jason Zuback. We know Jason’s ball reached at least 200 mph so how did he do it. Our VICON house of moves motion capture technology takes us inside the world’s most powerful golf swing. It’s all due to a chain of events called kinetic linking. The energy starts in Jason’s feet. Jason plants himself on the ground and winds his body up like a spring after coiling up he begins rotating his body forward like a whip. The power multiplies as it travels up through his knees and with a smooth twist of his hips the energy raises into the massive muscles of his core. This is what makes Jason the best in the world, a smooth accelerating power transferred through his body. As his arms begins to rotate downwards the club trials just behind and the kinetic linking turns the club into a whip. This drive, the one that set the record for the fastest moving ball in sports leaves Jason’s club at a remarkable 204 mph. Thanks to spectacular athletes and cutting edge technology, we’re in the business of teeing up myths and knocking them down. It looks like it’s time to update the Guinness book. Coming up softball superstar Jennie Finch brings the heat. It’s a swing and a myth. Sports Science will be right back.