The angle of a kick helps determine how far it will travel.
Throwing the Football  When the football travels through the
air, it always follows a curved, or parabolic, path because the
movement of the ball in the vertical direction is influenced by
the force of gravity. As the ball travels up, gravity slows it
down until it stops briefly at its peak height; the ball then
comes down, and gravity accelerates it until it hits the ground.
This is the path of any object that is launched or thrown
(football, arrow, ballistic missile) and is called projectile
motion. To learn about projectile motion as it applies to
football, let's examine a punt (Figure 1). When a punter kicks a
football, he can control three factors:    • The velocity or
speed at which the ball leaves his foot   • The angle of the
kick   • The rotation of the football  The rotation of the ball
-- spiral or end-over-end -- will influence how the ball slows
down in flight, because the ball is affected by air drag. A
spiraling kick will have less ai