Analysis of different volleyballs’ collision mechanics across a range of incident velocities

ABSTRACT

Volleyball involves low-to-high-velocity collisions between the ball and a player. This research examined the kinematics, energetics and impact forces during collisions of different volleyballs across a range of incident velocities. Seven volleyball types were projected downwards between 8 and 30 m/s, impacting on a force platform. Recorded video was digitised and used to calculate incident and rebound velocities, and kinetic energy lost. Peak impact force was determined from the force platform. All ball types had a linear relation between incident and rebound velocities. Four balls had lower while three balls had higher rebound velocities. The slope of this relation varied across ball types. These data indicate that each volleyball type has unique behaviour during collisions; how a player should interact with a ball will depend on the ball type and the incident velocity. The kinetic energy lost was unrelated to peak impact force; of the two ball types with the highest peak impact force, one had the highest and the other the lowest kinetic energy lost. The varying combinations of kinetic energy lost and peak impact force may be useful to examine the role of each of these variables in collision injuries.

KEYWORDS:

• Coefficient of restitution
• kinetic energy
• impact force

Acknowledgements

Balls for this research were provided by Volleyball Alberta. Laurie Eisler provided the Attack II ball launcher. Lauren Vincent contributed to data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.