Ball Return Trajectory

[kirtar]

I'm sorry if somebody posted this already. For those who may have seen it, what kind of trajectory does the ball take after leaving the return track? While I know that if left alone they will end up on the other side of the field, where do they land? Does it land on the other side or does it bounce in the middle, and if so approximately where?

[crispey7]

the ball lands about the middle of the center section of the playing field the rolls through the opening under the platform

[Mark McLeod]

On the field in Manchester the balls would rarely even make it to the tunnels.
They landed on a seam in the carpet and tended to bounce off in random directions based on how evenly the carpet was taped together.
When they did manage to bounce straight they tended to hit the tunnel platform and fail to actually enter the tunnel.
Out of maybe 10 attempts from both directions I didn't see any actually go into the tunnels.

It took the ball ~5 seconds to roll down the ball track.

[Nuttyman54]

To add, the balls at Manchester also hit reliably on the centerline at about 4' out from the tower that was supporting the return rails. From that point on the motion was hard to determine due to the number of people on the field.

[Chris/Fish]

I was standing on the Manchester field approximately 2' in front of the tower and was hit in the head by a ball (I'm 6'0). On that note, be careful when practicing ball returns

[wilmo]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

On the field in Manchester the balls would rarely even make it to the tunnels.
They landed on a seam in the carpet and tended to bounce off in random directions based on how evenly the carpet was taped together.
When they did manage to bounce straight they tended to hit the tunnel platform and fail to actually enter the tunnel.
Out of maybe 10 attempts from both directions I didn't see any actually go into the tunnels.

It took the ball ~5 seconds to roll down the ball track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCzRhLSoGt0

1:40-1:50 ball rolls through gate

[Mark McLeod]

Okay, that's one , but even that, from the look of it, didn't roll all the way through the tunnel. See how it struck the side of the tunnel before deflecting into it?

I wonder how many takes that took.
That's one reason why that part was taped and not live...

[kirtar]

It almost hit the edge of the tunnel before going in from what I can tell.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

On the field in Manchester the balls would rarely even make it to the tunnels.
They landed on a seam in the carpet and tended to bounce off in random directions based on how evenly the carpet was taped together.
When they did manage to bounce straight they tended to hit the tunnel platform and fail to actually enter the tunnel.
Out of maybe 10 attempts from both directions I didn't see any actually go into the tunnels.

It took the ball ~5 seconds to roll down the ball track.

Mark,

Thanks for this information. This is one of those perks that comes with being able to make it to Manchester - you can make observations like these that are impossible to make even at a remote kickoff site. Unfortunately our team wasn't able to send a mentor to New Hampshire this year.