So back on November 24th, 2014, Odell Beckham Jr. broke the internet with his ridiculous one-handed catch. If you haven’t see it yet then watch this. The catch is absolutely ridiculous. You would think it’d be near impossible for him to do that again, yet Beckham Jr. is known for his practices with one handed catches. He’s mastered the art of catching with one hand so well, that he could probably go for 100 yards in a game all off one handed catches.
There must be some type of explanation as to how Odell Beckham Jr. can make these catches with such consistence. Well, ESPN’s Sports Science took Beckham Jr. into their lab to see just how he can make these catches and explain the science behind these grabs.
At 5’11”, Beckham Jr. makes his amazing catches by using his large 10 inch hand width. He has bigger hands than Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant even though Bryant stands 3 inches taller than Beckham Jr.
On a normal pass of about 45mph, Beckham’s window of opportunity to catch the ball last only 0.16 seconds. Thats about the same amount of time it takes for a football to complete a full spiral (0.15 seconds). Thus Beckham Jr. must jump 4 tenths of a second before the ball arrives, making timing an even more crucial part of his catches. In order to catch the ball, Beckham Jr. must jump and reach the ball at it’s maximum height of 8 ft, while jumping backwards at a speed of 11 mph I might add. When catching the ball at full extension, Beckham Jr. must clench the ball when it hits his hand in 8 milliseconds. He also must apply 20lbs of force to the ball and stop the 45mph pigskin in just 2 tenths of a second. Thats a lot going on during a catch of a football.
Odell Beckham Jr. has made the one-handed catch his signature move. He’s surprised all of us with his acrobatic catches and his wild antics. Odell Beckham’s catches leave us in awe, but like everything else in the world, their is a science behind it.
It’s cool that ESPN actually went all the way to test why Beckham Jr. can make such great one handed catches, instead of just assuming he’s “lucky”. It makes you wonder how many other famous “miracle” sports things can be explained by science, rather than just luck and chance.
The catch is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t understand how he could possibly be strong enough to catch that ball, which isn’t light, with essentially 3 fingers. It’s unreal how talented he is with his hands.
As a New York Giants season ticket holder, I very much enjoyed reading this article. Odell Beckham is an amazing receiver, who provides a positive spin to the Giants’ offense. It blows my mind that he has a span of about a tenth of a second to make these plays! There is so much more analysis into these catches than we think, and athletes deserve every ounce of praise they receive on a national level. One of my favorite catches of all time by a Giant was David Tyree’s in their Super Bowl XLII win. Somehow, he was able to hold the football against his helmet and make the amazing catch. Because of this play, which could be regarded as one of the greatest catches in NFL history, the Giants were able to march down and score an imperative touchdown. David Tyree relates to Odell Beckham because they both are able to make types of plays that blow the minds of spectators, but now we know that these plays aren’t just luck.
I remember watching that catch live and at first i couldn’t believe it. Its crazy to think about all the tiniest little details that had to go right for him in order to make that catch.
Football has been one of my favorite sports to watch! I remember when Odell made that catch and how uncanny it was that he is able to perform such a trick.