Bend it like Beckahm

Two summers ago I went on a soccer trip. I played in Pats Cup and Surf Cup. Between those two tournaments, our team went to go watch Galaxy play against DC United. It was a really fun game and we were able to see Beckham play for a little bit. He took a free kick from outside the box and he bent it into the goal. He put so much spin on the ball and it had a mean curve. He applied a torque to the ball, which caused it to rotate. The way he did it is by kicking the side of the ball with enough force to get it to rotate and go forward at the same time. The point of rotation is the center of the ball or the center of mass. The lever arm, the distance from the point of rotation to the point where the force is applied, is the radius of the ball. I always wondered how Beckham got so much rotation in the ball and the answer is in physics. There are three ways to maximize torque. 1)increase the force applied, 2)increase the lever arm distance, and 3)make sure the force is perpendicular to the lever arm. Since the lever arm can't increase, then the two ways Beckham puts so much torque on the ball is having a lot of force and kicking perpendicular to the radius of the ball. It is cool how physics applies to things like soccer and curving a ball.