In shot-putting, the athlete tries to project the shot as
far as possible while remaining within the con®nes of
the throwing circle. During the ¯ ight phase, the shot is
essentially a projectile in free ¯ ight and so its trajectory
can be accurately predicted given suýcient information
about the release conditions (Hubbard, 1988; de
Mestre, 1990). For a projectile that is projected with
constant speed from above ground level, the optimum
release angle that maximizes the horizontal range is
always less than 45°. Lichtenberg and Wills (1978)
calculated that the optimum release angle should be
about 42° for a world-class throw of 22 m from a typical
release height of 2.14 m.