The Ultimate Showdown: Matt Prater vs Robot Kicker

In a unique and fascinating challenge, two individuals with exceptional kicking abilities faced off against each other. Matt Prater, the placekicker for the Detroit Lions, holds the NFL record for the longest field goal ever, which is no surprise given his impressive skills. However, he was not alone in this endeavor, as a robot kicker, created by none other than himself, stood ready to take on the champion.

To settle the debate once and for all, Prater decided to invite Matt to Detroit, where they would engage in a mano y mano battle, with the robot kicker taking part. To prepare for the challenge, Prater spent an hour before his opponent's arrival soaking up the atmosphere of the stadium, which was exclusively reserved for him. The robot kicker, meanwhile, underwent an eight-second travel montage, no doubt fueling anticipation and excitement among those watching.

As Matt Prater arrived at the stadium, he was joined by Pax, his personal trainer, who had traveled with him to provide support and guidance throughout the challenge. When Mark, the host of the event, asked Pax about his training routine, it became clear that this individual was not as diligent in their practice as others on the team. However, Pax's unique approach to training is what allowed him to excel in his role as Prater's trainer.

The moment of truth had finally arrived, and Matt Prater was ready to put his skills to the test against the robot kicker. The stakes were high, with a long history at stake - Tom Dempsey, who once held the record for the longest field goal, had been surpassed by Prater nearly a decade ago. With his personal trainer by his side, Prater was confident in his abilities and ready to face off against the machine.

As the competition began, Matt Prater and the robot kicker faced each other, their kicking shoes at the ready. The atmosphere was electric, with an eager crowd watching every move of these two competitors. In a surprising twist, Pax revealed that he did not practice as much as his teammates, which sparked a mix of amusement and admiration from Mark.

The outcome of this epic showdown hung in the balance, as Prater and the robot kicker vied for supremacy. The robot's potential to outdo its human counterpart was undeniable, but would it be able to surpass Prater's achievements? Only time would tell as these two kicking machines clashed on the field.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is Matt Prater.He's the placekickerfor the Detroit Lions.He holds the NFL record forthe longest field goal everwhich means he's reallygood at kicking footballs.And this is a robot Imade, which not to brag,is also really good at kicking footballs.So, to settle who's betterbetween the two of us,we're going straight toDetroit, mano y mano,man versus machine.But to do that,I'ma need an eight-second travel montage.(upbeat pop music)I arrived an hour before himto get the full NFL experience(upbeat pop music continues)and so I could soak up the factthat I had an entirestadium just to myselfin the most professional way possible.(upbeat pop music continues)We just got word Mattis about 10 minutes out.He thinks he's cominghere just to teach meall about, like, the kicking mechanicsand the science behindkicking field goals,which is partially true, I am curious.But the real reason I'mhere is I built a machinethat can kick really far field goals.I think it can kick itfarther than any human.But if I'm really goodtest that hypothesis,I need to be kicking against the one humanthat can kick field goals the farthest.And that happens to be Matt Prater.Originally, a guy named Tom Dempsey,who had a unique kicking foot,held the record with a 63-yard field goal,and no one can beat that for 43 years.But then Prater came alongand beat his record by 1 yardwith a 64-yard field goal in 2013.- Good!(crowd cheers)History is made!- And he still holds therecord nearly a decade later.There he is.And not only did Matt show up,but to my absolute delight,he brought along his personal trainer.Who's this?- This is Pax.- What up, Pax?How are you, buddy?And so, after I joined himfor his standard warmupand stretch routine,I went straight for the jugular.So, do you practice just as muchas everyone else on the team?- I definitely don't practice as muchas everybody else.(Mark laughs)- Everyone on your team iswatching is like, \"Oh, you punk.\"- Everybody wants to be the kickeruntil it's the end of a gameand you need a field goal.- Then I asked him how to kickreally long field goals,and he said it all comesdown to just two things.- Leg speed, I'd say is first.- Leg speed?And leg speed makes intuitive sense,but then he told me thesecond critical factoris making contact 2.2 inchesup from the bottom of the ball.Extensive research has been donethat backs up these two factorsas the most criticalfor maximizing distance.So after that, he showedme the proper techniqueto achieve those two factors.- So, you come in an angle,so your plant leg should beas close and straight as you can,and at this angle so yourkicking leg can be straight.So, right when you're makingcontact with the ball,your kicking leg should be lockingright at contact.- I see.And where do you hit the ball?- So, you'll hit the ball,you know the little boneright in the middle of your foot there?- Yeah, like right here?- Yeah, about right there.- Okay.- This will be the first time in my lifeI've legitimately attemptedto kick a field goal.But after Matt's coaching,he made it seem like it was pretty similarto playing soccer, andI like to play soccer.You shouldn't have done this,but you taught me everything you know.So, I say we have a competition.Me versus you.I thought of a wager we could have.That Gatorade thing,it's got ice water in it.The loser gets dunked.- All right. I'm down.- You okay with that?- Yep. Yeah, that works.- You seem pretty confident.- I don't know.We'll see. We'll see.(Mark laughs)- Look at this guy, sandbagging.So with that, we were ready to go.And this was his first kick,which he lined up left footedwhich didn't go well for me,Oh! (laughing)- Yeah.- 'cause he's not left footed.This is a disaster.And then it was my turn.All right, Rober. Nope.Laces Out, Dan!Gotta remember everything you taught me.- Yep.- I like that.(Mark exhales)- Got it.- Nailed it!- Nice.- Moving back 5.This is a 25-yarder.They might say, \"Mark,what do you mean 25?You're only on the 15 yard line.\"And that's true, but theend zone itself is 10 yards.So, you always include thatwith the kick distance.- Got it. Good shot.- All right, Prater.Let's see what you got, pal.- All right.- Ignore this. Don't let this bother you.- We can have a full conversation.- What'd you have for breakfast?!Ohh, goodness. That wasright in the middle.- Ooh, that was a badkick, but I'll take it.- Got it.- Got it!Okay.- Bomb.Crushed it.- Ohh, wow.So far, I don't know, ourkicks look pretty similar.- Come back.Crushed it. Got it.- Good?! Was that good?!(Mark laughs)- Easy, with room to spare.- No pressure.Oh no.That almost went over the net, man.Now, that we are backto a 45-yard field goal,I was just stoked to still be in this.- Aargh! Was that short?!- Is that in?- What? Official review,I want an official review.Well, there's somethingI haven't told you.I'm actually a barefoot kicker.You never saw this coming, did you?- No.(Mark laughs)It's honestly the lastthing I expected you to do.- In my defense,this was a super popularkicking style in the early 80s,but with no proven advantageno one really does it anymore,except for me.- Good hit.(Mark exclaims)(Matt laughs)- No!(ball thuds)Oh, not cool.- That's the worst sound youcan hear is a kicker too,hitting the pole, yeah, the crossbar.- Oh, that was heart-wrenching.At least the high-speedlooked kind of cool.(ambient music)And so, here's Prater for the win!Oh. (laughing)And just the perfect form.(ambient music continues)All right, Matt,I thought the barefoot wasgonna be my trump card,but I'll concede.As it stands, I'm gettingthe Gatorade bath.But while I might not begood at kicking footballs,I am good at engineering,which technically means I'm really goodat kicking footballs.(Mark whistles)(train horn blares)Let's go, baby! (laughing)- (laughing) What is this?- Okay, and stop.This, now you come around back,greatest kicker of our generation.- Oh, no way.- You're looking for Ray Finkle.(train horn blares)- Oh my God.(Mark laughs)- And a clean pair of shorts.- So, now Prater knewthe real reason I was here,but to truly understandwhat he's up against,we have to go back just about one yearbecause that's when, with thehelp of my buddy John here,we tested our first prototype.John's really good withthis kind of rugged,high-strength build'cause he is worked in the industrydoing props and special effects.And so, at the end ofthat first day of testing,we could make a 60-yard field goal.But honestly, it was kind of just barely.We needed more power and accuracybecause it was really inconsistent.But to understand how we fixed itfirst you need to know how it works.Fundamentally, we've got ahub attached to an axle here,it can freely rotate.And if you slap a kicking leg on the end,they both rotate together.Then if you put a winch on this side,connect it to a wire thatsecures to the hub here,and then springs on thisside also attach to a wirethat attach to the hub in the same spot,then when the winch pulls down,the springs stretch outas the leg is cocked backinto position.Now we just need a way to fire the thing.A quick release is a hook systemthat easily unhooks when you pull a cord.So, if we put one of thosehere and then pull the cord,the springs now contract,which makes the leg spin real fast.For version two of the robot,everything had to get muchmore rugged and compactbecause we doubled the forcefrom the springs to over a ton,and when we went out to test this time,it definitely did have more power.And our 60-yarders werelooking much more promising.But because the footballwas making contactoff of the side of the leg,it still wasn't as accurate as we wanted.(Mark exclaims)So, for version three, wechanged how the foot attachedwhich allowed us to hitthe ball straight on.We also tried to determinethe best foot diameteras well as the best spot tomake contact with the ball.But I still wanted even more powerwhich was tricky because therewas already so much forcethat we busted our industrialstrength quick releasewhich is why there's a loosebolt in the frame here,which is just neversomething you wanna see.And so, for the fourth and final version,we upgraded to a muchbeefier quick releaseand then increased ourspring force to two tons.We also got clever withsome mechanical advantageby making the diameter of theleg sprocket twice as smallas the driving sprocket.So, it rotated twice as farbut in the same amount of time,which means we doubled the speed.With a big build like this,you are only as strongas your weakest link.So, this process ofprototyping, failing, and fixinghelps flesh out all the weaklinks as quickly as possibleuntil, hopefully, there's none left.And so, a year after we first started,this fourth version finallyhad the kind of powerand accuracy I was hoping for,even if we were definitelypushing the physical limitsin a few critical spots.(bell dings)For now though, it wastime to give Mr. Pratera proper introduction.So, Ray Finkle is my surrogate.This is what I couldn'tdo even with my barefoot.We'll see if ol' Ray here can do better.Now, I'm not abandoningeverything you taught me here.Uh huh.Okay, two steps over.Okay, here we go. You ready?3, 2, 1.(machine whirs)Get up!That's my boy! That's my boy! (laughing)- Wow, that looked really easy.- That looked pretty easy?- Yeah, that went really easy.- I hate to tell you, Matt,but that wasn't full power.In fact, that was only one-third power.For a half power demonstration,we went to the extra point locationwhere for reference hereis Prater, the mere human,kicking full power into the netand then Finkle at half power(machine whirs)kicking it into the stands.(Mark laughs)And at this point, we'dpoke the sleeping giantbecause first of all,Matt suspiciously askedme to hold his next kick.Mommy.Oh! (laughing)And secondly,after that 50-yarder,- Got it.- he continued workinghis way down the field,despite my best efforts to evenfurther rig the competition.(train horn blares)(Mark laughs)- Oh my God.- And it's good!- You have real bad golf etiquette.- I had this great idea,to arrange with my buddy Paul Nurkallato get some drone racingfootage of a field goalbecause he's the DroneRacing World Champion,and that would just be so dope.This footage here is froma test session we arrangedto see how cool it would look,and it turns out the answeris really freaking cool.But after we got everything set up,a staff member requestedwe didn't fly drone inside.So, you're just gonna haveto use your imaginationas Prater bombs this 60-yarder.Oh, it's good!Which meant the next kick attemptwould be farther than his NFL record.And one of the thingsMatt does so well is that,technically, you want tolaunch the ball at 45 degreesto maximize the distance on a kick.More than that, and youwaste your energy in height.Lower than that, and ithits the ground prematurely.In real life though,where the ball experiencesdrag from wind resistance.The ideal angle is closer to 40 degrees,which you could see Praterhas down to a science.This is one yard past the NFLrecord, which this man holds.- Ugh, I hit off my toe.Get up.- It's good!- Oh, is it in?I'll take it.(Mark laughs)We'll go back a little further.- You're crazy, dude.I'm putting on my rallycap for you, buddy,as much as I don't wannaget doused with Gatorade.And while Matt's taking a few attemptsat this 70-yard field goal,let me just say that it's really specialbeing in the presence of anelite athlete such as himself.Don't rule out barefoot here.You know what I mean?- (laughing) All right.- Oh my goodness.- No, that's way short.- Ugh.These were honestly the firstshots he'd missed all dayfrom anywhere on the field.(Matt groans)(Matt and Mark exclaim)- No.- Dude, well done.So, now that Prater wasunsuccessful from 70 yards,Finkle rolled over topotentially win the competitionand save me from an ice bath.All right, here we go.A little bit of train horn forgood luck and good measure.(train horn blares)And this is where Matt got a little tasteof Finkle's true range of motion.- Whoa, okay. (laughing)(Mark laughs)- This was about 80% full power form.That's all you gotta do, dude.That's all you gotta do.- Okay.3, 2, 1.Hit it!Go baby, go!And so, even with the terrible,inefficient launch trajectory,- Got it.- we'd settled thequestion of man versus machine.That's my boy! That's my boy!Finkle!The hang time though, right?- Dude, it was so high.I think it was gonna get there.It when, like, straight up.- I know!But since Finkle had made thetrip all the way out here,we decided to keep goingand try his foot nextat an 84-yard field goalwhich is an even 20 yardspast the NFL record.But first we wanted to try and figure outthe foot speed of Finkle versus Prater.So, we recorded a few kicks in slow-mowith a checkerboard background behind it.This is a trick I learned while at NASAthat they've used for ages,because if you know the sizeof each of those squares,it allows you to watch back the clipand tell the speed of anymoving object in the footageby converting grid boxes persecond two miles per hour.So, when you do this, youfind Matt's foot is movingat an insane 48 miles per hour,which puts him right upwith the elite place kickersand soccer players.The robot's foot, however,is traveling more than30 miles an hour fasterat a blazing 82 miles per hour.We also measured theball speed after contact.And while Prater is at 80 miles per hour,which is, again, insanely fast,the robot clocks in at 120 miles per hour.And that checkered backeron speed trick is so coolthat I invented this.I call it the \"40 Mile an Hour Blanket\"because it's a real softfunctional blanket on one side,but the other side has these squaresthat are sized just rightso that if you film inslow-mo on your phone,the math works out perfectlyso that you discount howmany squares it travelsin exactly one slow-mo second.And that's how fast it'smoving in miles per hour.So for example, if I filmthis Nerf Dart in slow-mo,then I play it back and justcount the squares it crossesin one second, in thiscase, it's 28 squares,then we know it wastraveling 28 miles per hour.And just to prove this approach workswe used a radar gun to check our answerand it came up at the exact same speed.And so, it turns out, Ithrow a nerve footballat 15 miles per hour,and I can do a short sprintat 12 miles per hour.There are 40 total squareswhich means you can measure anythingup to 40 miles per hour with one blanket.But if you get two blankets,then you can unlock the achievementto measure things up to 80 miles per hour.And if you get 16.7 million of themyou can can measure the speed of light.And it's not just a speedometer,(glass shatters)oop, (laughing)and a cozy blanket youcan put on your bed,but the back is solid bluewhich works great as agreen screen for filmingor for video call background replacement.And a very limited quantity are availableon my relatively newwebsite, markrober.comwhere every singledollar of anything I sellgoes right back into makingbuilds and videos like this one.And even if you're like,\"Pff, I got plenty of blankets, Mark.\"I put all the critical squarespacing info on the websiteso you could construct your own gridand still have fun with the science.And so, now that we knewFinkle could blast these ballsat 120 miles per hour,here was his first attempt from 83 yards,although still not quite at full power.And I'll explain why in a second.Okay, a little bit of horn.(train horn blares)Now we're ready.3, 2, 1.And when you see this,these balls were noDeflategate Brady specials.These were the most inflatedfootballs I'd ever handled.You could barely dentthem in with your hand.It's just the pressure fromthe robot foot was that high.(machine clatters)Go! (laughing)The first kick had theworst possible trajectory.And so, the hang time was hilarious.We had quite a bit ofenergy up in the air.I think we need to optimize this a bit,but straight as a gosh darn arrow.So, for the next one, we arranged the footto contact higher up on the ballso it wouldn't pop it up so much,but still not a full power kick.Go! Please!(Mark exclaims)But this one was just shortbecause it knuckleballedand didn't pop up high enough.So, now we knew exactlywhere to strike the ballto split the difference between those two,and we figured we might aswell leave it all on the tableand go full throttle,which makes now a great timeto explain why we weren'tjust doing this on every kick.On our last trip to the practice field,we were totally dialedin, as you can see here.I mean, that thing is suborbital.As a reminder, this is a 60 yard attempt.This is only four yardsshy of the NFL record.And as you can see, we'vegot a little room to spareas we pass through the uprights.So, then just for fun, we openedit up and sent all two tonsof spring force through themachine and into the ball,which is when this happened.We're just going absolutelyfull. All of the power.One!(laughing) Oh my gosh.Yes!As you watch that clipback, the ball landed here,but it had the height toclear the uprights right here.And you'll notice, that'sright above this unique patternin the cement.And from the satellite view,that unique pattern is right here.Now, we were kickingfrom the 50-yard line.So, the question is,what is that distance?Well, if we borrow this convenient100-yard measuring stick,then that kick would'vegone through the uprights,with no tee, and a slightheadwind from 105 yards away.Now, this is a bit of a goodnews, bad news situationbecause on one hand, theability to max out the robotand kick 105-yard field goals is amazing.But on the other hand, on thevery next kick, this happened.(machine clatters)The leg just fell off.We might be done for today. (laughing)Basically, we shearedthe key in the key shaftbecause of the whole twotons of spring force thing.And in case you'reunfamiliar, this is the key.It's just a chunk of metalthat gets wedged in hereso that when the key shaft turns,the sprocket turns with it.So, the final improvement would've beento swap the key shaft with a spline shaftbecause those distribute theload evenly among many servicesas opposed to just one.Unfortunately, those splineshafts had a two week lead timeand we were flying to Detroita few days after this.Right, Finkle from 83 yards,full power plus a little more.3, 2, 1.Oh!Oh!Oh!Watch Finkle's head here.I'm sorry, buddy.(laughing) Oh my gosh.And sure enough, it was thekey that was the culprit.Keys aren't supposed to dothis. Like, that's bonkers.And so, despite the explosivefinale, I'm calling this a W.Not only did robot RayFinkle beat the NFL recordwith a 70-yard kick atsea level with no wind,but he did it at 80% powerand a super inefficient kick trajectory.On top of that,even though he lost acouple of fricking legsin the process,he showed he is capable ofbombing 105-yard field goalinto a slight headwind rightoff the turf with no tee.And so, with all that, honestly,I was willing to let Prater off the hookbecause an argument could be madethat I technically sort of cheated.But his son Pax wasalready way too excitedabout the prospect, which Ithought was just fantastic,until it turned out he gotoff easy by comparison.\n"