Category Sports

The dimples that cover the surface of golf balls revolutionised the game when they were introduced the century. A well driven modern golf ball and travel up to 300yds (275 m). If it were smooth, it would only travel about 70yds (65 m).

When golf was first played in Holland and Scotland in the 15th century, smooth leather balls stuffed with feathers were used. In the 19th century, balls made of rubbery substance called gutta-percha were introduced. They were found to fly farther after being marked my club blows.

Makers began pattering balls with crisscrossed grooves. Then, in 1906, when rubber cored balls had arrived, the first dimpled ball was produced.

Why do Dimples help the ball to go so far? When a ball is in flight, a thin layer of air clings to its surface at the front. As the air passes over the ball, it breaks away from the surface, setting up turbulent eddies behind. The eddying air draws its energy from the ball, slowing it down. Dimples cause the air to cling to the surface until it is well towards the rear of the ball. When it finally breaks away, and narrower stream of turbulence is created, causing less drag than for a smooth ball.

The Dimples have another purpose as well. Since the golf ball always spins backwards when it is struck, the dimples carry air upwards over the top. The air going over-the-top has to travel faster than the air going underneath because of this rotation. This creates a lower pressure above than below, so the ball experiences lift which keeps it in the air longer.

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Cars required to crash or roll over for a spectacular movie or TV scene are strengthened inside. The stuntman also wears a safety harness, padding and a crash helmet, provided he will not be seen.

When a car has to be rolled, it is either driven up a ramp out of camera shot, or it has a hydraulic arm which shoots out beneath and forces it over. Some of the more spectacular crashes are so dangerous that a dummy replaces the stunt driver. In these scenes, the cars can be catapulted by an air cannon, a device like a giant air gun welded to the rear of the car.

The device was used in Grand Prix (1966) in a scene in which a car plummeted into the sea. A camera was mounted behind the driving wheel and dummy hands fixed to the wheel completed the illusion.

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Great precautions are taken for stunts involving fire – they are among the most dangerous of all. Fire gel, usually alcohol based, is rubbed onto the stuntmen’s outer clothing. It produces a vapour barrier between material and flames – the alcohol burns above the clothing, much like brandy on a Christmas pudding, scarcely singeing the fabric. The stuntman wears a fireproof suit beneath the outer clothing, and beneath that, woollen underwear, which does not burn easily.

For head-to-foot engulfment, more sophisticated suits, with helmets and built-in air supplies, are worn. Film-unit members with fire extinguishers stand by.

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A scene of someone being blown through the air by an explosion is usually achieved by the stuntmen launching himself from an off-screen trampoline. Protective clothing shields him from flash burns. Sometimes, powerful springboards, activated by compressed air, are used. The stuntmen usually land in pits of sand or peat moss.

Normally, insurance companies do not like the stars risking injury. But in Douglas Fairbanks’ The Black Pirate (1926) he slid down a ship’s sail, apparently supported only by a dagger which sliced the sail. The ‘dagger’ was a handle attached to a counterweight behind the sail, which gave him stability, while the sail had a seam which tore evenly.

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Falls can range from a tumble down a flight of stairs to a plunge from the top of a high building.

For high falls, giant nylon air bags, which inflate to the area of a living room, are used to cushion the impact, as in Jerry Hewitt’s plummet from an exploding ski lift in The Soldier (1982).

Before air bags were introduced in 1971, stacks of cardboard cartons covered with mattress served the purpose. These were then covered by tarpaulin and roped together. One layer of boxes for every 10ft (3m) of fall was the standard procedure.

When the Olympic swimming gold medallist Johnny Weissmuller – the cinema’s popular to dive off Brooklyn Bridge in Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942), there were rumours that the actor actually did the 110ft (33m) plunge. But it was a trick. Weissmuller dived into a tank of water – then the film cut to a shot of a dummy plummeting off the bridge.

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), a leap to freedom from a cliff into a raging torrent was also faked. The actors Paul Newman and Robert Redford simply jumped onto a small platform a few feet below the cliff edge. Then two stuntmen were filmed jumping 72ft (22m) into a California lake.

Until about 1960, 60ft (18m) was the maximum unaided high fall. But modern stuntmen now fail more than 100ft (300m) – using low-level parachute rigs and ‘descender wires.’

The American stuntmen Dar Robinson specialised in spectacular falls. He developed a technique of doing head-first falls from high buildings on a thin wire – a ‘deceleration cable’ – attached to a harness under his clothes. A winch slowed the fall as he neared the ground, bringing him to a halt, hanging upside down, a few feet up.

In Highpoint (filmed in 1979), Robinson, doubling for Christopher Plummer, fell from the CN Tower in Toronto – at 1815ft (553m), the world’s highest free standing building. He plunged the equivalent of 120 storeys before making a delayed parachute descent. Robinson was killed seven years later, at the age of 39, while riding home on a motorcycle.

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Fights, whether with weapons or fists, are carefully choreographed – especially if a star is involved. Punches are pulled in a technique first perfected for cinema by Yakima Canutt – and the sound of fist connecting with jaw or body is added later. Protective pads for shins, shoulders, back and elbows are sometimes needed.

However, accidents happen. Christopher Lee, who began his film career as a stuntmen, described a slip-up during a fencing sequence with Errol Flynn during the 1954 making of The Dark Avenger: ‘The director, Henry Levin, hired me as an expert to ensure that none of his stars, particularly Flynn, got hurt. In one scene, I doubled first for Flynn and when he stepped in for close-ups I switched over to take the place of his opponent. I fought for hours. During the final take I could hardly raise my arm. When I did, Flynn ran his sword into it. Just above the elbow.’

In scenes in which people are hit over the head with bottles or flung through windows, the ‘glass’ is a special resin which looks and shatters like the real thing. But it is perfectly safe. It is expensive to produce so in stunts involving large amounts – such as entire shop windows – one take is preferable. Previously, fake glass was made from sugar.

Furniture and other props – known as ‘breakways’ – lay an important role in fight scenes. Chairs, tables, doors, or banister rails – often made of balsa wood – are sawn almost through so that they will shatter or impact. The cuts are painted over to conceal them.

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