Finding the speed of a kick from a video
Somebody suggested this subreddit for this problem, I hope it is relevant.
I want to calculate the speed of this man's kick by measuring the distance his foot travels and dividing it by the time it takes. I know that the speed is written on the video, but I want to confirm it because it vastly exceeds the speeds from studies I've read. Max speed in studies is sub 20 m/s. This guy is kicking over 60 m/s.
Finding the time it takes for him to kick is easy enough.
Finding the distance is very difficult for me. I know that the guy's height is about 180 cm from an interview, and I think I can somehow use that information to solve my problem. I'm not sure though, and I don't want to waste my time on something that can't be done. So, is it doable?
If it isn't possible you can ignore the rest of the post.
Is there a software for doing this? Either free or cheap.
My idea (obviously can be wrong): use one of the first frames where he is standing to find what 180 cm looks like in a part of the frame. His knees are bent, so I have to first find how it would look in the frame if he was standing. I think this can be done with geometry. Since the camera is steady, I can copy the 180 cm line to the other frames. Then I approximate the arc of the kick by measuring a few small straight distances that the kick travels, frame by frame, and adding them.
I tried to do this for a few hours and didn't make any progress. So I kindly ask for help on how to solve this problem.
Alternatively, has AI gotten good enough to solve this kind of problem? Which AI could I use in that case?