I'm conducting research on the Magnus effect and would like to use the Tracker software (which is awesome by the way) to determine critical attributes of the trajectory of a spinning ball in flight (velocity, curve, and distance to the break point of the curve).  To capture the all the motion of the ball the best position for the camera is behind the point of origin facing the direction of travel.  Picture a camera behind a pitcher facing the catcher.

Velocity and curve has been fairly easy to determine thanks to the tutorials, community and simplicity of the Tracker software. With this perspective, I've been unable to accurately determine distance of the ball over time.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome.

My thanks,

Chris