Inspiring Sports Technology
Shirts
In Search of the Perfect Free Kick
Friday, September 16th, 2011
For those of you that have grown up playing the beautiful game (soccer, Global Football, or just football), I wonder how many weeks, hours or minutes you have spent being coached how to strike the ball? From my personal experience, albeit not at a professional level, I remember having 2 training sessions as a youngster. These involved demonstrations and being told in detail how to strike the ball for both power and curling kicks (as an aside the curling kick was introduced to the world in the 1950’s when a Brazilian by the name of Didi unleashed his revolutionary strike).
Now that I come to think about it, striking the ball is such a key component of the game, how did I not receive more training on the intricacies of striking the ball? Of course individually and as a team we did practise striking the ball… a lot, however the feedback on the kick was always based on the outcome of the kick rather than analysing the technique of it! Undoubtedly practice does make perfect, proven beyond any doubt to anyone who has read the book Bounce by Matthew Syed, however the overwhelming message in the book is it’s not just about practising, but more importantly practising with purpose, continually pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
To illustrate the complexities involved with striking the ball, David Beckham’s free kick has been analysed by experts citing that it is the topspin that he is able to impart upon the ball that allows it to dip. To the novice and some experts, this sounds like a reasonable explanation (anyone who has played tennis or table-tennis will also appreciate the noticeable effects of imparting top spin onto the ball). However according to Bartek Sylwestrzak’s analysis of the Beckham free kick, ‘He actually puts very little topspin on the ball, and often none at all’. It is gravity (evident in all shots ever taken by any level of footballer) that allows Beckham’s shots to dip. As his shots have little or no top spin on the ball, his best free kicks are more often than not taken from long range, rather than from the very edge of the box.
A player that has no problems striking the ball from the very edge of the penalty box, as he is able to place topspin on the ball is a Brazilian by the name of Juninho Pernambucano. Check out the video clip showing some of his goals from last season… Watch out for the strike from just outside of the 18 yard box whereby the ball goes over the wall and then bounces before the goal line, before going in, not something I was ever taught to do. And yes you are right this is possible due to the dip he gets on the ball by applying topspin. His free kick taking stats are incredible, at Lyon alone scoring 44 goals in 8 seasons; please let us know if anyone else in the world at the elite level has a better free kick record.
I am very impressed by Juninho’s striking ability, it must be stated that Marcos Assunçăo is another Brazilian maestro of kicking the ball with great technique and capable of imparting topspin onto the ball, but who is teaching these guys to strike the ball in such a way? I’ve tracked down a coach that does understand the intricacies of striking a dead ball, it would be great if England’s current and future free kick takers could learn from him…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa2NkUW6WLE
As a final point, having watched the English Premier League over the past few seasons Xabi Alonso and Charlie Adam seem to effortlessly, consistently and with great accuracy stroke the ball around the pitch. As a sports engineer it to me seems very apparent that there is a severe lack of technology and coaching expertise being used by professional and amateur football clubs alike to assist young aspiring footballers to hone their abilities when it comes to striking the ball in order to replicate top professional such as Alonso, Adam, Juninho and Assunçăo.
Article by Jouni Ronkainen
UnderArmour E39 wearable electronic garment
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
This weekend at the NFL combine 10-30 athletes unveiled UnderArmour’s new compression garment with an integrated electronics system. The NFL combine is an athletic showcase for the top college football prospects to put their physical skills on display for the all the professional teams. The UA E39 shirt contains a removable sensor pack near the sternum and can give an athlete or coach instant feedback on breathing rate, heart rate, temperature, and movements. The sensor pack, nicknamed ‘the bug,’ contains a triaxial accelerometer developed in conjunction with a Maryland company called Zephyr. The system measures acceleration and change of direction. This can be used to dissect a player’s performance during running or explosion exercises.
The data can be transmitted to wireless devices such as laptops, iPhones, or iPads. The company will roll the garment out slowly starting with UA sponsored athletes and teams with a projected public release in 2012.
Article by Mike Vasquez
Umbro’s Senior Design Director talks about football kit innovation over the past ten years
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
http://blog.umbro.com/2009/11/23/a-decade-of-kits-from-the-designers-viewpoint/
David Blanch, Umbro’s Senoir Design Director has has played a major role in developing Umbro’s shirt designs over the past ten years. Here, he looks back at the last decade of kits and how they’ve shaped the shirts of the future.
The following is an excerpt from the Umbro blog, please go to their website for more details.
“I’ve been really fortunate because I came into Umbro ten years ago. It was my anniversary just last month. I remember when I first came here, and the first kits that I did were Celtic, Manchester United and England. Some pretty big clubs! And the England one really set the lead – it was the shirt with the red stripe through it. It ended up being really culturally significant, and we really wanted to introduce a sense of ‘Englishness’ into it. The other big thing with that shirt was that it introduced an element of 3D – before that, the shirts were all flat, tee-shaped shirts with changing necklines, and some graphics and colours. That England kit in particular, when you look at it, you’ll see that the style lines move all round the body. That set a whole new tone for what football kits were all about, and all the other manufacturers started looking at what we were up to, and thinking about shirts more three dimensionally.”
David goes on to speak about innovation, reversing trends and making shirts special.
New England football kit
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
SportBusiness is proud to announce the fifth annual Sport and Technology – The Conference. This seminal event is returning to the state-of-the art facilities at BT Centre in London on Thursday, 4 June 2009.
The conference will bring together an array of sports properties and technology/digital solutions providers to discuss what’s hot and what’s not in the fast-paced world of technology and sport.
Images and information reprinted from umbro
Umbro release new England away shirt
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
Umbro have released their new England Away shirt, photos are shown below however more details can be found by clicking the link.
