Sports Technology Review focussing on new sports technology and innovation world wide
Training equipment
Euro 2012 football – adidas TANGO 12 ball
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Not just a football more a highly engineered sporting sphere
A busy year of sport is eagerly expected for 2012 and 2013 including some of the most widely viewed events around the world: The London Olympics Games, The Rugby Lions Tour of Australia and of course the UEFA European Football Championship held by joint hosts Poland and Ukraine.
The 2008 European championships, or Euros, held in Austria and Switzerland attracted circa 155 million live TV viewers over the tournament, a 33.9% increase on the 2004 Euros.
It is tradition that a new football is designed for every UEFA Euros and FIFA World Cup. The 2012 UEFA Euros is no exception and adidas, the official match ball supplier have designed the novel TANGO 12 football.
This ball is based on the modern FIFA 2010 World Cup football the ‘Jabulani’ (The most widely purchased football of all time, selling over 13 million replicas in 2010) and the balls of yesteryear; Tango River Plate (1980), Tango Mundial (1984) and Tango European (1988).
The TANGO 12 ball incorporates a 32 panel construction where the panels are thermally bounded together. This method forms the seams that are commonly expected on modern footballs, and then a protruding micro surface texture is applied to the outer surface. With 100’s of hours spent on wind tunnel testing, robot kicking trials and player testing, the design, dimensions and distribution of the surface textures (seams and micro texture) have been extensively measured and optimised. This ensures the ball produces a favourable performance, in terms of dynamic and aerodynamic characteristics. It also meets all FIFA denomination programme regulations and undergone rigorous durability tests as shown in the video in the link below:
It is clear from this video that footballs are much more than just the fancy graphics and advertising…
So next time you pick up a football take a closer look and see whether it is glued or stitched, 32 or 24 panels, smooth or micro surface textured.
Sports engineering is still in its infancy and the sophisticated equipment like this with the help of the adidas innovation team, Loughborough Sports Technology Institute and other innovative technical departments, within sporting goods brands, are all helping to push forward the boundaries of science in sport that gives benefits to every sports enthusiast.
Article by David Rogers
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
Sleep shirt that measures respiration
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Sleep shirt measures respiration – would it not be better in a sporting context?
Cryotherapy for sports: the “coolest” way to recover
Monday, December 6th, 2010
All of us remember the feeling of jumping into an ice bath immediately after sport; sudden chill that runs up the spine, slight burning on the skin, shivering the whole time and then getting out dripping wet. It isn’t a nice experience so sports technologists and designers have been developing the method of cold treatment to the point that the experience can now feel slightly enjoyable. Just look at this photo of Jermaine Defoe, he positively looks happy! (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1335496/How-hot-Spurs-stay-cool-Rafael-van-der-Vaart-finds-ice-easy-way-recover-hamstring-injury.html, image courtesy of guardian.co.uk). In this recent Guardian article explains the mechanisms and benefits of cryotherapy in sports and shows the Tottenham Hotspurs football team getting treatment.
Cold therapy is primarily used in recovery, particularly from injury or immediately post-match. Hocutt et al., (1982) highlighted the significantly better recovery of patients from an ankle sprain using cryotherapy compared to heat treatment when the subject was treated within 36hours of the incident. And there are many other research papers detailing the benefits, but as Giuseppe et al., (2010) summarises:
“The therapy, called whole-body cryotherapy (WBC), consists of exposure to very cold air that is maintained at −110°C to −140°C in special temperature-controlled cryochambers, generally for 2 minutes. WBC is used to relieve pain and inflammatory symptoms caused by numerous disorders, particularly those associated with rheumatic conditions, and is recommended for the treatment of arthritis, fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis. In sports medicine, WBC has gained wider acceptance as a method to improve recovery from muscle injury. Unfortunately, there are few papers concerning the application of the treatment on athletes. The study of possible enhancement of recovery from injuries and possible modification of physiological parameters, taking into consideration the limits imposed by antidoping rules, is crucial for athletes and sports physicians for judging the real benefits and/or limits of WBC. According to the available literature, WBC is not harmful or detrimental in healthy subjects.”
For all you serious athletes, cryotherapy and similar treatments are certainly worth considering and I would recommend Giuseppe et al., (2010) as a good starting point when you begin to understand it. In the meantime, see it in action with this video.
Tracking Technology Integrated into Soccer TV Coverage
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/134974
Last week ESPN experimented with some new tracking and statistics technology during their coverage of the MLS Cup. The system gives the viewers new insight on player movement throughout the game. Stats like distance traveled, speed, and player spacing can all be easily delivered to the home audience.
With soccer gaining more momentum as a spectator sport in the US it seems ESPN is ready to capitalize on their coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It will be interesting to see how this affects viewership and how it could be implemented as a quantitative tool for player evaluation.
