Striking development for football

The team behind the testing of the official 2006 FIFA World Cup match football is now turning its attention to the players’ skills by analysing what makes the perfect strike.

Loughborough University (LU) expert Dr Paul Neilson has spent years researching the dynamic testing of footballs, including working with Adidas to test the +Teamgeist ball. Neilson has now joined the team of inventors at LU spinout Sports Dynamics developing QuinSpin, a coaching tool to objectively measure the elements of a killer strike.

As is the case in many ball sports, spin is an important factor affecting dynamic ball performance.

"If a player can impart a sufficiently high spin rate, whilst controlling the axis of spin, this will result in a curved trajectory enabling the player to bend the ball in flight. But a ball that is struck cleanly with minimal spin can travel at much faster speeds and sometimes be subject to more complex aerodynamic forces" said Neilson.