The Soccer World Cup 2014 is certainly not too much away. We could anticipate remarkable games, crazy butt Mexican celebrations, and some outrageous fan behavior. It’s being held in Brazil in summer 2014, along with the Mexican team El Tri inside finals (and thinking about their managerial chaos pre-game) this will raise the bar for the event.
We all know that athletes are now being engineered on most useful they may be, therefore the exact same is true of every bit of system they put on. Fusion got an inside glance at the technology that allows the soccer movie stars perform towards the top of their particular game.
Antonio Zea may be the mind of football innovation at Adidas. He manages the 20-plus staff of developers, innovators and sports boffins just who make the magic happen. He chatted myself through a number of the brand new technology these are generally using.
“We work three years away, ” he stated. “Right today we’re searching ahead.”
This means the technology we are witnessing – while fresh- is 3 years behind what's going to turn out after that. “We innovate to produce athletes better, ” he stated. “from footwear towards basketball, you want to produce much better aerodynamics.”
I peeked of their Portland headquarters to look at what goes on behind the scenes. The video above provides the lowdown on a few of the most interesting things we saw.
The Adidas Samba Collection cleats
Cleat names: The Adizero F50, Predator Lethal zones, Nitrocharge as well as the updated 11pro
The cleats may look pretty swish, but there’s far more to those than a dab hand with a few neon colors. The Adidas Biomechanical laboratory revealed the different tests the cleats go through to become the shoes you see these days.
First off, a Traction Testing machine leaves the cleats through their particular paces, calculating opposition and rotation of the footwear. With respect to the readings, the shoe is modified assuring sufficient traction.
The machine moves the shoe into numerous positions to check on the flexibility, together with Forefoot Flex Test (yes, this is basically the real test title) measures the only action by bending the feet through what seems like a torture chamber. Athletes need to be able to be both comfortable and maneuverable when in the field, and this action is input making sure the footwear don’t rub.
The final cleat test may be the Midfoot tightness Test in which help to your midfoot is assessed by going the shoe around by a device on an imitation pitch. The device is weighted with all the body weight of a player to give you correct feedback.
3D Motion capture technology monitoring
It was the most interesting areas of the Adidas lab.
A big green pitch had been actually a loaded Vicon “force dish, ” that used 3D Motion capture to grab information. As soon as the athlete operates on it, the device analyzes the action and rate as the force dish records magnitude and course of forces.
These tests combine generate a giant information set that can help the development team study and analyze varying elements that athletes face. The data gathered allows programs to-be tailored that optimize performance and prevent injury. Adidas will pay specific attention to cutting moves and foot rotation aswell.