Do you harbour dreams of bending it like Beckham? How about mastering a knuckle ball kick that would rival Ronaldo's? if you have a couple of hundred euro to spare, the Adidas Micoach Smart Ball may be what you need.
On the outside, there’s very little to distinguish the smart ball from a regular football. On the inside, it’s a different story. This is no ordinary ball: it’s a training aid for dead-ball kicking. Teamed with the iOS app, the ball provides feedback on trajectory, speed and spin, and even the strike point, so you can see exactly what you’re doing right – and wrong.
It connects to your iOS device over Bluetooth, feeding the information to the app where you can review it all, get some feedback and start making the changes that your potential professional football career has been crying out for.
The good . . .
Although this is a high tech piece of equipment, you’d never guess it by simply picking it up. It feels just like a regular football. It’s the same size and weight as a regulation size-five match ball, and it meets all the Fifa guidelines. The sensors don’t add any extra weight to it, and don’t affect the handling of the ball, which is the least you’d expect.
Speaking of the sensors, the idea that you would cram that amount of technology into polyurethane and then boot it as hard as you can might seem a bit alarming.
But the sensors – tri-axial accelerometer – are suspended inside the ball and well secured, so they’re designed to take a bit of a pounding on the pitch. It also means you don’t have to worry about the ball being inflated to its optimum level; if the ball deflates slightly, it won’t affect the accuracy of the readings taken from the sensors, although we can’t promise your free kicks won’t suffer.
The accompanying app is easy to set up – a must really – and its accuracy in terms of measuring data is top notch.
The ball can also be paired with multiple devices, so two players could potentially hit the ball to and from each other, registering the data for their own kicks directly to their devices.
The bad . . .
Because the ball relies on Bluetooth, the range isn’t exactly lengthy. Move too far away and you’ll find there is an interruption in the flow of data. It’s only temporary though, and the kick you took while disconnected will be uploaded to the app as soon as connection is re-established. As already mentioned, the ball can be paired with more than one device, which is one way around the issue, but that means the data will be split between the devices, which isn’t ideal.
There are some stringent requirements to make sure the most accurate readings are taken – the ball has to be lined up in a particular way for example. Also, there’s no chance for you to perfect your sneaky shot; the ball has to be airborne, as the app won’t read a rolling ball.
The price is also going to be a sticking point for many budding Messis. At €265, this is no cheap toy, but if it turns you into a pro on €200,000 a week then it might be worth the money . . .
. . . and the rest
The Smart Ball brings out the competitive streak in you. The app tests a number of skills such as power and speed, that you can use to compete against friends or just yourself, keeping tabs on your progress in the Record Book.
The conduction charger is fast to power up the ball, and you get a decent amount of playing time before it has to be charged again. One issue we encountered was a problem charging the ball after it had been used on wet grass. Because it works with a conduction charger, you have to make sure it’s dry before the charging will kick in.
One thing we’d like to see more of is in-depth training videos included in the app. The current version has pointers to help you perfect your kicks and videos to demonstrate the moves, but we would prefer a bit more guidance.
The verdict
HHHH
A good training aid, if a little on the pricey side.
