Knowledge from the ninja, Japan’s secretive feudal spies and assassins, is the secret behind the new official ball for the upcoming World Cup, one Japanese researcher has said.
Players during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa complained that the “Jabulani” tournament ball had the tendency to behave in a bizarre fashion and “knuckle” like a beach ball through the air, prompting German firm Adidas to come up with a more reliable ball for this year’s tournament.
The result, known as the “Brazuca” after a slang word for native Brazilians, should fly with greater stability, said Takeshi Asai, a professor of sports science and head of the Institute of Health and Sports Science at the University of Tsukuba just outside Tokyo.
Photo: Bloomberg
The new ball has just six panels, down from eight of the Jabulani, while the seams that hold it together is the secret to its greater stability, Asai added.
“Despite the reduced number of panels, the total length of the seams to put them together became longer, which makes the range of the ball speed that creates low air-resistance become wider,” Asai said.
Asai, who has a doctorate in engineering, collaborated with John Eric Goff, a physics professor at Lynchburg College in the US, to study the aerodynamics of the Brazuca when it was released in December last year.
The two concluded that because the total seam length on the Brazuca is 68 percent longer than the Jabulani, it would add resistance to allow the ball to fly more true at the speeds typically seen at the World Cup.
The seams are also deeper, which adds drag factor.
Asai found that the air resistance around the Brazuca, which is a gram lighter than the Jabulani, is minimized when the ball flies at about 20 meters per second, the approximate speed of fast passes in professional soccer games.
“When the Brazuca flies within this range of speed, the air resistance suddenly drops to help the ball fly fast,” he said. “Because it flies fast with a soft kick, I think it’s an optimal ball for Asian players who kick comparatively softer than Western players with higher physical abilities.”
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