How To Choose Soccer Ball ?
The structure of modern football is very complex, with detailed components from the inside to the outside, and high, middle and low-end footballs have differences in various components. But when you want to buy a football, this information can help you accurately locate the one you want. When purchasing, most of them are considered from the brand, level or price, but why is a football good? What’s the good thing? What is the difference betweenUSD1000 USD300 game ball? Today we will take a good “dissection”
- Bladder
At present, the football Bladder is basically divided into latex and butyl rubber. Generally, high-end game balls with higher prices will use latex rubber, while low-end products will use butyl rubber.
The bladder plays an important part of its overall performance. Generally speaking, the latex bladder has better elasticity after restarting, and it rebounds faster on the ground. At the same time, the foot feels softer after being matched with the spherical surface. This is also one of the reasons why latex bladder are used in many professional games.
In comparison, the butyl bladder is also widely used, and there is no obvious difference between advantages and disadvantages. It is slightly lacking in flexibility, but it has good air tightness.
The best way to tell which kinds of bladder the football uses is to leave it idle. If it loses its air soon, it is the latex bladder.
Between the inner liner and the spherical material, there is actually a padding layer composed of special materials, but because this part is often designed with several layers, but the effect is similar.
- Spherical material
The spherical material is the part of the football that the boys usually touch the most when playing, and its material has actually evolved with the changes of the times. Did everybody still have a cowhide ball in football when they were young? Is the hard feeling of feet still fresh in my memory? With the advancement of material technology and the development of football games, the spherical material of modern football has made innovative progress.
At present, the spherical materials of mainstream football products on the market are made of PU synthetic leather, TPU and composite materials. Footballs made of leather and PVC have gradually withdrawn from the mainstream market because of their poor foot experience.
As far as the most popular PU and TPU materials are concerned, they are essentially composed of the same material. However, due to the different formulations during production, there are differences in the final mechanical and physical properties. When used as a football ball surface material, it is mainly reflected in the difference in the hardness of the foot, the durability of the spherical surface, and the water absorption. . At present, many football products of Adidas use all TPU materials to make spherical surfaces.
For some high-end game balls of Adidas and Nike, most of the spherical materials use suitable materials. For example, the “TV Star” of Adidas 2018 World Cup uses a mixture of 83% PU material and 17% polyester material. The spherical surface is functional. The ability to integrate the advantages of different materials to achieve the best game effect, combined with the spherical coating technology mentioned later, has become a key element in the current high-confrontation, high-tempo football game.
- Splicing method
The spherical splicing method can be introduced here in two aspects. One is the traditional splicing, which is divided into hand stitching, machine stitching and thermal bonding; the other splicing method is the explanation of the current spherical panel shape, mainly divided into Traditional splicing and special-shaped splicing.
The rapid development of football equipment in the past 20 years has also been shown in football products. The most intuitive manifestation is the appearance of special-shaped splicing of “sanitary napkins” on the “Team Star” football in 2006. Since then, Adidas has begun to use irregular spherical splicing to create a more round sphere. At the same time, after using traditional hexagon and pentagon stitching for many years, Nike also began to develop special-shaped spherical stitching. In the latest Nike Merlin high-end game ball, Nike only uses four irregular stitching blocks to create a spherical surface, which is currently on the market. The least on top.
Compared with the traditional hexagonal and pentagonal splicing, the special-shaped splicing can make the football football surface have fewer splicing seams, and the wind resistance received during the flight is smaller, thereby having a more stable flight route. At the same time, the spherical surface created by the special-shaped splicing is closer to a perfect circle, which is also conducive to the smooth flight of the football.
In another sense, the splicing method is a combination of spherical splicing blocks through hand stitching, machine stitching and thermal bonding. As the name implies, hand-stitching is traditional hand-made, where the spherical splicing blocks are assembled by craftsmen with needles and threads, and the machine stitching is a modern machine assembly line stitching and splicing. As far as the two kinds of stitches are concerned, the stitching stitching of the hand-sewn ball is more concealed and has better durability. The machine-sewn ball is cheaper and cheaper, but it is easy to kick.
Whether it is hand-sewn or machine-sewn, the spherical splicing blocks are traditional pentagons and hexagons. The stitching is too much, which has a greater impact on the roundness and flight trajectory of the ball, and the waterproof performance is not good. Used on some low-end styles. Only a few ball brands still retain FIFA Pro-level certified balls, such as the current Bundesliga ball sponsor Derbystar.
Thermal bonding splicing is now the mainstream technology of high-end game balls. It uses manual and machine cooperation to thermally bond irregular splicing blocks. The roundness, air tightness, and waterproofness of the football are best guaranteed. The durability is also higher than that of stitched football products. But relatively speaking, the price of a football with thermal bonding splicing will be higher.
- Spherical Technology
Spherical technology is mainly aimed at high-end game balls that have passed FIFA Pro certification. These footballs not only have advanced design and materials, but also have outstanding technological content.
Nike’s latest game ball, Nike Merlin, first used the all-weather game ACC technology to minimize the impact of weather and environmental factors on football; similar to the ball friction particles that help control the ball, the groove texture or the golf texture that keeps the flight track, Techniques such as special design of splicing are not uncommon. In the Adidas 2018 World Cup “TV Star”, the NFC chip can only be inserted into some “social” functions. It is believed that football technology will be more developed in the near future.
- FIFA certification
In addition, FIFA’s certification of football products is also a major symbol of football selection. Regarding the regulations and reforms of certification, it is a long talk, and it is of little significance to guide the purchase of football. For football products with certification marks printed on them, they are generally football models with performance suitable for actual combat.
FIFA Quality Pro, the highest standard of FIFA football certification at present, and the footballs currently used in high-level professional football are all certified by FIFA Quality Pro. From the perspective of brand products, the highest-priced game balls or some sub-high-end footballs generally pass this certification.
FIFA Quality is not as good as high-end game balls in some indicators, but it is still a good choice for actual football, and the price is good.
IMS certification, this certification is not the minimum standard. In fact, some of its certification indicators are higher than FIFA Quality, but some are lower, but at the same time it is suitable for actual combat.
For some football models that do not have a certification mark, the general price is relatively low, and some may belong to souvenir footballs. If used in actual combat, the functionality cannot be guaranteed, and the durability will not be very good. It is recommended that you choose the certified style footballs.
