How to see the ball better. Mastering Golf Ball Focus: Expert Tips to Improve Your Swing and Accuracy

Where should you look when hitting a golf ball. How can focusing on the right spot improve your swing. What techniques do professional golfers use for ball focus. How does eye placement affect your golf shot accuracy and power.

The Importance of Eye Focus in Golf

Golf, unlike many other sports, presents a unique challenge: hitting a stationary ball. This seemingly simple task becomes complex when considering the precision required for an effective swing. The age-old advice of “keep your eye on the ball” holds particularly true in golf, where visual focus can significantly impact hand-eye coordination and overall performance.

But where exactly should you focus your gaze? Let’s explore the various techniques and insights from both professional players and golf experts to help you improve your game.

Professional Golfers’ Techniques: Where Do They Look?

Professional golfers employ a variety of focusing techniques, demonstrating that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Here are some notable examples:

• Annika Sorenstam: The legendary female golfer famously looks towards the target at impact, with her face turned away from the ball.
• Jack Nicklaus: The greatest male player in golf history reportedly looks at the entire ball as a whole, without focusing on any specific part.
• Other pros: Some tour players focus on a spot a few inches in front of the ball to promote a proper divot and forward momentum through impact.

These diverse approaches highlight an important point: the most effective technique is often the one that works best for you personally.

Can looking away from the ball improve your swing?

While it may seem counterintuitive, some players find success by not directly focusing on the ball at impact. This technique can help promote a fluid follow-through and prevent the common mistake of keeping the head down for too long after contact. However, it requires significant practice and may not be suitable for all golfers, especially beginners.

Targeting the Inside Quarter: A Powerful Technique

One of the most commonly recommended focusing techniques involves targeting the inside back quarter of the golf ball. This approach offers several potential benefits:

1. Promotes an inside-out swing path
2. Enhances power and control
3. Helps maintain proper arm and body connection throughout the swing
4. Encourages a delayed release for better clubface control

By focusing on this specific area of the ball, golfers can potentially improve their overall swing mechanics and shot quality.

How does focusing on the inside quarter affect ball spin?

Targeting the inside quarter can promote a slightly in-to-out swing path, which often results in a draw spin (right-to-left for right-handed golfers). This can lead to increased distance and better control, especially for players who tend to slice the ball.

The Whole Ball Approach: Simplicity in Focus

Jack Nicklaus’s method of viewing the entire ball as a whole offers a simpler alternative to pinpoint focusing. This technique can be particularly beneficial for golfers who find themselves overthinking their swing or becoming too fixated on minute details.

Benefits of the whole ball approach include:

• Reduced mental clutter during the swing
• A more natural and relaxed setup
• Potentially improved consistency across different types of shots

Is the whole ball approach suitable for all skill levels?

The simplicity of this method makes it accessible to golfers of all skill levels. Beginners may find it easier to start with this approach before experimenting with more specific focusing techniques as their skills develop.

Focusing Beyond the Ball: A Forward-Thinking Strategy

Some professional golfers and instructors advocate for focusing on a spot slightly in front of the ball. This technique aims to promote several positive swing characteristics:

• Encourages a proper downward strike with irons
• Helps create a divot after ball contact
• Promotes forward momentum through impact
• Can reduce thin shots and topped balls

This method may be particularly beneficial for players struggling with consistent ball-striking or those looking to improve their iron play.

How far in front of the ball should you focus?

The ideal distance varies, but many players find success focusing on a spot 1-3 inches in front of the ball. Experiment with different distances to find what works best for your swing and visual preferences.

The Dimple Focus Method: Precision for Improved Consistency

For golfers who struggle with maintaining focus or tend to peek at the target too early, the dimple focus method offers a potential solution. This technique involves:

1. Selecting a specific dimple on the back of the ball
2. Maintaining unwavering focus on that dimple throughout the swing
3. Following the ball with your eyes immediately after impact

By narrowing your focus to such a small target, you’re less likely to let your eyes wander during the swing, potentially leading to improved consistency and accuracy.

Does the location of the chosen dimple matter?

While any dimple can work, many golfers find success targeting a dimple on the back inside quarter of the ball. This aligns with the inside-quarter focusing technique mentioned earlier, potentially combining the benefits of both methods.

Avoiding Common Focus-Related Mistakes

While proper focus is crucial, it’s equally important to avoid common mistakes that can negatively impact your swing. Here are some pitfalls to watch out for:

• Keeping your head down too long after impact
• Restricting your follow-through due to excessive focus on the ball
• Completely losing sight of the ball during the backswing
• Shifting focus to the target too early in the swing

Remember, the goal is to maintain focus on the ball (or your chosen focal point) until impact, then allow your eyes and body to naturally follow through towards the target.

How can you practice proper focus and follow-through?

Try this drill: Place a tee in the ground about 6 inches in front of your ball, in line with your target. Focus on the ball during your swing, but immediately shift your gaze to the tee after impact. This helps promote a proper follow-through and trains your eyes to move naturally with the swing.

Customizing Your Focus Technique

With the variety of focusing methods used by professionals and recommended by instructors, it’s clear that there’s no single “correct” way to focus during your golf swing. The key is to experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you. Consider the following factors when developing your personal focus strategy:

• Your natural tendencies and comfort level
• The type of shot you’re attempting (drive, iron, chip, etc.)
• Any specific swing issues you’re working to correct
• Your overall skill level and experience

Don’t be afraid to adapt your focus technique as your game evolves or for different types of shots. Many golfers find success using slightly different focusing methods for their driver compared to their irons or short game.

How often should you reassess your focusing technique?

It’s a good idea to periodically evaluate your focusing method, especially if you’re working on swing changes or experiencing persistent issues with certain types of shots. Consider reassessing every few months or at the start of each new golf season.

Ultimately, the most effective focusing technique is one that allows you to consistently strike the ball well while maintaining a comfortable and confident mindset throughout your swing. By understanding the various options and experimenting with different methods, you can develop a personalized approach that enhances your performance on the course.

Remember, while proper focus is crucial, it’s just one element of a successful golf swing. Continue to work on all aspects of your game, including grip, stance, swing mechanics, and mental approach, for comprehensive improvement in your golf performance.

Where Should You Look When Hitting a Golf Ball?

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5. Where Should You Look When Hitting a Golf Ball?

In just about any sport that you may have played you were at one time given the age old advice of “keep your eye on the ball.” Where our eyes

What Part of the Ball Do You See?focus has a significant effect on our hand-eye coordination. Simply put, it just isn’t easy to hit something and hit it solid if you aren’t looking at it. When your eyes wonder, so do your arms and hands. Golf is one of the very few sports involving a ball and stick where the ball is stationary. That gives us plenty of opportunity to easily focus on the ball. In fact, there isn’t much of an excuse for not keeping your eye on the ball in golf. After all, it’s sitting completely still and right in front of you!

Where do the Pros Look When They Swing?

Do all skilled players look at the golf ball when they hit and if so what part? If any of you have ever watched Annika Sorenstam the greatest female player of all time you know the answer to the first part of that question. Annika actually has her face turned towards the target at impact and is looking past the ball. While this is not all that common with skilled players and professionals, it’s certainly not unheard of and Annika is definitely not the only one to play like this. Many a tour player has stated that they actually look a few inches in front of the ball. That’s not bad advice actually as it assists the player in taking a good divot after the ball and gets their focus forward so that they move down and through at impact. That’s much preferred obviously to hitting up on the ball and catching it thin which results in lack of compression and distance. For players that struggle with thin shots, topped shots and lack of divots with their irons I actually think focusing on a spot a few inches in front of the ball is something worth trying.

Jack Says the Whole Ball

While the greatest female player of all time looked in front of the ball, the greatest of all male players, Jack Nicklaus, said once that he just looks down and sees the entire ball as whole. He didn’t focus on the front, back, top or bottom, he just looked down at the ball. This is how I, myself have always played as well. In fact, I think you will find that the vast majority of players fall into this category. What you will find though is that there are many styles and it’s really all over the board with both professionals and amateurs. There is no rule here. Like most things in golf it’s just a matter of finding what works for you and sticking with it.

Strike the Inside Quarter for Power and Control

The most common advice given on this subject is to look at the back inside quarter of the golf ball. This is to facilitate an inside/out swing. For every ball and stick sport we play be it baseball, tennis or golf, the goal is to strike the inside back quarter of the ball for ultimate power and control. When you are striking the outside, your arms are typically disconnecting from your body and your arms and wrists are releasing early. This causes acceleration to max out before impact causing the club to decelerate coming into the strike. Also, as the arms and hands release early, the clubhead passes the hands and the player loses control of the face. When the inside of our body (our core or our “engine”) is leading the swing the arms and hands will follow as acceleration and power builds. As long as the clubhead is trailing our hands we remain in control, so the goal is to keep it trailing until impact. For those players looking for better control and distance (aren’t we all?) staring at the back inside quarter of the ball would be good advice.

Keeping Your Head Down Too Long is as Detrimental as Looking Up

For those of you that like to peek or find yourself taking your eye off of the ball, focusing on a specific dimple might be the key for you. If you narrow your focus down that specifically then chances are you won’t peek. As the saying goes “keep your eyes on the ball” so that means following the ball with your eyes once it takes off. To do that you will need to rotate your head/face towards the target. Keeping your head down too long is detrimental and a common mistake people make as the first thing they are told when they start playing is to keep their head down. What happens when a player restricts their head too long is it restricts their pivot from coming through the ball. Obviously, if a player doesn’t rotate through the shot then they will lose power, but even worse, when the pivot stops the club accelerates too quickly often resulting in an early release and a sprayed shot. Best advice; keep your eyes on the ball, but keep following it with your eyes and your pivot after impact.

The Situation:

You are not sure where to look when hitting a golf ball.

The Solution:

While common advice is to focus either on the entire ball, a spot in front of the ball, a specific dimple on the ball or the back inside quarter of the golf ball there is no rule here and no proven method. Experiment and find out what works for best for you personally.

Maria Palozola

Maria Palozola is a member of the LPGA and has participated in multiple LPGA Tour events. She has provided instruction to thousands of students in the past 20+ years and has won multiple teaching awards from the LPGA, Golf Digest, and Golf Magazine including being ranked as one of the top 50 female instructors in the world.

Watch The Ball – Kids Favorite youth baseball hitting drill

Reasons not hitting the baseball

Watch the ball is common phrase we hear in youth baseball practices and games. As much as we hear and say “watch the ball” , it is amazing how many instances it is not really happening. There is a simple youth baseball drill to improve a youth baseball player keeping his eye on the baseball. We have used this drill many times with different groups and ages of youth baseball players to help improve contact hitting, get over fear of the baseball, and generally have better plate appearances.

First, we have to realize what causes a baseball player to not watch the ball. We all know you can’t hit what you can not see so lets keep our eye on the ball.

There are two common reasons a baseball player is not watching the ball or keeping his eye on the ball..
1. Trying to hard pull the ball   Common issues seen – stepping away from the plate, not hitting the pitch where it is thrown
2. Attempting to hit the ball too hard   Common issues seen – head pulling out , when the head moves the eyes move

As with any youth baseball drill, we recommend using practice stations to keep the baseball practice effective.

Here’s what a youth baseball coach or parent can do to help players be better hitters.

Watch the Ball |Youth Baseball Hitting Drill

Get  2 colored markers, 15 baseballs,  and draw a colored dot on several balls about the size of a quarter.
Repeat with the other color, and then leave a few with no color.
We like to put the colored circles between the seams and use bright colors like red and blue.
For example, put a red circle on about 6 baseballs,
and blue dots on 6 baseballs.
Dont put anything on the remaining three for a total of 15 balls.
You can adjust how many repetitions you want players to swing or bunt at.
This youth hitting drill can be used with pitching machines,
live pitching, at bat warm ups, and even soft toss.
The kids always seemed to have fun at it because they knew they want to call out the right color.

In order to become a great hitter, you need to master many skills…

Mechanics, Improved Bat Speed, Improved Vision, Precise Timing, Mental Preparation, A Winning Approach and Physical Training.

Watch the Ball Youth Hitting Drill | alternate version

Here is a variation of the hitting drill used by many youth baseball coaches to improve accuracy.  We have personally not used this method because of the success and options of our watch the ball drill.
Place a piece of brightly colored masking tape, or paint a stripe about  4 inches wide around the sweet spot on the barrel of the baseball bat. The sweet spot is about 4 inches from the end of the bat This can vary slightly according to the size of the bat.

During batting practice the hitter uses the striped baseball bat and attempts to hit the baseball on the striped part of the bat. The hitter is now  trying to correct his own problem. This is a very good way to teach younger, and more experienced players, to hit the ball hard with the right part of the bat.

If you have youth baseball players that have trouble keeping their head down..

Even more youth baseball hitting drills

See The Ball Hit The Ball • Guess Hitting • Sitting On Your Pitch

ADVANTAGES OF SEE THE BALL, HIT THE BALL

‘See and react’ hitting limits the chances of a hitter getting fooled. When a hitter is seeing and reacting, he can more easily adjust to anything the pitcher throws, as opposed to guessing.
See and react hitting can speed up a hitter’s baseball bat, particularly on inside fastballs and hanging off-speed pitches. Reacting is more like a reflex action; the hands are at their quickest when they are in “reaction/reflex mode”. The inside fastball is often called a reaction pitch.

DISADVANTAGES TO SEE THE BALL, HIT THE BALL

If a hitter has a slow reaction time, he can oftentimes be late on certain pitches.
It requires a short/compact swing and good hitting technique. See and react will not work for hitters with a long swing. The hitter must have quick hands to react to a pitch, especially the inside fastball.

GUESS HITTING

Guess hitting involves the hitter anticipating the pitch type or pitch location before the pitcher throws the baseball. For example, the hitter may anticipate one of the following:

• Fastball on the outside edge of the plate
• Fastball on the inside edge of the plate
• Fastball on down the middle of the plate
• Changeup down in the zone
• A slider on the outside of the plate
• A curveball that is “hanging” high in the strike zone

In each of these scenarios, if the hitter guesses correctly, he has to decide whether to swing or not depending on the situation. For example, the hitter may guess a slider on the outside corner but as it is a tough pitch to hit, the hitter may choose to not swing. However, if a hitter guesses a fastball down the middle of the plate then the pitcher better look out! There is a good chance that this pitch will be hit with some authority.

MISS WITH THE OFF-SPEED & COME BACK WITH A FASTBALL

A good time for a hitter to guess a fastball is after the pitcher has thrown an off-speed pitch for a ball. Approximately 75% of the time a pitcher will throw a fastball after he has missed his location with an off-speed pitch. There are some exceptions to this rule, however most of the time the pitcher will throw a fastball in this situation.

GUESS FASTBALL ON GOOD HITTING COUNTS

A good time to guess fastball is with good hitting counts, such as:

• 3 balls and 1 strike
• 2 balls and 0 strikes
• 3 balls and 2 strikes
• 1 ball and 0 strikes

During a good hitting count the hitter can expect that a fastball is coming his way. It does not mean the pitcher will throw a fastball 100% of the time, however there is a greater chance a pitcher will throw a fastball if he is behind in the hitting count.

ADVANTAGES OF GUESS HITTING

If the hitter guesses correctly, there is a good chance he is going to make solid contact with the baseball

DISADVANTAGES OF GUESS HITTING

Recurrently, there is a danger of overswinging. When a hitter guesses a pitch and guesses correctly, he can get over-excited and swing too hard. Overswinging causes a hitter to fly open and ultimately takes away most of the hitter’s bat speed and power. Therefore, it’s important that the hitter stays within himself, especially when he guesses the pitch.
At regular intervals, a hitter can look foolish if he guesses wrong. There is nothing worse than a hitter anticipating the wrong pitch. This can look especially bad for the hitter if he guesses the wrong pitch with 2 strikes.

Guess hitting can lead to overanalyzing in the batter’s box. Guess hitters have a tendency to overthink an at bat. Meaning, guess hitters are focused on trying to anticipate a certain pitch instead of doing what is most important which is, “seeing the baseball and hitting the baseball”.

THE HYBRID APPROACH

“See the ball, hit the ball” and “guess hitting” each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps the best approach is to combine both techniques. Guess hitting is more likely to be beneficial in good hitting counts. The rest of the time, a “see the ball hit, the ball technique” will provide a hitter with the consistency needed to hit a high batting average during the course of a long baseball season.

You See the Ball, You Hit the Ball, You Got It?

This is the third story in a five-part series that examines how swing biomechanics and the proliferation of technological tools are helping hitters.

* * *

Growing up on Long Island, about 25 miles east of New York City, Eugene Bleecker took 10 years of lessons at a local baseball camp. He went on to play college baseball, catching for four Division II, NAIA, and NJCAA schools over five years with what he calls “very old-school” mechanics. When he started his coaching career, Bleecker taught the same drills and preached the same philosophies that he had learned in his youth.

But attending the 2010 American Baseball Coaches Association convention in Dallas made him reconsider everything—a “100% epiphany” is how he describes it. That’s where Bleecker met former big league catcher Don Slaught, who would go on to create the Right View Pro video analysis tool for hitters. Slaught showed Bleecker slow-motion clips of Derek Jeter in action. Though Jeter seemed to embody the old-school mechanics of swinging down on the ball or level through the zone, the footage proved otherwise.

“When he showed me video of Derek Jeter and that he never swung down in his entire life, it made me feel stupid,” Bleecker says, “and it made me go back and rethink everything that I did—and change everything. ”

Don’t be fooled by the old-school ‘stache: Eugene Bleecker has embraced the new rules of hitting. (Courtesy photo)

The founder of 108 Performance, which operates two player training facilities in Southern California, Bleecker sought to understand why coaches said what they said. He pored over video technology, such as Slaught’s Right View Pro, and perused an extensive collection of clips compiled on Google Drive by Dustin Lind, now a Seattle Mariners quality assurance coach who works with hitters at all levels of the organization. Bleecker sought to reconcile empirical evidence with the misguided coaching truisms that still produced very successful players.

The crux of it all: The exact same verbal cue can produce two completely different actions. Language is a matter of individual interpretation.

“A coach can’t talk to a player about feel because we have no idea what they’re feeling,” says Slaught, who had his own dugout epiphany in 1989 at Yankee Stadium. “We ask them what they feel, and so we start coaching with their words. ”

Modern technology is able to illuminate the kinematic sequence of a hitter’s swing, but those assessments top out at the athlete’s torso. What happens above the neck is just as critical, and it’s hard not to lean into baseball’s most famous truism of all: Yogi Berra famously said the game is “90% mental,” which makes perfect sense if you ignore that fact that he said the other 50% is physical.

Regardless of the proportions, it’s clear that mastering the physical demands of the swing isn’t enough. And new tools are available to help: virtual reality, pitch-recognition drills, vision training, and EEG. Even those who have closely studied swing biomechanics, such as Motus VP Ben Hansen and former ASMI researcher Dave Fortenbaugh, agree that pitch recognition, plate discipline, and timing are of paramount importance. “As much as I’m a mechanics guy,” Fortenbaugh says, “I wholeheartedly believe that, if there’s just a lot more focus on the mental training of being a hitter . . . it can be a lot more helpful.”

Applying and interpreting the data is necessary too. 108 Performance, for instance, utilizes K-Motion wearables, Blast Motion bat sensors, and HitTrax and Rapsodo ball trackers. The coaches also collaborate with the 3-D motion biomechanics lab Movement First and its clinic director, Dr. Emily Ferree. But for all that technology, Bleecker insists that coaches need to understand the thought process of a hitter and the movements that create all the data.

“The old school is not wrong,” he says. “It just didn’t understand why it was right.”

A perfect illustration of how Derek Jeter never actually swung down on the ball. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

* * *

Astros All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman stands in an indoor batting cage, the hood of a purple sweatshirt pulled up over his hat, a bat in his right hand. Addressing the camera, he explains how he tries to trick himself during every at bat.

Bregman prefaces his remarks by acknowledging that of course his body will rotate toward the pitcher as he tries to hit the ball. But that’s exactly what he tries to stop himself from doing. A righty, he pretends that he is shining beams of light toward the first-base dugout for the entirety of his swing.

PART 1: Way Back, Back, Back—The Unlikely Origin of Baseball’s Launch Angle Revolution

PART 2: Major League Baseball Will Be Decided by Swing States

“Well, for me personally, I never, ever think about rotation at all,” he says. “I think I have two flashlights right here on my hips pointing that way. I have them on my shoulders, on my hips, on everything…

“And all I am trying to do—the only thing I look for—is, when I load, to have my hands travel high across my chest forward like this and the knob of the bat get out there past the inside part of the baseball. I am trying to do this while keeping everything facing directly [toward the first-base dugout].

“Now, of course, it’s not going to happen, but that’s how my brain has to think in order to stay closed and not spin off the baseball. ”

Alex Bregman shares his own approach to hitting.

(via @ABREG_1) pic.twitter.com/gFfi7IGTGU

— Play Ball (@PlayBall) January 22, 2019

As he speaks, Bregman seems to realize that the inner workings of his mind sound a little ridiculous even though his results are undeniable—his 57 home runs and a .932 OPS both rank sixth in the American League since the start of 2018.

Similarly, some of the greatest hitters of a generation—Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Alex Rodriguez—have spoken about wanting to keep their “barrel above the hands” or to “swing down at the baseball.” Just like Bergman’s advice to not rotate his hips, their advice isn’t backed up by video analysis of their swings.

Gurus such Bleecker and Jason Ochart, the Philadelphia Phillies’ hitting coordinator, have explored the rationale behind this disconnect: When a player tilts the bat down in his swing, the barrel might feel as if it’s above the hands. This tweet by Ochart helps explains why a player such as Pujols might feel that way. If you rotate a picture of his body, mid-swing, so that his spine is perpendicular to the ground, the barrel indeed appears to be above the hands.

Some new school coaches like to poke fun at Pujols for saying “I try to keep my barrel above my hands.”

Of course the hands are higher than his barrel in space..but relative to his shoulder plane, they are not.

Before we ridicule, we must try to understand the feel. pic.twitter.com/bkxGXIDnaB

— Jason Ochart (@JasonOchart) February 12, 2019

“I had to have the availability of the technology to understand it,” Bleecker says. “But the openness towards understanding why things have been said and why things work and why coaches have said what they’ve said for so long to get to the deeper meaning behind everything.”

That’s why hitting coaches such as the Minnesota Twins’ James Rowson and the Cincinnati Reds’ Donnie Ecker want to build relationships with players to first understand how they think and then provide individualized support. “My philosophy is, ‘The player I’m currently speaking to, what does he need?’ ” Ecker says. “What we know is half as important as what that player in front of us needs.”

Dr. Greg Rose, a co-founder of OnBaseU and golf’s Titleist Performance Institute, says the sports world’s understanding of the kinematic sequence has grown over the last two decades, with technology allowing hard data to supplement and, at times, supplant intuition. But expressing those insights to the players who needed to execute them had long been a challenge.

“We had the data for many, many years,” says Michael Bentley, who developed both the Blast Motion and K-Motion technologies. “We had the signatures. But they’re too complex, right? It looks just like a bunch of squiggly lines. The problem was the communication. For years, I would put people to sleep talking about kinetic chains and different sequencing of data.”

“I typically give hitters permission to have one swing thought at a time,” Tewksbary says. “Anything more than that is a little messy.”

One of the primary goals of the OnBaseU training seminar—which certifies coaches in biomechanics instruction—is to create a uniform language for players, coaches and trainers. A growing number of MLB organizations have hired former players to be de facto analytics liaisons between the front office and the clubhouse.

“We’ve grown much better in the last six, seven years at teaching other people how to read this,” Rose says. “I think it was over people’s heads for a while. And in baseball I think we’ve gotten really good at dumbing it down so that coaches can start to really get into the intricacies.”

But here’s a baseball truism that no one can argue with: As Crash Davis puts it in Bull Durham, “Don’t think. It can only hurt the ball club.” Big thoughts need to be reserved for the batting cage. Hitting in a game should be reactionary.

“I typically give hitters permission to have one swing thought at a time,” says independent hitting coach Bobby Tewksbary, who is most famous for his work with the Atlanta Braves’ Josh Donaldson, a former AL MVP with the Toronto Blue Jays. “Anything more than that is a little messy.”

* * *

Frazier blasts a three-run homer in early June. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Mets third baseman Todd Frazier entered the season 0-for-8 in his career against Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer. He had never reached base and only once hit the ball out of the infield—a sacrifice fly in 2015. 

New for the Mets this season is the installation of the WinR virtual reality program that simulates an opposing pitcher’s repertoire. Frazier says the virtual Scherzer is 90 to 95 percent accurate, if not an exact replica of the three-time Cy Young winner. On May 22, Frazier notched his first hit off Scherzer, doubling to deep left-center field.  

“I’m skeptical about everything just because, when you come up, you like to go on your raw skill,” Frazier says. “You want to be hands-on in the cage, with a bat and with baseballs. I tried this virtual reality thing, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s unbelievable. The person looks the same—their windup, their ball. It’s all about tracking too. I’m not swinging when I’m watching. I’m just trying to see how his slider moves or how his fastball moves. . . . I actually think that’s helped me out a lot along the way this year, for sure.”

ROBOT UMPIRES: The Future of Baseball Has Finally Arrived

Muscle memory for the swing and knowledge about an opposing pitcher must be so ingrained in a hitter’s mind that he can almost instinctively recognize a cue that means a fastball or a certain breaking ball is en route—and react accordingly in no more than four-tenths of a second. “It’s almost like you’re in the batter’s box with the pitcher, it’s pretty cool,” Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe says of the VR tool.

The goal, says WinR CEO Chris O’Dowd, a former minor league player, is to add another dimension of preparation to a written scouting report. “I already feel like I’m in sync, and I know the information about this pitcher and his pitch shapes and his usage probabilities,” O’Dowd says. “I can now just react.”

WinR is one of three VR vendors being used in the majors, along with Trinity and Monsterful. Dr. Daniel Laby, a leading sports vision expert who advises Trinity, has advocated for the reduction or even elimination of traditional BP in favor of more game-like conditions (though he says the hardware technology needs to improve before VR gains widespread acceptance). Monsterful CEO Jarett Sims says foveated rendering—a new tech feature that renders the pixels a user is focusing on with the highest graphic fidelity at the expense of peripheral areas—is a key step forward. “We test and try everything,” Sims says.

MLB REGRET: Hitters May Come to Loathe an Automated Strike Zone

Not everyone believes in the transference of VR to the field. “Baseball’s all about perception,” Mets first baseman Peter Alonso says. “We’re all trying to do the same thing, but every single person has different little quirks to them and they see everything through their own lens.”

Indeed, this field of study might be one of hitting’s next great frontiers. “I think visual perception is still the skill we know the least about—how to measure and improve versus swing mechanics or plate discipline behavior,” says Cardinals hitting coach Jeff Albert.

* * *

A major league fastball crosses the plate in four-tenths of a second, and hitters must decided whether or not to swing at the ball’s halfway point. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

Vision training has risen in popularity across baseball in recent years. While one’s visual acuity is a static trait measured on the 20/20 scale, other skills related to performance, such as tracking and focus, can be improved with practice. Laby, who has six World Series rings owing to his work with the Red Sox, Astros, and Cubs, employs several technological devices to help players, including the Sports Vision Trainer, a Dynavision board, and uHIT. 

The latter is a cognitive gaming software for batters made by the neuroscience company deCervo, and it challenges hitters to recognize pitch types and locations. EEG technology is an optional add-on feature to provide additional context about the decision-making process. By affixing electrodes on a hitter’s scalp, coaches can monitor a player’s brain waves and identify when he chooses whether to swing or not while using the uHIT app. Says deCervo founder and CEO Jason Sherwin: “Was there any fundamental cognitive change under the hood, so to speak, in terms of making decisions on pitches? Across the board, you saw the impact on a brain level: it was deciding faster for pitches in the zone. They were deciding more efficiently.”

SQUARE IT UP: The Top Tech Storylines of the 2019 MLB Season

The full EEG test, however, takes nearly an hour—a perceived eternity in the daily itinerary of a pro ballplayer—so deCervo hasn’t supplied any of those exams in two years. But uHIT remains in regular use, mostly by minor leaguers wanting to develop their pitch recognition skills but also by a few big leaguers who want to stay sharp. “When you frame this as a mobile game for better hitting vision, that has a huge impact,” Sherwin says. “So they’re playing Fortnite—but for their hitting, if that makes sense. Fortnite for hitting!”

Pitch occlusion is another way of sharpening vision skills. Peter Fadde, a professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, wrote his Ph.D. dissertation at Purdue on the use of video to aid visual training and pitch recognition. He later developed gameSense, which shows only a pitcher’s release before prompting hitters to discern the type of pitch and whether it’ll be a strike. A few MLB clubs use the program with some encouraging early returns on improving on-base percentage and slugging percentage. 

“Guys are picking up the ball earlier and can put a little more giddy-up in their swing,” Fadde says. “In sports science, that’s one of the main themes right now—we’ve got to include more contextual information. The perception is still within some kind of context.”

Bleecker, now 35 and author of the recently published Old School vs. New School hitting book, recently heard a pastor preach that there may be lots of information and knowledge in the public discourse, but there’s not a lot of truth. That resonated with him and relates to his approach in baseball. Technology provides a wealth of data and shapes a player’s skill set, but how a hitter thinks and executes his swing creates his reality.

“An important thing that the baseball community needs to understand: although technology is amazing and although it helps tremendously, you have to have a feel for how it’s being used,” Bleecker says. “You have to be able to use it properly.”

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

What Can Hitters Actually See Out of a Pitcher’s Hand?

We’ve all seen those swings so terrible that a batter can’t help but smile. Swings like this one from Brandon Phillips last year.

Phillips, of course, isn’t the only victim of this sort of thing. He’s been a league-average major-league hitter for a decade, which is a substantial accomplishment. But even accomplished hitters can look bad, can get it very wrong.

Were Phillips batting not for a last-place club but one contending for the postseason, we might gnash our teeth. Couldn’t he see that was a slider? What was he thinking? What was he looking at?

The answer to that last question, turns out, is way more complicated than it seems. Phillips clearly should have laid off a breaking ball that failed to reach the plate. He clearly has done that — otherwise, he wouldn’t have had a major-league career. So what happened? What did he see? Or not see? Ask hitters and experts that question, and the answers are vague, conflicting, and sometimes just strange.

There are those who are sure they see spin. “I’m just trying to pick up spin,” said San Francisco infielder Joe Panik of what he’s looking for out of the pitcher’s hand. “I see spin on breaking balls,” agreed teammate Brandon Belt. “I see spin pretty well,” said Zack Greinke, this decade’s best-hitting pitcher.

Here’s the strange thing about seeing spin, though: there’s evidence that the part of the brain that batters employ when a pitch is released isn’t the part of the brain that sees motion. It’s the part of the brain used for detail and color.

No problem. Imagine a flashing red/white mess — you can extrapolate from the color what spin is coming. It’s basically what Preston Wilson said on the MLB Network, when he said he could see if the ball was “more red or more white” and that helped him know what pitch it was. That appearance inspired this whole post.

Greinke thought that was a real possibility. “It’s the color you see, and the color will be moving in a different direction, and you know what that means,” he said. It’s funny, though, because people will swear it’s not that way. Boston’s Chris Young was pretty sure: “I see spin. I don’t see color. I don’t see red,” he said before a game with the Blue Jays. He thought for a second, though. “Maybe I do and I don’t think I do.”

Whatever the neural mechanism, most batters to whom I spoke claimed to see spin of some sort. Could they see spin rate? Today’s stat du jour is most often though of as an innate statistic that judges pitch quality, but spin plus arm slot equals movement, and we’ve always had movement. Could spin rate be actually about deception?

Rich Hill would say yes, as suggested by his comments about “mirroring” his high-vertical-spin curve with his high-vertical-spin fastball, in the opposite direction. Responses from hitters were mixed, however. “You can’t see the speed of spin,” thought Young. “The changeup is going to spin slower, I assume, but I can’t see the speed of the spin.” Jason Ochart, Head of Driveline Baseball Hitting Research and Development, said his hitters report that “with changeups (and, in particular, split fingers), they see a lack of spin.”

Greinke agreed about spin as deception, calling back to his experience as a hitter facing different changeups: “I couldn’t see [Johnny] Cueto‘s change, as well as other pitchers’. Some guys have really tight spin on their changeup and it’s hard to see. Low-spin, you can probably see the spin, and it moves more. [Kris] Medlen’s, I couldn’t see the spin at all.”

There has to be a decent amount of instinct and programmed reaction going on in these responses, though, because there’s no time to think. “Think, and this game will grasp you and take you away,” said Atlanta rookie Dansby Swanson.

A recent Washington Post report brought out the science behind that eloquent missive from Swanson. The part of your brain working on object recognition works with the part of your brain that controls your body, and the brain actually reduces blood flow to the frontal cortex, the part of your brain that you use when you make decisions that require some kinds of reflection.

You don’t have time to deliberate! “You have no time to react,” said Baltimore’s Manny Machado, and he was right, if not literally correct. The great Wall Street Journal infographic below details how a batter essentially has three blinks of an eye before the ball crosses the plate — and just over one blink of an eye before he has to stop or continue his swing. That’s 225 milliseconds!
Still, there are things that batters swear they can see. Most felt they could see if the ball “popped out” of the pitcher’s hand. Coach Ochart felt that was one of the most oft-used pieces of information: “Most commonly I hear that hitters can see the ball “pop upwards (relatively speaking)” out of the hand on breaking balls.” Greinke, Swanson, and Young agreed, but Belt thought those “poppers” were a specific brand of curveball: “Some guys, it’ll pop up, but that’s just the get me over for a strike,” he thought.

Watching a Blake Snell start, I thought maybe I was seeing him “wrap” his curveball, meaning that he was cocking his wrist hard, or supinating heavily in his grip, in order to get more movement on the pitch. That’s fine, and it can lead to more movement as Trevor Bauer found, but it might also make the curve more obvious to the hitter, as some scouts have suggested to me.

Can hitters see fingers? If so, they’d be able to see those wrapped fingers. But Snell didn’t think so. No hitter reported being able to see fingers on the release, but I hardly talked to all hitters ever. “It’s really hard to see fingers on top,” reported Panik. Steve Carter, Project Prospect scout and hitting coach, thought that some of his hitters could see them.

Take a look at a major-league pitcher — Caleb Cotham — releasing a four-seamer and a curve, overlaid on each other. Driveline Baseball used a high-speed camera to capture these images at the same point, and, well, seems pretty tough to see those fingers, at least to my eyes. Maybe you can see the different release point?

Here’s something, though: I’m not a major-league hitter. Major-league hitters are very different from the public in general — and, specifically, when it comes to their vision. One study found that they have significantly better “mean visual acuity, distance steroacuity, and contrast sensitivity.” Some of these guys can see fingers.

Interestingly, this is true even of non-professional baseball players. Another study compared youth baseball and softball players to young people who didn’t play ball, and found that, even in the youth ranks, ballplayers had better visual skills.

Obviously it’s probably a selection thing — if you can’t see the ball well, you don’t play baseball maybe — but there also seems to be a learned component to this whole thing. Here’s Swanson, on what he thinks his brain is doing: “If you’ve faced a guy a couple times, get at-bats against them and then you get an idea of what they want to do, and you sort of visualize before the pitch comes, it’s almost anticipatory.”

Swanson’s point brings us to another consideration: focusing too hard on the moment of release ignores the fact that this is a process that begins as soon as the pitcher begins his delivery.

Jim Lyons, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University, agreed that the central vision (cones) most used by players are sensitive to color and detail but not motion, and that the peripheral visual system (rods) are motion sensitive. But he said we can be accurate at estimating the velocity of an approach object “like a baseball or a fist” because of “retinal expansion — the image of an object on the retina, as it gets closer, expands.” He calls the visual information “continuous.”

That’s important for spotting a fastball, which might be the most important thing a batter can do. For Machado, it’s the only thing he can do. “I don’t pick any of that stuff up,” he laughed. “I see fastball, I swing. You know how fast the pitcher can throw, so you can see it coming out of his hand. If it’s coming in hot, I’ll swing at it. I can’t tell out of the hand if it’s going to be a slider or a changeup.”

He’s not alone. Oakland’s Khris Davis could see some spin, but focused more on targeting fastballs and spotting location. “You can see some location early, too,” he said, pointing out that the angle of the hand and the ball coming out could tell him if the ball would be up or down. “I like to look for release location,” he added. “Lots of guys have different release points. Some hide it better than others.”

So there’s the other thing that’s important about the fluidity of the moment: there are hints about what’s coming out of the pitchers’ hand that batters can spot in the delivery. Coach Carter echoed Davis (“You can generally see direction of the pitch, based on wrist and arm angle as it ‘comes through’”) and also talked about curveball deliveries being different (“forearm lay back”). Greinke focused on changeups, but talked about delivery cues: “Some pitchers will drop down a little, or slow their hand.”

This stuff may be more important than what happens at the actual release point. A famous study of cricket bowlers isolated experience, delivery cues, and information after release to find which were the most important aspects. The first two were very important. The last? “Additional ball flight information provided no more advantage to this discrimination ability” — i.e., information after release wasn’t very important.

Hold on. The release-point information isn’t important? Maybe. Batters have to access the “swing” motor program before the pitch is released, really, and so there’s little time to change that, Professor Lyons pointed out. You can really just halt it.

But what about this, I asked Lyons? This swing was started, not halted, and yet somehow Vladimir Guerrero did this.

Didn’t he adjust to the flight of the ball? Post-release information? “I would argue that the swing path hasn’t really been altered from the original motor program,” responded Lyons. “Same action being executed as was planned on the basis of early perceptual information, but it’s gone beyond the point of checking the swing (i.e., issuing the stop command) and hoping for the best.” In other words, Vlad thought the ball would be low, the ball was low, and then… “the ball hit the bat (rather than the other way around)” as Lyons put it.

As much as hitters don’t like to think too much — Belt said “When I get myself in trouble, it’s when I guess and anticipate too much” — it looks like anticipating the pitch is huge.

Recently, I was at Pitch Talks in Toronto, talking backstage with Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe about baseball, and we ended up talking about David Ortiz, as one does. We first talked about how Ortiz spent a replay delay talking about how Matt Andriese would throw him a first-pitch curveball. The pitcher did, and Ortiz homered.

If that’s not a sufficiently impressive display of anticipation — one that might, for instance, explain some of the slugger’s late-career excellence — there’s more. Abraham mentioned something about Xander Bogaerts enjoying the spot in the batting order ahead of David Ortiz. When I raised an eyebrow, he explained. It seems that Ortiz will often follow along in Bogaerts’ at-bats and try to alert him to when a certain pitch is coming with chirps and whistles from the on-deck circle. What anticipation!

It’s hard for me to completely discount the value of information received at the moment of release, but it’s also interesting how many hitters had no idea what happened at that moment.

Some excerpts from the players themselves…

MVP candidate Mookie Betts:

“I don’t really know what I see. I see this white thing coming, and I somehow try to read it. I try to look at a window where his slot is and try to pick it up as fast as possible. You try to read spin, but the way I do it, I have no idea.”

Edwin Encarnacion:

“I just see the ball, it’s white or red, but I try not to think, and I don’t want to start thinking.”

Panik:

“It’s hard to talk about.”

Astros hitting coach Dave Hudgens:

“I know when a hitter is locked in, or in the zone, nothing is in their mind and everything slows down.”

Coach Ochart:

“Some of the best hitters I’ve ever coached will “black out” when they hit. Very interesting. I’ll ask them what pitch they hit, or what location the pitch was, and they won’t remember. ‘Idk coach, I just see ball, hit ball.’”

This experience of “blacking out” probably speaks to the lack of frontal-cortex activity during the moment — hitters aren’t using the part of the brain that’s best for mapping out complicated, deliberate decisions, so maybe it’s not surprising they bypass the frontal cortex and use deeper, darker parts of the brain. Some have never thought about this action using the speaking part of their brain — “Nobody’s ever asked me that question,” said Betts. When the major work is unlocking motor programs, or chunks, how do you explain that?

That doesn’t mean we can’t try to put words to it using the best research and player quotes at our disposal. Call this a conclusion, but not the type of conclusion you put on the end of an academic paper. Just imagine a big, blinking neon sign alternating between the words “maybe,” “probably,” and “could be” above this paragraph.

It looks like anticipating the pitch is a benefit. Combining that idea of the pitcher’s tendencies with pre-release delivery information might be more important than the information at release. At release, hitters might access motor programs (primed by anticipation) for each type of pitch, and then use the release information to stop their swing if it doesn’t line up with what they expected. That info on release is probably mostly velocity, with some movement extrapolated from changes in color (and then called “spin” in the parlance of our times), but every hitter reported that sensitivity to that information came and went. Once the ball is in flight, if they’re wrong, it could be a matter of luck (and maybe a little geometry — think of the flat swing) if they swing and still manage to hit the ball.

All of this has ramifications for coaching! Professor Lyons suggested doing a study to see what hitters could do with a ball with white seams, which seems like a great idea. Brian Dozier even complained that current balls all look “brown” because of the mud — perhaps spin and seam movement is over-reported and overemphasized. Coach Ochart seemed to suggest that this sort of research is planned for Driveline Hitting, so we can look forward to more results soon, maybe.

If that aspect of coaching is overrated, we might have already had clues in this direction. Russell Carleton found evidence that hitting coaches mostly affect the patience or passivity of their teams, and that might be the rudder here. How early do you get your hitters going, and how quickly can you get your hitters to stop swinging, while possibly helping your batters align their swings geometrically with the outcomes that fit their athletic skill sets: that seems to be the work of a hitting coach. Perhaps you can help them “build a mental database” about pitchers, as Coach Carter refers to it. That should help with anticipation, after all. But then even he says they have to “go off instinct” at the plate.

Certainly coaches shouldn’t get mad at the hitter with whom they’re working. The whole thing — hitting 2400 rpm at 96 mph with a blink of an eye of time to figure it out — seems pretty impossible, after all.

How To Hit The Ball Better In MLB The Show 21

You do need to learn how to hit the ball better in MLB The Show 21. There is just no getting around this in any way. Batting is the only way to score runs in MLB and win a ballgame. However, for players just starting out, it can be a bit intimidating with the plethora of options in The Show 21. If you are one of them, scroll down and read below to understand how to hit the ball better in MLB The Show 21.

How to strike the ball better in MLB The Show 21

Use PCI to your benefit in MLB.

There are a variety of tricks you can use to improve your batting and strike the ball better. You can hit the ball better with the help of any of these methods:

• Practicing
• Activating the PCI
• Changing the Hitting Interface
• Changing the Camera Angle
• Experimenting with different shots

How to hit the ball better by practicing in MLB 21

Practice makes perfect. The old adage resounds even in games and there is just no getting around it. You will take some time to settle down into the game before you start hitting homers. Practicing will help you time your shots correctly and is also a place where you can make tweaks to all the settings which we will mention further on in the guide. This will help you gain confidence in yourself while improving your timing in the game. It will even allow you to practice new shots without the fear of losing the game. You can practice how to bunt, hit home runs, or even strategically placing your shots. The Bullpen will allow you to do all this and as another handy feature, it will also boost your stats.

Activating the PCI in MLB The Show 21

The PCI is a handy addition to MLB The Show 21. PCI is an active, ball prediction feature that batters can use to their benefit in the game. Aligning the PCI with the predicted ball location will lead to maximum contact between the bat and the ball. This will allow for stronger, well-struck shots that will help you hit and connect with the ball better. Another handy feature about the PCI is its immense customization capability. You can choose to model the PCI to what suits you better. So if you were facing distraction issues with the default PCI interface you can switch it up. Play around and experiment to see what suits you better.

Strike the ball better by changing the Hitting Interface

There are 3 modes for the ball Hitting Interface in MLB The Show 21 which can be accessed through the gameplay menu. These three modes are Zone, Directional, and Pure Analog.

The Zone Hitting Interface is our pick of the bunch as you can adapt to it easily and it works relatively well with the PCI. With the Zone hitting interface, you will have a focus on timing, something that you should develop in order to play MLB The Show 21 properly. You can’t just wildly swing your bat at every ball that comes your way and is something that is of profound importance in the Zone hitting interface.

Directional is another Hitting interface available. With the Directional Hitting Interface, you can influence the direction and trajectory of the ball you want to hit. This is actually a pretty good interface if you want to hit ground balls as you can position them effectively around the field. However, it is partially computer-controlled so it might not get the result you want always.

Pure Analog is the third Hitting Interface available. To hit the balls with this interface you will have to use the Right analog stick on your controllers. With this hitting interface, it might get a bit much as you will have to use both analog sticks for the PCI and the Hitting Interface. However, this mode makes it easy to influence the PCI a bit.

Again, these are just our opinions and it is a good idea to try out different stuff in practice to get used to them.

Hit the ball better by

changing the Camera Angle in MLB The Show 21

Changing the camera is one of the major things you can do to help influence your gameplay in MLB. Keeping the camera on Strike Zone is preferable as it allows you to track the ball once it is pitched. With this, you can choose and time your shot better so that you can hit the ball better. Doing so will help you maximize contact of the ball with your bat as you will be able to move the PCI and track the ball.

Pay some attention to the Swing Feedback. This will give you some handy feedback on where the ball is being placed and how you are swinging the bat. With this, you can properly predict the ball’s trajectory and even check whether you have placed the PCI correctly. Later you can use this information in practice so that you can practice that particular shot.

Switching up and Experimenting with your Shot Selection to hit the ball better

Changing your shots will help confuse the striker as well as give you a better chance at scoring runs. You can use a normal shot most of the time as it is the most reliable shot in the game that you can use. It will also ensure that you hit the ball better in MLB 21 most of the time.

If you are looking at hitting a power shot, make sure that there is a powerful player on the plate. Link up your PCI correctly with the upper dots for a perfect angle and power combination in the shot. This can allow you to hit Home Runs if timed correctly. 

If your bases are loaded and you are looking to sneak a quick point by stealing a base you can choose to use the Bunt option. However, make sure that you’re not on a Strike as you can get a strikeout while bunting.

The most logical option can be to play a grounded shot. A well-positioned shot can easily slice through the field and give you a good opportunity to run up the bases. This also makes sure that you hit the ball better.

Additional tips and tricks on how to hit the ball better in MLB

Don’t wildly swing at every shot that comes your way. This will reduce your chances of getting proper contact on the ball. It is okay to analyze the ball movement correctly beforehand by just letting one ball go. This will help you position your PCI better and help you to hit the ball better.

Keep an eye out on the Pitcher’s confidence level and stamina. If you let go of some pitches and if they are out of the strike zone their confidence will start dropping. As the game progresses you will see that their stamina drops too which will cause them to pitch slower balls. Once their confidence and energy levels are low you can try to hit some power shots.

Choose the Dynamic difficulty setting. This will ensure that the difficulty increases depending on your progress in the game. MLB The Show 21 is pretty seamless in this matter and you can change it back when you think it’s getting too tough.

This is everything you need to know about how to hit the ball better in MLB The Show 21. While you are here you can have a look at the various game modes you can use. If you want to earn more rewards you can have a look at how to level up fast in MLB.

In Golf, Keep your Eye on the Ball at All Costs

Golfers hear this mantra in every sport, keep your eye on the ball! It is a perfect chant for the golf player at every turn. If you cannot see the ball clearly, your chances of hitting it are slim to none!

When you look at the ball, you want to keep your eyes on one spot. Do not look at your club to see if it is squared to the ball. Do not let your eye follow the club as you draw it away. Just focus on the ball, nothing else.

Also, when you look at the ball, try to get a bird’s eye view of it. Your eyes are about a foot above the pivotal center so raising your shoulders is not going to help you see the ball better. Do not gaze at the ball along the line of the shaft of your club. Look down on the ball rather than get your angles along the shaft. This will give you much better results and you would not have a tendency to look up too soon.

Now, there is a natural tendency in everyone to look away when you start to draw the club back. Ignore that tendency and just keep looking down on top of the ball.

When you are looking down you will notice that (if you are leaning over properly) the only way you can keep the club head in the line of flight is to keep your hands moving along parallel with that line. Sweep your hands along with the club head while the ball and head are in contact.

Mastering the skill of seeing the ball clearly until you hit it is true of every kind of shot. Whether the ball is in long grass, on an up or down slope, no matter what is around you, the main thing is to see the ball clearly to hit it accurately.

Very few golfers stand still when looking at the ball and concentrate their attention on seeing the ball clearly. A lot of the times people will give a glance in the direction they want the ball to go, then they look back at the ball. Many golfers would be shocked to find out that they do not stand still and keep their eye on the ball. The second your gaze shifts from the ball during any part of the swing, problems occur.

Really, a lack of concentration is responsible for most golfing mistakes. You can hit the ball well when you can clearly see the ball at every point in your swing from start to finish.

If you want to wipe out one of the worst golf faults, determine that from the top of your swing until you hit the ball you will keep your eye clearly on the ball. You will find your golf game improving so significantly, your friends may start asking you for lessons!

Soccer Ball Selection Guide

Soccer Ball Selection Guide

Among the variety of balls on the sports market, it is very difficult to find the one that is right for you. In this article, we will help you figure it out and sort it out on the shelves, what to look for when choosing a soccer ball.

Game level

If you just want to hit the ball on the weekend, you hardly need the one that Cristiano Ronaldo plays.You are an amateur and an amateur ball is the best choice for you. It’s inexpensive, but durable enough to keep you happy for a long time.

• Training

For active players and teams, the ball requirements are more stringent. The ball is used frequently, it must be strong, keep its shape well and be predictable in flight. Therefore, the choice for training is the practice ball.

• Professional (match)

Professional athletes choose professional grade balls.As a rule, materials of the highest level are used in such balls and all the best technological developments are collected in them. The price for such a ball is high, but the requirements are the most stringent. A ball that has passed a series of special tests receives a corresponding certificate from IMS, FIFA Quality or FIFA Quality Pro.

Football pitch

Where are you planning to play football? Someone plays on the asphalt site near the house or runs across the field in the village, teams train in stadiums with artificial or natural turf, do not forget about cinder fields.

A self-respecting manufacturer will always write what type of coating the ball is intended for. And he develops balls that are most suitable for the properties of the specified playing surface.

Panel connection type

Footballs by the type of panel joining are divided into machine-stitched, hand-stitched, thermo-stitched or hybrid stitching. Let’s tell you more about each type.

• Machine stitching

The most economical type of ball production is machine stitching.The panels that make up the surface of the ball are sewn using a special sewing machine. How can you tell if you are holding a machine-stitch ball? Take a closer look at the ball. The stitches used to sew the panels are frequent, small and even. They can be seen with the naked eye.

What is the peculiarity of machine stitching? The machine sews the panels with a strong synthetic thread, but does not tie a knot at the end of the stitching. If a stitch breaks in one place, the panels of the ball will soon come apart as the seam crawls.

In general, this is a reliable type of panel connection. Such balls are great for people who do not have special requirements for the ball, mainly children and beginners in sports, as well as those for whom the price is primarily important.

• Manual stitching

This is a more expensive way of connecting panels and requires the participation of a specially trained person. The stitches are uneven in length, with a wider pitch than in machine sewing, but they are almost invisible to the naked eye – the edges of the panels seem to be pulled into the ball.Manual sewing is the presence of numerous knots on the thread, i.e. even if the thread breaks in some place, the line will not crawl and the ball will be suitable for further play. The hand-stitched ball is a classic, with which football was born, and to this day it is a very relevant type of panel joining.

• Thermal bonding (thermal soldering)

A modern, seamless adhesive method for joining panels at high temperatures. The ball produced using this technology is absolutely spherical.The seams become waterproof, the ball does not pick up moisture and does not lose its properties in all weather conditions. It is used for balls of a professional (match) level. Such balls are played in tournaments of the highest level, ranging from domestic national championships to the World and European Football Championships.

• Hybrid stitching

This type of panel joining combines machine stitching and panel heat bonding technology.Before stitching the panels, a thermo-active glue is applied to the edges, its activation occurs at a high temperature and only when the ball is placed in a special mold. The result is the most hidden, with the necessary strength and, which is not unimportant, moisture-proof seams.

What the ball consists of

• Tire material and thickness

If earlier soccer balls were made of genuine leather, now it has been replaced by modern synthetic materials – polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thermopolyurethane (TPU), polyurethane (PU) and rubber.

Polyvinyl chloride is used in the manufacture of budget models. It is a sturdy, practical material.

Thermopolyurethane is a relatively new material in the ball industry. The advantages include low price, softness and attractive appearance.

Polyurethane – material for more expensive models. It is lighter than PVC, more durable and less prone to deterioration from exposure to low temperatures.

Manufacturers are also experimenting with other materials: you can see a ball with a rubber tire on sale. By the way, this is not the most whimsical material that has no restrictions on its use and can withstand the most severe operating conditions.

The thickness of the tire is also indicated for a reason: the thicker it is, the better the aerodynamic properties of the ball, the panels at the stitching point are separated by deeper channels that cut the air in flight.And, of course, this tire will last you longer.

• Chamber material

The chamber is a special inner insert with a nipple. It is pumped with air using a pump. There are butyl, latex and rubber chambers. Each has its own set of properties, the knowledge of which simplifies the choice of the ball.

Rubber tube is used in ultra-budget balls. Often, manufacturers do not indicate in the description of the balls what kind of camera material they use, and in such cases they install a rubber camera.Be careful! In such balls, there is not enough elasticity and they hold air very weakly.

Butyl chamber holds air well, the ball does not require frequent pumping. Great for any type of panel stitching. This camera material has a wide range of applications from amateur to professional.

Latex chamber is more commonly used in professional balls. It makes the ball more elastic and stabilizes the flight path.The surface of the latex chamber is porous, so the ball needs to be pumped more often.

• Backing layers

Lining layers are located on the inside of the ball and are glued to the tire. Their number and thickness vary depending on the model and manufacturer. They make the ball more durable, wear-resistant, help maintain its shape and parameters declared by the manufacturer.

Backing layers are made of foam, fabric or non-woven fabric, often reinforced with synthetic yarn.Foam and fabric make the ball softer, but absorb moisture, which can further affect the weight of the ball and the predictability of the flight path. Non-woven fabric – fibers treated with polyurethane resin, forms a “frame” of the ball, which does not absorb moisture and helps the ball quickly return to its original shape.

Size, weight, circumference of the ball for different age categories

For each age of the player, there are established standards for the size, circumference and weight of the soccer ball.These standards are approved by the FIFA organization. Many unscrupulous manufacturers do not monitor the quality of their products and their compliance with standards, which can lead to negative consequences, for example, injuries to players. We urge you to be careful and choose the right balls.

* Size # 4 is also for futsal balls. But the weight and circumference are different from the classic soccer ball.

In conclusion, I would like to summarize all of the above.Choose a ball for specific purposes and conditions of use. Read the description for the ball and what it is made of. If there is no information, then this is a reason to think well. Beware of counterfeits and do not save on health. A quality soccer ball is the key to a productive game.

How to properly stand on the goal in football. Goalkeeper tips on zdorovosport.ru

Home »Sports in the yard» How to stand at the goal

Two components can be distinguished in the actions of the goalkeeper – physical actions and moral stability.Both are very important. Even if the goalkeeper makes great shots, reflects difficult shots, but conceded, an offensive goal or for some other reason breaks down morally, then this is a very big disadvantage for him. Having broken down psychologically, the goalkeeper can no longer continue to stand on goal as well. Therefore, it is very important for the goalkeeper not to succumb to emotions, but to be calm and cold-blooded in any situation on the football field.
For example, if a goalkeeper missed an annoying goal and starts to get nervous about it, then he should calm down.You can imagine that this goal was not, but it is also imperative that you set yourself up to correct yourself and try not to miss such goals anymore.

How to stand on the goal correctly – don’t be afraid of the ball!

An important psychological moment in the successful actions of the goalkeeper is that one should not be afraid of the ball. Remember, if you really want to become a goalkeeper, you should not be afraid of the ball, you should not turn away from it, turn your back, close your eyes. You must always watch the ball and if it flies at you, then only without being afraid of it you can always reflect it.

Yes, you can get a very painful hit with a ball. And in order to avoid it and at the same time not hide from the ball, I advise you to properly overlap. How to do it? Everything is very simple. You cover the groin with your right hand, and your nose and solar plexus with your left. Hands can be changed. In this case, even if you do not have time to reflect the blow that flies at you, you are unlikely to receive a truly painful blow. However, you don’t have to stand like that all the time. So it is worth overlapping when an opposing player is not far from you with the ball and is preparing to strike a strong blow at your goal.

A very important point in a goalkeeper’s actions is that he must react well to shots. He should not try to guess the direction of the ball, but should closely follow the ball and be ready to parry the blow at any time. In order to reflect strong blows, you must have a good reaction and not be afraid of the ball. The easiest way to develop a goalkeeper reaction is with a partner. He hits you on goal from various distances, and you hit back.

Goalkeeper technique or how to correctly reflect blows

The goalkeeper’s technique differs depending on the size of the goal.On our sports grounds, there are mainly small gates – mini football. Therefore, let’s start with how to properly stand on such a gate.
If you are playing as a goalkeeper, you should take a position in the center of the goal, but if your field player interferes with your view, either ask him to step back or move a little closer to the post. The goalkeeper must see the ball.
In the event that the ball flies directly at you, then you can try to catch a weak blow. You can hit the ball into the ground, right in front of your feet, and catch it with a loan.It is better to repulse a strong blow, and it is necessary to reflect it not in front of you, but to the side. Accordingly, we direct the palms of the hands to the side for this.

Much more complicated is the case with the blows that fly into the corners of the goal. If the ball flies at the level of your head, slightly above it or at the level of the upper half of your body, in order to reflect the blow, it is enough to stretch out the closest arm or both arms to the side, if you do not reach it, you need to take a step to the side where the ball is flying and extend your arm, also you should pull the torso in this direction.If the ball is flying weakly, you can move to the side in two steps and the ball will then fly directly at you, then it will be easier to reflect it, and you can catch it
An important point is that your legs should be slightly bent at the knees. This will allow you to step to the side faster.

The goalkeeper must kick back kicks. When the kicks to the corner of the goal fly low, you should lunge with your foot to the side and stretch it as far as possible, so that it reaches the barbell, while the other leg should be bent and squatted on it.In the direction where the ball is flying, you must stretch the body along with the leg. For belaying, you must extend your arms towards the ball, because it can bounce and jump over your leg, or in order to reflect a blow that flies above your outstretched leg. This is not a very simple technique and must be trained. There is a good exercise for him. You squat on your left leg, and pull your right leg to the right of you, pull your torso towards the extended leg. Then change legs.

Part II.”The main mistakes of the yard goalkeeper”

Evolution of the soccer ball | Direct

Until the middle of the 19th century, it was made from leather-covered bladders of cows and pigs, and today it is mainly made of synthetic materials. But, whatever it may be in form and content, its purpose has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. Today we are getting acquainted with the evolution of the soccer ball.

From antiquity and the Romans ..

The whole essence of football is in a simple tool-ball. It must be of a certain type, capable of flying in the direction the player is pointing, and, most importantly, with a predictable bounce. Improved ball bounce and the enjoyment of playing with it have contributed a lot to making football the most popular and successful sport.

Our ancestors in ancient times liked to play with a ball, or something similar to a ball. The earliest evidence of an early form of soccer ball playing dates back to the 3rd century BC in ancient China.The ball was the skin of an animal stuffed with feathers and wool, which they tried to push into a net stretched between two bamboo poles about 10 meters high, which were most likely used for military training.

The ancient Romans played Harpastum, where the ball itself was small, about the size of a grapefruit, but quite heavy, not least because it was filled with sand. The Aztecs in Mexico developed their own game, and the ball was a stone wrapped in thick rubberized material.

In the Middle Ages, they often played with containers for wine

In the Middle Ages, a ball was made of anything, if only you could hit it. Leather wine containers were very well suited for this purpose. Later it was found that the inflated pig bladder had a good rebound, and it began to be used everywhere. It is not entirely clear how these bubbles were inflated, but there is evidence that this was done using primitive pumps.

The oldest surviving soccer ball is about 450 years old.It was found at Sterling Castle in Scotland in 1999. The ball itself was made from a pig bladder, enclosed in a leather sheath of gray leather.

Stirling Castle Ball

In 1836, Charles Goodyear patented vulcanized rubber. Before that, balls were dependent on the size and shape of the pig bladder. The more the bubble was asymmetric, the more unpredictable the ball manifested itself at the moment it was hit. In 1855, Charles Goodyear conceived and designed the first vulcanized rubber ball.

Goodyear rubber ball

Another inventor, Richard Lyndon, was looking for ways to replace a pig bladder for soccer balls and suggested replacing it with a rubber bladder. In 1862, he created the first inflatable rubber ball tube. But his first cell was very difficult to fill with air. Then he adapted something like a valve in the chamber, which made it possible to pump it with a pump. Lyndon’s camera won a medal at the London exhibition. This invention allowed for the serial production of the first round ball.

Mass production of balls at that time was first established by the companies “Miter” and “Thomlinson’s of Glasgow”. The balls were produced by order of the Football League of England, which was formed in 1888. The companies “Miter” and “Thomlinson’s of Glasgow” convinced buyers of the high quality of their production balls, since they were able to keep them and not lose their original shape for a long time. The highest quality varieties of skins were taken from the rump of a cow’s carcass and went to the production of more expensive models of soccer balls.The less durable scapula leather was used to produce lower quality balls.

The official size and weight of the ball was established in 1872. According to the established rule, the ball must be round in shape with a volume of 27 to 28 inches (68.6 cm-71.7 cm). The weight was set within 13-15 (368-425 grams). In 1937, the weight of the ball was increased to 410-450 grams and this rule remains in force to this day. The weight of the ball has remained unchanged, but over the past time, the materials from which the ball is made and the shape of the panels that make up its external structure have changed significantly.

Ball of the late 19th century

History of the soccer ball in the 20th century

By the beginning of the 20th century, the quality of soccer balls had improved significantly, the chamber was made of durable rubber and could withstand strong pressure. The ball consisted of an inner chamber and was covered with heavy brown leather. The outer shell of the balls was made of tanned leather and usually consisted of 18 sections (six groups, three stripes each). Each section was sewn together with a five-layer hemp lacing.The entire sewing process took place with the shell of the ball turned inside out. At the end of sewing, the ball cover was turned out with the seams, after which the deflated chamber was pushed into the incision. The very design of the chamber did not allow keeping the air inside for a long time, sometimes the ball had to be pumped up even during the match.

These soccer balls withstood kicks well, but playing with the head with such a ball was unsafe due to the heavy seams and the absorbent characteristics of the leather. The absorption of water by the skin during rainy weather made the ball heavy and caused many head injuries.The quality of the leather on the ball could have deteriorated significantly during one match.

Ball of the early 20th century

During the Second World War, further improvements in production technology took place. A thick fabric lining was added between the tire and the tube, which made it easier for the ball to hold its shape, and made the structure itself more durable. Water absorption has been reduced by using synthetic paints and other non-porous materials to coat the ball.A new type of valve was also designed, which made it possible to remove the laced hole on the ball tire.

But the quality of leather processing in post-war Europe left much to be desired. There have been cases when the ball could not withstand the load and simply burst during a football match. For example, twice in the 1946 and 1947 FA Cup finals, the ball burst and had to be changed.

In 1951, the use of a white soccer ball was permitted for the first time. He helped the fans to better see the ball on the field at dusk, when the field was illuminated with floodlights.The 1950s also saw the introduction of the first orange balls. They allowed spectators to see the ball better when it was snowing.

The fully synthetic ball was only produced in the early 60s. But genuine leather was still widely used in their production. Only in the late 1980s did synthetics completely replace the leather covering.

The official ball of the World Cup in Mexico

The design of the modern soccer ball was developed on the basis of the Buckminster Ball project. The shape of a Buckminster ball is a series of hexagons and pentagons that fit together to give the ball a rounded shape.The modern ball is classically composed of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. Together they form a sphere close to perfection.

The Official Ball of the 2006 World Cup in Germany was the Teamgeist when, for the first time in 36 years, Adidas departed from the classic 32-panel design. The frame and panels are thermally bonded for a smoother surface for better impact performance.

Now more than 40 million are produced worldwide.soccer balls annually. The price for them varies from a few dollars to 150 per unit or more. It is not easy to calculate the actual number of companies producing balls worldwide, but suffice it to say that about 90 of them have a FIFA patent for their production. This includes the largest manufacturers that control three quarters of the world market for this type of product. Small companies mainly sell their products in their own countries, but also have a small share of the global market.Small companies produce small numbers, up to several hundred per year.

Magnus Effect and FIFA ™ World Cup Balls

Beckham and Maradona twist kicks from the inside of the foot, and Eder, Neligno and Roberto Carlos twist kicks from the outside of the foot – all of them are backed by Magnus Effect . This phenomenon is named after the scientist who discovered it in laboratory conditions in the 1850s. The Magnus effect explains the lateral force acting on the sphere, which simultaneously rotates and moves forward.In this article, we will analyze this effect using the example of a ball used in the FIFA World Cup ™.

Sport meets engineering

Like many children around the world, I dreamed of becoming a professional football player, or, as they say in the USA, Canada and Australia, a soccer player. But I had two other passions as well: I was “turned” on cars and science.

I remember getting into aerodynamics in cars in the early 1980s. In particular, I was fascinated by the rivalry between Audi and Ford, companies that have reduced drag by redesigning their cars with a new aerodynamic shape.I also tried to learn how to serve twisted balls and understand what happens when you hit the ball hard with the outside of your foot. Over time, technical sciences have combined these hobbies of mine. Now, before the FIFA World Cup ™, I can share with you the results of ball modeling using CFD.

Ball flight with and without rotation

The rotation of the ball stabilizes the air flow around it, and therefore the flight path. Let’s start with the case where the ball is not spinning or is spinning slowly.

If the ball does not rotate , a Karman vortex street forms behind it. The moment the vortices separate from the ball, a random force acts on it. The vortex trail left by the ball not only increases drag, but also leads to noticeable deflections of the ball: anyone who has ever played with a bouncy ball on the beach or stood in the way of a knuckleball kick that changes the trajectory has seen them. This semi-chaotic behavior can be partially explained using a non-stationary model that can be calculated using the CFD module.

The drawing and animation below show the Karman vortex street behind the ball, rotating counterclockwise at the equator velocity equal to the forward velocity, that is, with a sufficiently low spin index. The animated image reproduces the solution to the corresponding 2D problem for the cylinder, but essentially shows the same effect.

Rotation and Magnus Effect

As the rotation speed increases, the flow stopping points on the ball merge and move beyond the surface of the ball.At this moment, the speed of rotation of the ball is ideally balanced by the speed of its translational movement [1]. If the ball did not lose momentum due to friction, this problem would have a stationary solution, in contrast to the problem of ball movement with a smaller twist, which was mentioned above. At this stage, the flight of the ball is stable and easily predictable, at least for the kicker or the goalkeeper.

The figures below show the velocity and pressure fields around a forward spinning ball as well as around a spinning cylinder.The air velocity at the equator is much higher on the side of the ball where the direction of rotation is the same as the direction of the air flow. On the other side of the ball, the spin of the ball and the flow of air work against each other.

Due to the difference in speed and tangential resistance, a pressure difference occurs on the two sides of the ball. This results in a force that pushes the ball to the side where the air velocity is higher – Magnus force acting on the ball. This effect also manifests itself in an increase in the lift coefficient with increasing rotational speed.

Turbulence and ball structure of the World Cup ™

Although the above models provide insight into the Magnus effect, the flight of a soccer ball is more complex than the ideal laminar flow model would imagine. The ball design for the world’s most popular sports game has been the subject of much research. This research has gained even more attention with the introduction of an unusual new design for the Adidas® Jabulani ball at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa ™.

The high coefficient of drag in laminar flow is due to the separation of the boundary layer, creating a low pressure area behind the ball, which slows down the flight of the ball in this mode. At higher flight speeds, the boundary layer becomes turbulent prior to separation and remains in contact with the surface even on the downstream side of the ball. This leads to a narrowing of the vortex wake and, accordingly, to a decrease in drag. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the Resistance Crisis and is shown in the illustration below.

A traditional soccer ball (see above) consists of 32 panels: 20 regular hexagons and 12 regular pentagons. In contrast to the traditional ball, the Jabulani had eight panels, which you can see on this finite element ball model:

Fewer seams, highlighted in black in the picture, were compensated by grooves that made the surface rougher. However, the aerodynamic characteristics of the Jabulani balls were noticeably different from the usual ones.

Fewer panels and smoother seams than traditional balls increased the high drag laminar flow area while reducing drag at high speeds. Due to the larger laminar range of traditional balls, Jabulani balls acquired the aerodynamic characteristics of beach balls over a wider range of speeds, which many goalkeepers complained about. In addition, the pattern interacting with the air flow led to sharp fluctuations in the direction of flight during knockball impacts [2].

The new 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil ™ ball, the Adidas Brazuca®, is composed of a total of six panels. In terms of the total length of the seams, it is at the same time comparable to traditional balls. In addition, the seams on this ball are deeper than on the Jabulani.

The drag coefficient versus Reynolds number for Brazuca was thus more like a traditional ball curve, as you can see in the graph below. The flight of the ball must be more stable over a wider range of speeds due to the turbulence caused by the seams.

Using the effect of rotation, turbulence and the Magnus effect

Players like Ronaldo can hit the ball powerfully and achieve predictable results, with the ball flying in a straight line away from the goal. When approaching the goal, the ball loses speed, the flow switches from turbulent to laminar, and its trajectory begins to bend in a random manner.

In contrast, the stable spinning ball flight associated with the Magnus Effect allows footballers such as Beckham and Maradona to throw canopies from thirty meters with an accuracy of half a meter.

The bounce and spin used by Eder, Neligno and Roberto Carlos, combined with the transition from turbulent to laminar flow, give the ball a predictable but unusual trajectory, similar to that of a guided missile.

Immediately after hitting the outside of the foot, when the ball is at its maximum speed, the turbulent flow around the ball and the low drag coefficient give it a reasonably straight trajectory. As the ball slows down, the spin ratio becomes higher and the Magnus effect is stronger.In other words, the ball first flies straight and then suddenly turns towards the goal.

This combination of turbulence and the Magnus effect is clearly visible in the famous free kick by Roberto Carlos in the match between Brazil and France in 1997. France’s goalkeeper, Barthez, only moved when it was too late, and the boy who was picking up the balls, who was standing a few meters from the goal, ducked. Both the goalkeeper and the boy thought the ball was flying very far from the goal!

Hint: You can check this video on YouTube to make sure this hit isn’t accidental.

Other incredible goals scored thanks to the Magnus effect can be found in this video. Players such as Messi, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, Beckham, Eder, Cruyff and many others have used this effect to trick goalkeepers.

Cars, Science and Balls World Championship ™

In the early 1980s, automobile advertisements always indicated the drag coefficient of the vehicle. I have always wondered why this important characteristic disappeared from published descriptions.However, instead of cars, I now calculate drag and lift curves for soccer balls and demonstrate their relationship to the Magnus effect. Remember that as you watch the incredible shots and goals at this year’s World Cup ™.

Further steps

Learn more about the tools available in the CFD module in COMSOL Multiphysics® for fluid flow analysis.

Literature

1. G. K. Batchelor, “An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics,” Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521 09817 3, Box 12 on p.364 ff, and pp. 424-427. Russian edition: J. Batchelor. Introduction to fluid dynamics “- M .: Mir, 1973.
2. J. E. Goff, “A Review of Recent Research into Aerodynamic of Sport Projectiles,” Sports Eng (2013), 16: pp. 137-154.
3. Download model: The Magnus Effect
4. Read more articles about sports physics on the COMSOL

Blog

Adidas and Brazuca are registered trademarks of adidas AG. COMSOL AB, like its subsidiaries and products, are not affiliated with, sponsored, funded or endorsed by adidas AG.

FIFA World Cup, 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup are trademarks of FIFA. COMSOL AB, like its subsidiaries and products, are not affiliated with, sponsored, funded or endorsed by FIFA.

90,000 BOOK OF REVIEWS – Exhibition of posters

We look forward to your feedback and comments on the exhibition
“One ball – thousands of stories. Football in Germany “

Reviews of visitors

Was at the opening and closing of the exhibition.I play football myself – goalkeeper. Liked everything. I invite friends from the team! Thank you!
Syktyvkar, Karpenko Philip, Secondary School No. 25, 31.05.2018

Thank you very much for the informative excursion! What technology has come to! By scanning the code, you can translate the text from German into Russian! And also watch the video! Well done!
Syktyvkar, Obedina S.I., 31.05.2018

Was at the closing of the exhibition. I managed to visit the final excursion, it’s very interesting! I didn’t know that women’s football is as popular in the world as men’s! Thanks for the interesting excursion.
Syktyvkar, Pimenova Marina Alekseevna, 31.05.2018

I came with my grandson to the library, and accidentally got on a tour of the poster exhibition. The eldest grandson plays football, so she listened to the guide about German football. Informative! More such events should be held! For children and adults! Develops horizons!
Syktyvkar, Kazakova Nina Alexandrovna, 05/30/2018

Thanks to the Goethe Center and the Youth Library for an interesting and unusual exhibition! The FIFA World Cup is coming soon, I’m rooting for the German team! The history of German football is very interesting! Thanks to!
Syktyvkar, Sabirova Svetlana, 30.05.2018

Were invited to the poster exhibition. I thought that only boys would be interested in football, but as it turned out, girls were also interested in football! The children were taught German for beginners. The excursions were conducted by university students. At the end of the excursion, a football quiz was held, and those who responded well were encouraged with small prizes. We were very pleased with the excursion. Thank you!
Syktyvkar, Stebakova I.V. and 24 students of secondary school № 16, 22.05.2018

Great opening of the exhibition, very interesting! The exhibition itself made a great impression! The guides told everything clearly and easily! I thank the Goethe-Institut and the Youth Library for the unique opportunity to learn so much information about German football!
Syktyvkar, Igor Tarachev, secondary school No. 16, 27.04.2018

I left a review in your VK group, I want it here too. Everyone liked the exhibition: informative bright posters, a meaningful excursion, an exciting extra-curricular event. This gave the children an incentive to participate in the football video competition in their city. Thanks to the organizers of the exhibition and the employee of the German Reading Room – Rachkovskaya Kaleria for the opportunity to plunge into the world of football. We did not stop there, we will also participate in the Science Day at school with this topic.The words “Become a champion with German!” Are true!
Bryansk, Ogloblina Galina, School 41, 18.04.2018

Thank you for this exhibition, great excursion! It was very interesting to learn the history of football in Germany, it was especially interesting to hear about women’s football (I didn’t know that there was a period in history when women’s football was banned by the Football Union), and the success achieved by women’s football teams in Germany deserves respect. I was also interested to know the German national football team, various football clubs and tournaments, legendary games.In general, it was very informative. Thanks to the guys who prepared everything and the Goethe Institute.
Krasnodar, Kravtsova Olesya, MBOU SOSH 47, 04/09/2018

Thank you very much for the excellent excursion, everything is interesting, lively.
Perm, MAOU “Boarding school number 85” (football), 06.04.2018

It was very interesting and informative. I myself am fond of football, and I liked this excursion. Thank you! 🙂 And good luck!
Tomsk, TPU, Meniustina Olga Nikolaevna, 06.04.2018

As a person who was not at all interested in football and knew nothing about it, I can say that thanks to 2 guides I managed to immerse myself in this atmosphere, the history of football. Thanks for the time in which I learned a lot of new things. 🙂
Tomsk, TPU, Shardakova Valeria, 06.04.2018

We liked everything very much! It was very interesting and informative, we learned a lot of new things for ourselves. I especially liked the history of women’s football, admired their desire to play football.Thank you very much for the educational excursion.
Perm, MAOU “Lyceum No. 4”, 8th grades, 05.04.2018

There was a wonderful exhibition today that impressed me. The girls spoke very well about the history of the German national team. It was undoubtedly exciting for those present. Danke.
Tomsk, Siberian State Medical University, Trukhanov Anton Evgenievich, 03.04.2018

Thank the Goethe Institut for this exhibition! Insanely interesting and informative, because German football has a great history.Many thanks to the girls, they were very responsible.
Tomsk, TSU, Mameneeva Karlygash Sovetbaevna, 03.04.2018

At the exhibition we were given a tour and told a lot of new and interesting things. I found out which of the football players belong to the “golden generation”, how the success story of the football team began. I was impressed by the story about the cafe service and what successes the women’s football teams in Germany have achieved, as well as about the integration and upbringing of difficult children and children from Syria.I will follow the World Cup games and wish the German national team and Leo every success! Thanks to the Goethe Institute, the Football Museum and all the creators, organizers and guides of the exhibition!
Volgograd, Svetlana Kamm, 03.04.2018

There was a good excursion, funny contests, we learned a lot about football. We will definitely visit other events of the Goethe-Institut. We love German !!! Thanks!!!
Tyumen, German language teacher Ivanova Evgeniya, Gorky School, 03.04.2018

Very interesting, informative, informative. On the eve of the upcoming World Cup in Volgograd 2018, it is very useful to find out information about the history of German football.
Volgograd, VolSU, 29.03.2018

Thank you for a very interesting story! Thanks to the exhibition, there was an interest in German football! Danke schön!
Perm, Marina Koscheeva, MAOU Lyceum No. 2, 28.03.2018

Thanks for the educational excursion! The games were very interesting! Das ist sehr interessant! Unsere Devise ist Fussball spielen – gesund bleiben!
Perm, Kostitsyna Ekaterina, MAOU Lyceum No. 2, 28.03.2018

This wonderful exhibition is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the history of football for those who have not been fond of it before, and to learn a lot of interesting facts and expand their horizons for football fans. The exhibition will not leave anyone indifferent and will certainly leave deep impressions. Thank you so much for the pleasure you have been involved in such an educational project!
Perm, Alikina Kristina, MAOU Lyceum No. 2, 28.03.2018

Many thanks to the German Reading Room for the interactive exhibition on the history of German football.I liked it, I didn’t know anything, but now …
Perm, 6 “B” class Gymnasium No. 8, 27.03.2018

I would like to say a big thank you to Tatyana Vyacheslavovna for organizing and conducting a tour of the exhibition. And also for organizing and conducting classes, quizzes and watching videos for 2nd year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​of PSSPU.
Perm, Korshunova N.G., Associate Professor of the Department of German and French Languages, Perm State Pedagogical University, 27.03.2018

Thanks to the German Reading Room for the guided tour.It was very interesting and instructive. Even though I was never interested in football, this exhibition really interested me!
Perm, Ostashova Elizaveta, student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, 27.03.2018

Thank you for the invitation to this wonderful exhibition. As a fan of German football, it was very interesting for me to listen to the story about the history of football in Germany and to learn a lot of new things.
Perm, Matveeva Daria, student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Perm State Pedagogical University, 27.03.2018

Many thanks to the organizers and guides of the exhibition! Very interesting and informative. Unique photos and facts. Special thanks to Til Peshel, Anastasia Tsyganova, Nune Tumasyan, Elizaveta Zorkina, Anastasia Khokhlova for interesting excursions.
Togliatti, Pugovkina N.A. MBU “Gymnasium №38”, teacher of German language Pugovkina N.A., 03/27/2018

Thank you very much for the excursion! It was interesting and informative! We learned a lot about the history of football in Germany.And not only … about history. We were very impressed by the photos of the players. Women’s football opening. THANKS!!!
Krasnodar, Irina Shabanova and 14 pupils of the MEC, 03/26/2018

We learned a lot of new and interesting things about German football: which city is the capital of German football, about the museum in Dortmund and about the history of women’s football. We also had fun playing, took joint photos and selfies. We are glad we attended this event, we had a great time! Thanks to the guides Katya and Lera!
Perm, MAOU SOSH 59, 26.03.2018

Thanks to the Goethe-Institut for the opportunity to participate in the exhibition. I learned a lot about German football. Ich mag Fussball. It was surprising that women’s football had been banned in Germany for a long time. Schönen Dank, Goethe-Institut. Schönen Dank, Deutscher Lesesaal. Lebendige Ausstellung, lebende Geschichte! Spannende Ereignisse und wunderbare Ergebnisse! Russland + Deutschland = Liebe zum Fussball! P.S. We are waiting for new meetings! Grade 7 cadets, teacher Elena Vladmirovna Serebryakova
Perm, Perm Cadet Corps of the Volga Federal District named afterHero of Russia F. Kuzmin, 25.03.2018

We are very grateful to the German Reading Room for the opportunity to get acquainted with the history of German football. The guide Emma Sh. Conducted an interesting excursion and quiz, to which the students were happy to answer. They demonstrated a good knowledge of German football and players. It is so wonderful that the Goethe-Institut organized this project. The exhibition is very informative and the children wanted to make a video.
Perm, Lecturer in. Yazyk Belevich L.V. and students of the MAOU Nizhnemullinskaya school of the Perm district of the Perm region, 03/25/2018

Very interesting and informative exhibition! Children have learned a lot! Some decided to learn German!
Volgograd, MOU Gymnasium 3, 03.24.2018

On behalf of the 12th school in Perm, we express our deep gratitude for the organized excursion to the exhibition “One ball – a thousand stories. Football in Germany”. The students received new useful information, got acquainted with the history of German football.We are waiting for new exhibitions! Vielen herzlichen Dank!
Perm, MAOU Secondary School No. 12, 23.03.2018

An exhibition about German football, organized by the resource center of the German language and culture, evokes only positive emotions in children who have visited it. Friendly guides, friendly organizers, cute gifts for children, new fascinating facts about football, interesting tasks – all this you will see if you look there. I would like to say a huge thank you to those who organize such events, this is an incredible work! Thanks!!!
Tyumen, German language teacher Natalya Pavlova and 12 schoolchildren of MAOU secondary school № 65, 22.03.2018

The exhibition about German football, organized by the Resource Center for German Language and Culture, evokes only positive emotions in the children who attended it. Friendly guides, friendly organizers, cute gifts for children, new fascinating facts about football, interesting tasks – you will see all this if you look there. I would like to say a huge thank you to those who organize such events, this is an incredible work!
Tyumen, Natalya Pavlova, School No. 65, 22.03.2018

I liked everything, it was very interesting. learned a lot of new things.
Volgograd, Daniil Tyutikov, 03/22/2018

Hello! I would like to express my deep gratitude for the exhibition and its organization to Irina Dubovitskaya and NCHZ NB TSU. I had great pleasure attending the opening of the event and taking part in the quiz organized by the volunteers! Immediately came the memories of my own experience and the visit to Germany in the summer of 2006.when the FIFA World Cup was held there! Good luck!
Tomsk, TSU, IF, OMO, Smolenchuk O.Yu, 22.03.2018

Thanks to Nastya, Vika and Dasha for the excursion. They told a lot of new and interesting information about football in Germany, after the tour I wanted to know even more facts about the football nation. We liked the excursion very much, we advise everyone to come!
Volgograd, MOU Secondary School No. 88, 21.03.2018

Thanks a lot. Everything is told in great detail and clearly.A lot of informative information about football in Germany. There was an interest in learning more about football. We advise everyone to visit this exhibition.
Volgograd, MOU SOSH 88, 03/21/2018

Many thanks to the German Reading Room for a tour of the football poster exhibition. The children chose the following characteristics: interesting, informative, informative, instructive, brilliant, fun, cool, toll !, perfect!
Perm, VG Biktaeva, teacher of German language Gymnasium № 2, 21.03.2018

Visiting the excursion was very informative and interesting! We learned a lot thanks to our guides Lera and Katya. We learned a lot of historical facts about football and met the players from the German national team. Thanks for the show!
Perm, MAOU Secondary School No. 1, 03/19/2018

Everything was very cool, interesting, fun, and most importantly, in motion! I got a lot of positive emotions and learned a lot about German football. Time flew by quickly.) Vielen Dank!
Voronezh, Yulia Kasyanova, Voronezh State Pedagogical University, 03/14/2018

Thank you very much for the tour, it’s nice to see the posters about women’s football, everything is very informative and accessible.
Volgograd, Maria Soboleva MOU Lyceum 5 named. Yu.A. Gagarin, 03/14/2018

Thank you very much for the excursion. It was interesting to learn a little more about German football, its history and outstanding personalities. It seems to me that such events should be held more often to popularize Germany and its culture.
Tomsk, Valentin Soloviev, TSU, IF, 03/14/2018

Everything was very cool! Interesting and informative in terms of the material. The guides are wonderful girls, it was very interesting to listen to and we listeners learned a lot. Interesting, creative, I would like such events to take place as often as possible!
Tomsk, Lapina Julia, TSU, IF, 03/14/2018

We were very impressed with this exhibition. We learned a lot, and the history of women’s football impressed us the most.We were also inspired by the success story of the German national team. We watched a report about a small village in which almost half of all residents are fond of football. Danke schön!
Perm, MAOU secondary school No. 77, 7 A class, 13.03.2018

We are grateful for a very interesting and informative excursion.
Volgograd, Sadovnikov Inna, 12.03.2018

We really liked it, we learned a lot. We learned how the fans support their team, learned about how the winning streak of the German national team began.Thank you!
Volgograd, Dzhamaldinov Jamaldin Alavdinovich, 12.03.2018

Thank you very much for the exhibition, everything is very interesting!
Saransk, Kristina Gorbacheva Moscow State University Ogareva, 12.03.2018

Many thanks for the exhibition “One Ball – Thousands of Stories”. Very exciting and interesting. There are many new regional geographic facts about football, about Germany as a football country. The guys liked it!
Perm, Kazakova V.V., teacher of the 10th grade MAOU secondary school № 1, Krasnokamsk, 11.03.2018

Many thanks to the organizers of the exhibition for the opportunity to get to know the fascinating world of German football and test their knowledge in a blitz quiz.
Volgograd, MOU gymnasium 3, 06.03.2018

Was on business in the library and happened to be at the exhibition and stayed for an hour! Great exhibition and interesting stuff. It’s good that you can read the translation from an electronic device and I liked the video. The topic of women’s football was new to me.I will definitely return to the exhibition with my son, he is a fan of Bavaria Munich.
Volgograd, Oleg Ninov, 03/04/2018

Thank you for the exhibition and excursion. My son and I really liked it. Let’s go play football and buy tickets for the championship. Perhaps in the summer we will visit the football museum in Dortmund.
Moscow, Zhilenko, 03.03.2018

Everything is very cool, very cool. It was interesting and informative. Thanks to the tour guides for the interactive.
Tomsk, TSU, A. OnskulI., Dyatlova K.E., 02.03.2018

The girls tell very interesting stories. It can be seen that they themselves are interested in this topic. The tour itself is very well organized.
Tomsk, Yulia Cherkasova, TSU, IF, 02.03.2018

Excellent storytelling. It is interesting to listen to. I learned a lot of new things. German football is very cool. Bundesliga Forever. Philip Lam honey. (Sorry to have finished) Thomas Muller is the best. Thanks everyone! I will come again. At the 2018 World Cup, I will still root for Russia.But I am sure that the German car will still show itself. Any national team will envy their technique and teamwork 🙂
Tomsk, TSU, Dmitry Stelmakh, 02.03.2018

Atmospheric event! You learn a lot of unusual and interesting things about football and understand that it is more than a game, especially for the Germans! Even I, who do not like football, enjoyed the exhibition. Thanks to everyone who took part in organizing the exhibition!
Tomsk, Nuruzova Malika, TSU, FZh, 2 course, 02.03.2018

Everything is great! Interesting exhibition! Thank you!
Tomsk, Sofia Rebrova, TSU, IF, OMO, 02.03.2018

Thank you! Everything was very interesting! I liked the welcome words of the guests, the exhibition and the organization in general !!!
Tomsk, Elizaveta Petrenko, TSU, IF, OMO, 02.03.2018

A very interesting excursion! I learned a lot of new and interesting things. Despite the fact that I am not fond of football, I liked that the leaders of the excursions told with heart, and not just skimmed through the jagged text. Thank you for hosting this event!
Tomsk, TSU, IF, gr.03705, 02.03.2018

Very interesting exhibition, well organized! Thank you very much to the volunteers for telling stories about German football!
Tomsk, Valeria Katman, TSU, IF, OMO, 02.03.2018

The entire team of 2nd year Germans at PSTGU expresses gratitude for the excursion conducted for us. This meeting exceeded expectations. Our guides were very welcoming, helpful and friendly. I liked that the tour was very informative))))) Thanks to the kind guides for the valuable advice on learning German)))) kumaooo)))
Moscow, Pstgu, 01.03.2018

Many thanks to the organizer of the event. Everything is always at the highest level! A great extracurricular activity for those who are learning German and those who are passionate about football. I was impressed by the meticulous elaboration of all stations and the prepared branded gifts. I would like to repeat the screening of the film “The Miracle of Bern”. This has never happened in our city. Thank you! Good luck!
Tyumen, Svetlana Vladimirovna Suvorova, FMS, 03/01/2018

A great idea to increase interest in learning German and popularize it among schoolchildren.Everything was well thought out and perfectly implemented! We will be looking forward to new bright and colorful events with great interest! Thank you very much
Tyumen, Kashina Lyubov Vasilievna, MAOU Secondary School 42, 03/01/2018

Excellent motivation for learning the language, a lot of impressions, bright, colorful, entertaining! Thank you very much to the organizers for such a chance to get even closer to Germany, its history, people!
Tyumen, MAOU SOSH 88, Olyunina Natalya Aleksandrovna, 03/01/2018

The entire team of Germans of the 2nd year PSTGU expresses gratitude for the excursion conducted for us.This meeting exceeded expectations. Our guides were very welcoming, helpful and friendly. I liked that the excursion was very informative)))))) Thanks to the kind guides for the valuable advice on learning the German language)))) kumaooo)))
Moscow, PSTGU, 03/01/2018

I express my deep gratitude to the organizers of the event. Events like these provide a powerful incentive to learn German. Keep it up!!!
Tyumen, Oksana Vikulova, GAOU TO Gymnasium of Russian Cultures, 01.03.2018
Alexey Ovchinnikov: Thank you very much for the excursion! Informative posters, well-chosen photographs. I was glad to see the ball autographed by the players at the gathering. Good guides (Alena and Katya), know the topic, know how to answer additional questions. I was pleasantly surprised that a significant part of the exposition is dedicated to women’s football.
Moscow, Ekaterina Nikolaeva, 28.02.2018

The exhibition was very exciting. The guys learned a lot of interesting things about the history of football in Germany.We learned about women’s football. We enjoyed the quiz they had with us. Thank you very much for the invitation to the exhibition. In the future, I would like to visit such events more often.
Perm, Berezina I.V., teacher of German language, MAOU Secondary School No. 122 with UIIYA, 28.02.2018

We visited the exhibition with my students. The guys really liked the excursion that the students gave us, and after the exhibition a wonderful lesson took place. Students learned many new words related to football, watched videos.All this contributes to an increase in interest in learning German. We express our gratitude to the Goethe Institute, the staff of the Bryansk Regional Library named after Tyutchev and BSU students for such an exciting event.
Bryansk, Tatyana Moiseeva MBOU Secondary School No. 1 of the town of Seltso, Bryansk Region, 02/28/2018

I would like to express my gratitude for the unusually interesting exhibition and fascinating story of volunteer Anna. It was interesting not only for an adult, but also for my 7-year-old son, who is just taking his first steps in learning German.Thanks to Anna, the exhibition was interesting to him too. Excellent German did not allow him to be distracted and delighted the ear.
Moscow, Denisova Natalia, 02.21.2018

I liked the excursion very much, the guide spoke interestingly in German and dubbed difficult moments in Russian, conducted a dialogue with the group. It was especially exciting to hear about the controversial match at Wembley Stadium. I highly recommend the exhibition!
Moscow, Olga, 02.21.2018

A very interesting and informative exhibition, a lot of interesting material about women’s football, about the fan movement in German football.Thank you so much for the opportunity to immerse yourself in the history of German football.
Taganrog, Galyan Anatoly TTS and ZhKhK, 02.21.2018

Quite an interesting and exciting exhibition. We learned a lot about German football. The posters are very cool, everything is clear!
Saransk, 512 group of IES MSU named after N.P. Ogareva, 12.02.2018

I really liked the exhibition. Here I learned new and interesting things about German football, about its history.I will tell my friends and classmates about it and will recommend them to visit this exhibition. Many thanks to Elena and Anna for an interesting excursion into the world of German football.
Moscow, Kazachenko Alexander, 17.02.2018

We had a very interesting excursion. We showed an exhibition dedicated to German football and videos on this topic. I came with my mother and we learned a lot about football, in particular about German football. We also learned about the history of German football.It is very pleasant that such rooms of the German language exist. This is a good development for people of all ages. I wish you continued success and prosperity.
Perm, Shvatskaya Lyubov, PTPTD, 16.02.2018

Thank you for the interesting exhibition, it turned out to be rich, but not tiresome. It’s great that the texts of the posters are also available to those whose knowledge of German is not enough to understand the original. I really liked the part on the history of women’s football, information about the fan movement, as well as thematic videos.I found out about the exhibition quite by accident, in the future I would like to see announcements of such events on a regular basis.
Moscow, Anastasia, 02/14/2018

The exhibition is wonderful and very informative for all visitors, regardless of age, we learned a lot of interesting things about the history of German football and also about women’s football. We did not expect that football is a part of their lives for women, EVERYTHING WAS GREAT.
Taganrog, School No. 5, 02/14/2018

It was very interesting and informative.The guys told and showed everything in detail. Thanks to everyone who created this exhibition!
Ust-Kishert, Popova Ekaterina. Kishert secondary school, 13.02.2018

The excursion was informative, interesting format: at the end of the excursion a quiz was held, and at the end a video was shown about a German club in which almost the whole city plays!
Perm, PGSPU, 344 gr, 13.02.2018

I liked the exhibition very much and especially the excursion around it with assignments, quiz.This form of work is very attractive for students and the excursion and exhibition will be remembered for a long time. Thank you for the excursion!
Perm, Sergey Shevyrin, Associate Professor of the Perm State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University, 13.02.2018

Toll! Super! Klasse! Wir freuen uns über die Ausstellung. Wir haben viel Neues über Fußball in Deutschland erfahren. Wir wünschen dem deutschen Team einen Sieg.
Perm, Lyzeum 10, 02/14/2018

A very unusual event for Perm.Interesting and informative. Thank you very much to the organizers of the exhibition, who tried to convey to the visitors the unique atmosphere of German football. It is interesting to learn about the fan culture in Germany, about the attitude towards fans and women’s football. Thank you very much))
Perm, Olga Milkova, 02/11/2018

I liked the exhibition. Interesting design, exciting excursion, many impressions from the event. I liked that attention was paid to women’s football.Many thanks to the organizers and participants of the meeting.
Perm, Fans of Zvezda-2005, 11.02.2018

Individual characters create one sports family, where FOOTBALL unites everyone! This is vividly reflected in the exhibition “One Ball – Thousands of Stories. Football in Germany”, which we recently visited in the regional library. F. I. Tyutchev. We are grateful to Rachkovskaya Kaleria Aleksandrovna for the invitation and the holding of the exhibition at a high level, as well as the organization of the lesson after the excursion in the German reading room.Among my high school students there were true fans of German football, for example, Timofey Pankratov, who visited the exhibition twice. The second time, he came in the form of a German footballer, and his team won the competition. Now he and his classmates are going to participate in the video competition from the Goethe-Institut.
Bryansk, Kilep Galina Leonidovna, gymnasium No. 7, 10.02.2018

Very interesting exhibition, great posters and good excursions)) thanks
Moscow, Anastasia Feoktistova, Euromag.ru, 08.02.2018

A very informative exhibition. Lots of facts from the history of German football. Thanks to the guide Anna, who told everything in detail. And many thanks to the organizers for the opportunity to participate in this event.
Moscow, Sennikov Dmitry, champion of Russia with Lokomotiv Moscow, 08.02.2018

The tour completely immersed us in the world of football, a sea of ​​impressions and emotions! Thank you very much to the organizers and volunteers!
Taganrog, School 23, 07.02.2018

We really enjoyed this event, which we attended safely. Thank you very much! Hope to visit this place again.
Perm, MAOU PKSH No. 1 named after Generalissimo Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, 06.02.2018

A group of my peers and I visited the exhibition “One Ball – Thousands of Stories” in the Gorky Library. There, a volunteer student told us about football in Germany. When and where football took place, the first awards of the German national team.The teacher and I took a picture near the stand with the football players. After that we went to the German language hall and watched two films, after which we answered the quiz, where I took 3rd place. The exhibition was very exciting and colorful, I liked everything.
Perm, Valeria Burdina, Perm College of Transport and Service, 05.02.2018

Our team visited a wonderful exhibition dedicated to German football, its development and the maintenance of football relations with Russia! We were wildly delighted, received a lot of useful information and learned a lot of interesting things.Many thanks to the volunteers who were helpful, they took us on an express flight on the history of German football, both men and women. I liked everything very much, thank you very much! We will be glad to once again receive an invitation to an exhibition in the Gorky library 🙂
Perm, Zvezda 2005, 02.02.2018

After the exhibition, I was inspired by German culture and even thought about learning German and visiting the country
Perm, grade 7b, 02.02.2018

Thank you for the meaningful and colorful exhibition about the history of football!
Perm, Duplex School, 02.02.2018

Thank you for the wonderful poster exhibition. It was very interesting to complete the assignments for the excursion listened to. It was curious for me to learn the history of German football and how every nuance of the football game is important for the people of Germany, it was not for nothing that the organizers called the exhibition “One Ball – Thousand Stories”.
Ulyanovsk, Elena Demkina, UlGPU, 31.01.20 18

Many thanks to the organizers of the exhibition for the sea of ​​positive emotions! 🙂 I have never been interested in football, but today the stories were so fascinating that now football seems to me to be quite an interesting and exciting sport.I liked the quiz very much, it’s great that people learning another language were also able to easily complete the tasks, it was fun 🙂 I was also interested in the fact that German footballers had different roots, but this did not bother them, they were united by the team spirit and love of football ! It’s very nice!
Ulyanovsk, Loginova Alexandra, ULGPU, 31.01.2018

I really liked the poster exhibition. The theme of German football has been very successfully collected, allowing you to learn not only about the history of this sport, but also to understand that football is not just a game for Germans.They express their interests through football. I was especially interested in the topic of women’s football. Previously, I did not think about the fact that before the football players had to be so hard, but they have achieved success in this sport, which motivates others to achieve their goal, to go against everyone. I liked the way the narrator conducted the excursion, he held himself well and did not worry at all, although we were only girls) I was interested in this topic, and at home I talked to my dad. He told me many more interesting things.Thank you for an interesting and exciting excursion.
Ulyanovsk, Polina Simanova, UlGPU, 31.01.2018

Today we visited the most interesting exhibition “One ball – a thousand stories”. Previously, I was not interested in football at all, but thanks to our guides, I was eager to get to know this sport better. The exhibition is very unusual and exciting. To all lovers and not only I would strongly advise to visit it!
Ulyanovsk, Anna Nonina, UlGPU, 31.01.2018

The site was well decorated.The information was presented in the format of history and interesting facts. Despite the fact that I am not an ardent football fan in general, everything went bright and informative for me. After getting acquainted with the interactive platform and the history of German football, a quiz was held on the knowledge of the material listened to. The most active were encouraged with small prizes. My rating is 10/10. I will attend more events of this kind in the future.
Ulyanovsk, Timur Minibaev, UlGAU, 31.01.2018

An interesting event, I was very impressed by the preparedness of the lecturers, almost all information was presented in their own words without the help of cheat sheets.There was a lot of useful information concerning not only football, but also the history of Germany in general.
Ulyanovsk, Evgeny Mukhin, 31.01.2018

The exhibition had a completed look, it was decorated with balloons in the colors of the German flag and an impromptu football goal. The images presented at the exhibition were very high quality and informative. Even not being an active football fan, I appreciated the efforts of the creators of the exhibition, imbued with the sporting atmosphere and spirit of Germany.
Bryansk, Alexander Sergeevich Pavlovsky, 20.01.2018

We were pleased to visit the perfectly organized exhibition in the Tyutchev Regional Library. Found in the process of studying the materials that were in one of the matches presented in the photographs. In general, everything was great, more often such events, interesting and different!
Bryansk, Natalya, 18.01.2018

Visited the opening of the exhibition. Interesting and informative exhibition.Thanks to the organizers for this opportunity. The exhibition tells about interesting facts and events in the history of the formation and development of football in Germany. I got great pleasure from visiting this exhibition.
Bryansk, Ksenia Anisimova, BSU im. Petrovsky, 15.01.2018

90 190 2017 90 191

visited the exhibition. We visited the exhibition in a great way, had fun, got a lot of pleasure. (Ali Zeynalov) I liked the exhibition very much, I learned a lot of informative things about German football.(Robert Mkrtchyan) I liked playing and taking photos. (Mitya Ozhgikhin) I really liked the facts about Germany. The test was very funny and it was a lot of fun. (Lukashin Vladimir) Konev Maxim says that Konev Maxim liked what was done thanks to Konev Maxim Gymnasium 157 named after Princess E.M. Oldenburgskaya.
St. Petersburg, Larisa Shtefanets 157 gymnasium, 12.12.2017

Thank you very much for the excursion! It was very interesting and informative. The students really liked it, especially the interactive one.Special thanks to the organizers of the exhibition for this opportunity.
Rostov-on-Don, DSTU, 12.12.2017

I liked it very much, a good guide! Arkhangelsk, students of NArFU, 09.12.2017
Today we visited an exhibition dedicated to football in Germany. This gave us a lot of new knowledge, we saw many interesting photos. After the excursion, we completed exciting tasks that helped to consolidate the material received. Thanks for a great time!
St. Petersburg, Maria Artyushkina, 08.12.2017

The exhibition was informative and interesting. We have learned a lot. I advise everyone to come!
Volzhsky, Slepukhina Angela / School number 18, 12/07/2017

Excellent excursion. Wonderful guides. The material was presented in the best possible way. I remember the game that relaxed and brought us closer together. The information is accessible, understandable and will not be superfluous. Many thanks to all those who took part in this event.
Arkhangelsk, Students of NArFU, 07.12.2017

A group of students in grades 9-11 visited the poster exhibition. It was very interesting and informative to learn about the history of German football, the leading players of German football teams. The guys really liked the game “Forward, goalkeeper, referee”. Great presenters Alexey and Valeria! Thanks!!! Volzhsky, Anna Kursova / MOU Secondary School No. 27, 06.12.2017

A very interestingly arranged exposition that showed us football in Germany from a completely different perspective, thanks to the guide’s story and her good contact with the group, we learned a lot about such an important aspect of culture Germany.Thanks to everyone who arranged this exhibition to show Germany primarily as a football nation. We are waiting for the World Cup in Russia to visit the game of the German national team.
Arkhangelsk, VShSGNiMK S (A) FU, 04.12.2017

I really liked it, even women’s football!
Volzhsky, Timofey Matveev / Gymnasium School No. 37, 12/04/2017

December 2, 2017 28 students of 5th grades of the private educational institution “Hanseatic Boat” in Kaliningrad visited the exhibition “One Ball – a Thousand Stories” in the Cultural and Business Center of Russian Germans …We want to say “Thank you very much!” volunteers who conducted a lesson on the exhibition, as well as Vladimir Nikolaevich Bulychev – director of the Goethe German Language Study Center – Institute in our city for good organization. This lesson is more than just a walk around the exhibition, the guys performed interesting tasks on the topic, learned a lot of new interesting information, and received cool gifts. I would like more such events)!
Kaliningrad, Yulia Asmolovskaya, private educational institution KEL “Hanseatic Ladya”, 02.12.2017

The exhibition is informative, various aspects of the history of the formation of football as a sport and its significance for Germany are presented.Accompanying materials in Russian and German, various types of assignments of different difficulty levels after visiting the exhibition and before visiting the exhibition greatly motivated the students. Kaliningrad, MAOU SHILI, 01.12.2017
Skilled workers, everything went well, all great, thank you all and most of all we liked the task at the end of the excursion.
Arkhangelsk, 27 (9), 01.12.2017

We visited an exhibition dedicated to football in Germany. We liked.
Arkhangelsk, Alexandra, 01.12.2017

I really liked the exhibition.
Yekaterinburg, Dima Shcherbakov, school No. 41, 01.12.2017

I liked the exhibition of posters very much. We are learning German and have learned a lot about football in Germany. The excursion was very interesting and informative. Thanks a lot.
Arkhangelsk, school No. 43, 30.11.2017

Thank you for the interesting tour of the One Ball – Thousand Stories exhibition. We were very glad to learn new facts about German football, we are waiting for the championship games in our city! Thanks a lot! Nizhny Novgorod, employees of the Regional Library named afterLenin, 21.11.2017
Today we visited an exhibition with 7th grade students. This is the second visit of our gymnasium students. All students are delighted with the organization of the exhibition! Interesting posters, material submission, quiz, prizes … Many thanks to Gizella Bakaeva for the invitation to this event! We will be back with other students !!!
Ufa, Gymnasium 3 Teacher Abdrakhmanova L.M., 11/21/2017

Thank you very much for an interesting and informative excursion! Thanks to the volunteer girls.Well done! My guys really liked it!
Nizhny Novgorod, senior coach of the Sports School No. 8, 20.11.2017

I liked the excursion and the exhibition very much. We learned a lot about football in Germany. Thank you for the exhibition.
Arkhangelsk, school No. 43, 20.11.2017

Great presentation! It was exciting! Very helpful staff. We express our deepest gratitude!
Ufa, Yana Novichkova frgf, 15.11.2017

Thanks to the girls for the excursion. I liked everything very much.It was interesting even for those who do not know much about football))
Ufa, BashSU frgf 307 l / o, 11/15/2017

We visited the exhibition with 7th grade students who started to study German this year and still have little idea about the Realities of Germany, in particular about football. Thank you very much for the exhibition! Very informative and useful) Ufa, Elvira Khidiyatova, Lyceum 161, 01.11.2017
The exhibition is very informative and interesting, especially for children learning German. They are attracted by interactive tasks, an optional format of tasks.
Kazan, Nadezhda Dalyzina, MBOU “School 9”, 01.11.2017

The idea of ​​the exhibition is very attractive for young people, thanks to the Goethe-Institut for the opportunity to learn more about the country and the language!
Kazan, Vitaly Smirnov, TPO RPP SS, 01.11.2017

Mega-interesting excursion! Thank you very much for an exciting and affordable journey into the world of German football!
Nizhny Novgorod, students of N.N. Minina, 3rd year student, 15.11.2017

Sometimes it seems to me that my life is football, and I am a ball in it, so I treat football with special trepidation))) Aliya Amirovna gave my group a very interesting tour of the exhibition.It was very informative and educational! Thank you so much!!!
Kazan, Adelya Khasanova KFU, 11/14/2017

I really liked this event as I am very interested in football, it was very interesting.
Samara, Gymnasium 4, 11/14/2017

We liked the exhibition very much. It was very interesting, informative, a lot of different information. We learned a lot of new and really exciting things. Volunteer guides talked about many football games, events, teams and players.And also they are perfectly prepared for the exhibition. We would like to express our deep gratitude for such an exhibition in our city. We will be very happy to visit exhibitions dedicated to various topics about Germany. Thanks!!!!!!
Ufa, BashSU frgf 405n / o, 14.11.2017

Many thanks to all the organizers of this wonderful exhibition! Excellent organization, lots of interesting information and only positive emotions! We really enjoyed visiting! Special thanks from the most dedicated fans of the Bundesliga football teams and the German national team! ❤️ Vielen Dank! Ufa, Elmaz / Mine / MBOU Education Center 76, 14.11.2017 90 180

Having visited this exhibition, we got pleasant emotions, good impressions remained. We really liked the story of our guide about the history of German football. We were also impressed by the German football system. We very much hope that our country will follow the example of this country. Kazan, KNITU-KAI, 12.11.2017

Thank you very much. We really enjoyed. The exhibition was informative and interesting with a pleasant atmosphere and a friendly attitude of volunteers: Anastasia and Dana.Special thanks for the prizes.
Samara, SGOAN, 10.11.2017

I would like to thank all those who took part in the creation of this exhibition for the opportunity to learn something new and interesting about Germany. It was very informative and informative, and bright and juicy pictures were pleasing to the eye. It was a pleasure to know that such dedicated people live in Germany.
Kazan, Smirnova Elena Sergeevna kfu, 10.11.2017

The exhibition interested me very much! To me, as a fan of the German national team.it was nice to hear such competent guides. Nizhny Novgorod, Andrey Bespalov, 09.11.2017
Thank you very much for an interesting and informative excursion in the light of the upcoming world championship. The knowledge of the German language of the guides is excellent! Keep it up!
Nizhny Novgorod, Olga, 09.11.2017

Cool! Interesting and beautiful! And the quiz with super prizes. Samara, grade 7, 09.11.2017
The exhibition is very interesting! Serious preparation and a responsible approach to business are immediately evident.I recommend visiting to everyone, if you do not know anything about football, then be sure that after visiting this exhibition, your interest will definitely wake up! I would especially like to note the beauty and brightness of the posters, interesting thematic processing and a lot of positive emotions from the presentation of information! And, most importantly, the vocabulary has been enriched! I hope such exhibitions will be held more often!
Kazan, Polina Akhmetzyanova KFU, 08.11.2017

We visited a German house with a group, and we had a wonderful excursion dedicated to German football.It’s great that everything on the posters is written in German, because you become even more integrated into the German language and culture of Germany. For myself, I learned a lot of new things about German football and interesting facts about it. I enjoyed visiting this exhibition, which was also held in my own city.
Kazan, Shevchenko Anastasia KFU, 08.11.2017

I liked the exhibition very much. If before I knew practically nothing about German football, after visiting this exhibition I formed a clear idea of ​​what the rich history of football in Germany is and how football is developing to this day.A useful addition was the fact that the information was presented in German, which I am currently studying at the institute. Thanks to the organizers for the opportunity to plunge into something new!
Kazan, Dilbar Akhmetova KFU, 08.11.17

Thank you very much to the organizers for such an exhibition! It was very interesting to plunge into the atmosphere of football, especially on the eve of the 2018 World Cup. Many new facts about football in Germany in German, told in accessible language, will be remembered for a long time.The hall contains large posters with colorful photographs and brief information. There would be more such events in our city!
Kazan, Zamaleeva Aliya KFU, 08.11.2017

On November 8 we visited the exhibition “One Ball – Thousands of Stories” with the group. It was very interesting. The information presented at the exhibition was very informative. I was not interested in football until this moment, but after this exposure I wanted to know more. It was very unusual to plunge into the world of football for a while.In addition, during the exhibition, I learned a lot of new vocabulary, which, I am sure, will be useful to me in the future. The post-show quiz was also very interesting.
Kazan, Maslenkova Maria KFU, 08.11.2017.

If you are interested in football and know or are learning German, then this exhibition is for you! Interesting exhibition, pleasant atmosphere, I definitely recommend visiting!
Kazan, Elena Nazarcheva, 11/8/2017.

We have only been learning German for 2 months and have just started learning something about the culture of Germany.At the exhibition “One Ball – a Thousand History” we learned not only how many times the German national team became champions, but also what a huge role football plays for all segments of the population: it teaches, helps to find your place in society and supports! Thank you for such an interesting excursion into the world of German football !!!!
Nizhny Novgorod, students of N.N. Minina, 2nd year student, 08.11.2017

A very interesting and useful excursion for self-education! I learned a lot and enjoyed the sound of the German language! Thank you!)
Kazan, Lyubov Satushkina, 07.11.2017

It was very exciting to visit this exhibition, we liked the form of studying the topic of football and presenting information. We did a great job in teams and enjoyed it. After attending this event, we became more interested in football! Thanks.
Samara, Anastasia Belashevskaya SGOAN, 07.11.2017

We really liked this exhibition, we learned a lot of interesting and new things about German football, especially the quiz, in which we received many good prizes.
Samara, grade 6a school N114, 06.11.2017

I really liked it. Those who were told very well, they know what they are talking about. I really liked it. Yekaterinburg, Pashina Anastasia G. Berezovsky, 03.11.2017
The exhibition “One Ball – a Thousand Stories” not only tells about football in Germany, but also brings together different people. He talks about how football helps society.
Yekaterinburg, Magrupova Sofia School No. 9, 03.11.2017

Very accessible presentation of information during the excursion.I learned a lot of interesting facts. It was nice to hear fluency in German!
Nizhny Novgorod, Irina Kolesnikova, 30.10.2017

I liked the excursion! everything was top notch. Explained cool and intelligibly. Das war ganz schoen!
Nizhny Novgorod, Alexander Glazov, 30.10.2017

Thank you very much for the excellently organized exhibition! A lot of useful, interesting and necessary information. The tour guides are amazing! They speak excellent German and are very friendly.Both children and adults got great pleasure!
Nizhny Novgorod, teacher of the German language at school No. 85 Eremchenko Marina Gennadievna, 10/30/2017

I liked the exhibition very much, we learned a lot of interesting things about the German national team, successes and famous athletes. The posters about women’s football were especially fascinating. Thanks for the worksheets for the exhibition, they will come in handy in extracurricular activities.
Yekaterinburg, Nozdracheva N.N. MAOU Gymnasium No. 35, 30.10.2017

We have visited your exhibition with great pleasure.An interesting form of holding, the guys answered the questions of the quiz and received prizes. Thanks to the organizers and volunteers. Until next time. Everything was great!
Ufa, Savina Galina Ivanovna MBUSOSH 129, 10/30/2017

I really liked the excursion. There were quizzes with gifts and souvenirs. You can learn a lot about football, and about Germany itself. Thank you very much to the guides for hosting such a wonderful event.
Ufa, Adelina Shafikova MBUSOSH 129, 30.10.2017

The excursion is very interesting and educational.We learned a lot and interesting things.
Ufa, Diana Urmantseva MBUSOSH 129, 30.10.2017

Thank you very much for a very interesting and informative exhibition and excursion about the history of football in Germany. Bright, colorful posters, interesting facts about the key games of the German Bundesliga and the history of the development of women’s football. I liked everything very much.
Rostov-on-Don, Oksana Lomova, Southern Federal University, 28.10.2017

An interesting event. I was delighted with a large and interesting quiz, useful information and positive moments.It was a place where I could show my knowledge of German football and fully enjoy the process.
Samara, Vasily Gurkin, 28.10.2017

The exhibition is very informative! The guys got acquainted with the most interesting facts from the history of German and world football. Even the “pros” have learned a lot today. Great presentation form, exciting assignments and quiz questions! Thanks to the organizers.
Samara, Alla Maksimova, Gymnasium 1, 28.10.2017

Very informative and interesting exhibition about football in Germany.Everything was clear; posters, lecture and stickers are very cool. It was especially interesting to learn about how women’s football was born.
Kazan, Galimova Faila, Kazan Federal University, 26.10.2017

All norms.
Rostov-on-Don, Oleg Udodov, school 53, 26.10.2017

Thank the organizers! It was very interesting and informative !!! Showing videos, posters! Thank you! Ufa, Khusaenova Alsu UTZHT 10/26/2017

Aesthetic and excellent.
Ufa, Pavel Mikhailov, UTZhT, 26.10.2017

Lieber Goethe-Institut! Thank you very much for such a great opportunity to visit one of the museums in Germany right in our city! This is something incredible. Learning, exploring new things is always interesting. Therefore, we were glad to come here and immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of German football) Vielen Dank!
Samara, Gymnasium 1, 25.10.2017

A lot of new things can be learned from this exhibition. We are writing a report for NOU in the section “Country Geography of Germany. German Language”. This exhibition helped us a lot to learn more about German culture.It turns out that there are so many amazing facts in the history of football in Germany.
Nizhny Novgorod, pupils of schools No. 12 and 70, 25.10.2017

Thank you for the exhibition. I liked it very much and a lot of interesting information. The girl-guide told us in detail about the presented posters. I was interested in the presented books about German football. THANK YOU!
Nizhny Novgorod, Vyacheslav and Anastasia, 24.10.2017

Our entire team was delighted with the informative exhibition, exciting tasks and unexpected surprises.Many thanks to the organizers!
Samara, Gymnasium No. 1, 23.10.2017

I liked everything very much, we learned a lot of interesting things about football. Everything is cool, I advise everyone. Rostov-on-Don, Artyom Demin, 21.10.2017

The exhibition was very interesting, we learned a lot about football and the history of German football. The tasks presented to us made the brain work!
Rostov-on-Don, Gymnasium 14, 21.10.2017

Thank you very much for this wonderful exhibition! Very interesting information.It was nice to look at the posters and remember some of the games, for example, the 2013 Champions League final. Football and the German language play a big role for me, and you managed to put it all together!
Nizhny Novgorod, Students of N.N. Dobrolyubova, 2nd year student, 20.10.2017

The exhibition was very interesting, we learned a lot about football and the history of German football. The tasks presented to us made the brain work!
Rostov-on-Don, Gymnasium 14, 21.10.2017

I liked everything very much, we learned a lot of interesting things about football.Everything is cool, I advise everyone.
Rostov-on-Don, Artyom Demin, 21.10.2017

I liked the exhibition very much. All the posters were interesting, one could even guess what it was about. I love German, that’s why I understand posters well, I want more of these exhibitions 90 180
Samara, Lipatova Veronika, school 148 (6 “a”), 18.10.2017

We with our team of 15 people visited the exhibition “Ein Ball – viele Geschichten”.We liked the exhibition very much, especially the tasks and quiz questions. Thanks to the organizers!
Gymnasium 133, Samara, 16.10.2017

Today, our team from gymnasium No. 133 visited the exhibition “Ein Ball – viele Geschichten”. There we got acquainted with the history of German football, took part in an interesting quiz, in which we received excellent prizes, and learned a lot of new and interesting things. Many thanks to the organizers of the exhibition!
Gymnasium 133, Samara, 16.10.2017

Organized, colorful, historically correct.Children work not only with their eyes, but also physically. f If they have questions, they can turn to volunteers for help. I hope that Gymnasium 32 will still be able to visit this exhibition.
Zelenogradsk, Vladimir Makeev, 16.10.2017

Modern, interesting, informative. The exhibition is cool not only for schoolchildren and football fans, but also for people who have not been interested in football until now.
Kaliningrad, Efremova Tatyana, Ministry of Education, 16.10.2017

We are very pleased to have attended this event. Very informative.
Kaliningrad, MAOU SOSH 41 Sergeevskaya Irina Vladimirovna, 16.10.2017

I was never seriously interested in football, and even more so in German. Now I can answer the quiz questions better. Thanks to the wonderful, friendly, charming and very interesting volunteers. I will recommend the exhibition to my friends.
Rostov-on-Don, Mikhail Levchenko, 15.10.2017

An interesting program and educational excursions.
Rostov-on-Don, Dzhalalov Alexander Georgievich, 15.10.2017

A very interesting program. Friendly and fun communication with the organizers made this evening memorable.
Rostov-on-Don, Manvelyan Arina Robertovna, 15.10.2017

Very interesting exhibition, friendly volunteers and good organization
Rostov-on-Don, Boyko Polina, 15.10.2017

Everything is great! I really liked it! I invite my friends.
Rostov-on-Don, Daria Chernobrovkina, 15.10.2017

I was at the Goethe-Institut and saw posters about the history of football in Germany. Even did not realize that it was so interesting. And I really wanted to go to Dortmund to the football museum!
Maria, Moscow, 12.10.2017

In the hall of the Goethe-Institut – an exhibition about football! Blimey!!! True, everything is in German (captions to photos, for example), but you can see the translation through the QR code! Interesting! Unusually so …
Lisaveta, Moscow, 12.10.2017

90,000 How to properly play without the ball in football: tips, training

The player in possession of the ball can have a decisive influence on the course of the match, however, his supportive teammates can also contribute to the success.Playing off the ball means helping your teammates even when you don’t have the ball. Each player has only a few minutes of possession of the ball during a soccer match, which means how he plays without the ball is very important.

Successful positioning

The ability to “open correctly” is exactly the same skill of choosing a successful position on the field. In simple terms, the player should actively offer himself to his teammates so that they have more options for developing attacks.It is necessary to break away from the opponents, to enter free positions on the field. The position on the field must change constantly, as the opponents do not stand still and try their best to harm the development of the attack. You should not move closer to the ball, even if it is in possession of a teammate. It is much better to move to the point where the transmission can supposedly be given.

Fraudulent movements

Spoofing involves moving to an advantageous position without further receiving a pass from a teammate.Instead, the pass can be given to another player who will open at this time and take a better place on the field. One example of deceiving moves is to give your opponent confidence that you are about to receive a pass, but actually let the ball go to your teammate.

Reaching comfortable corners

This concept refers to how important your spotting position is to the team. A good angle suggests that a teammate will see at least one good attack development option.You should always be in a position so that your teammate can pass straight ahead and not to the side. Remember that it is more difficult for opposing defenders to calculate and neutralize a pass at an obtuse angle, which means that the likelihood that such a pass will pass is much higher. Another option for a deceptive movement is to run away from the ball, leading the opponent behind him so that the team-mate in possession of the ball has the opportunity to move towards the opponent’s goal.

Play and Open Up

Quite often from the mouth of the coach you can hear the phrase “Play it out and open up.”Any player wants to own the ball, but immediately after passing the ball to a partner, he needs to be supported again. You need to constantly move to find a suitable position to support the attack.

Tennis serve

The serve is the second most important hit in the game … after the service, of course. You cannot win games on your opponent’s serve if you have a bad hold. And if you don’t win his serve, you won’t win the match either. (some of you will say that you can win in a tiebreak … but you know how much effort it takes to win a tiebreak.)

Without a doubt, the best serving in modern tennis belongs to André Agassi.

His serve as a superb serve allows him to win even on surfaces such as grass, which are poorly suited to his playing style. Pete Sampras once stated in a television interview that he worked hard on a move to win at Wimbledon.

Despite all of this, many of us don’t really spend enough time improving our serve reception.

The first thing I want to say about service reception is that it usually gets better as the match progresses.Why? First of all, because we begin to “see” the ball better … especially if the opponent serves more powerfully. Secondly, we begin to better “predict” the movement of our opponent’s serve. Finally, the balls literally slow down due to the fact that they “spoil” after each hit and bounce. I say this because a tennis player needs confidence in her / his serve and needs to understand that the technique will surely improve as the game continues … so be patient to learn how to take the serve.

Position on the court can play an important role in how successful and uncomfortable your opponent is at deflecting his serve. Sometimes you have to consider the type of coverage in order to determine your starting position at the reception. Your opponent’s serving power is also important. In general, on fast surfaces, players play on an upward ball, especially when the opponent’s serve is strong enough. However, if you watch Roland Garros matches, you will notice what the rebound is on most European clay courts.You can see how high the ball bounces off the court. In addition, clay court players rightly believe that their opponents are unlikely to rely on the power of their serve or play from the summer on such a surface.

I advise you to stand about one or two paces behind the back line on your first serve. During the second serve, you should be more confident and get into a position where your sneakers touch the back line. Whatever happens, be more confident on the second serve.

Almost every player has a signature hit.For me it is a blow to the right. This suggests that I should take a position so that I can deflect the ball aimed at me for a two-handed backhand. When counting evenly and with other important balls, I move a little to the left. Thus, I create a situation where I can win the ball with a kick from the right. It also allows me to choose between a backhand or a backhand when the ball isn’t flying fast enough.

Players with good serve have their own rituals to help them make the right serve move.I think that tennis players who have a good serving technique also have their own no less worthy rituals. I am always confident when I take three steps forward before taking the serve. This, of course, means that I will have to step back again in order to get into a position that is comfortable to receive. I usually pluck the strings of the racket in preparation for the reception. When I prepare for a reception, I also focus my attention on the area of ​​the court where I am going to send the next ball. Once I have decided this question for myself, I take a few steps forward in order to get into the position from which I will receive the serve.Now I perform my ritual, which I mentioned, as quickly as possible so that the opponent and the judges do not have any suspicions that I am delaying the rally. I have never had an opponent who complained about my long preparation for the reception.

The way you hold your racket at the reception is the key to success, but it is different for each player. I accept with a two-handed backhand. So, with my most comfortable grip, my dominant hand (right for me) is in a semi-western right hand grip (which I use for forehand).My left hand holds the racket loosely enough with an almost continental grip. Thus, I can hit from the right, or, with a slight twist of the racket, I can hit with a two-handed backhand (for this hit I use the continental grip for the dominant hand and the eastern grip for the non-dominant hand for the backhand). The only time I can change my grip is with a backhand. Against left-handers, I use my usual two-handed back grip … my dominant hand is in the east grip for a backhand, and my left hand is almost in the east grip for a backhand.I do this because I understand that left-handers will feed under my backhand – this is most likely. I want to be fully prepared to immediately adapt to such a presentation.

Most players with a one-handed backhand use a very loose continental grip for their dominant hand while keeping their non-dominant hand on the neck of the racket. This “center” dominant hand grip allows the player to rotate the racket quickly and change the grip of the left or right hand. This “spin” of the racket is usually done with the non-dominant hand, which is on the neck of the racket.

Whichever grip or combination of grips you feel works best for you (and I encourage you to experiment), be sure you are not gripping too tightly. Having a “death grip” on the racquet handle will slow down any necessary grip changes and will usually prevent you from achieving the most comfortable movements with your racket.

I usually keep my feet shoulder-width apart when preparing to receive. As soon as I see that the opponent is tossing the ball (I bent my knees low in anticipation of the toss of the ball by the opponent), I have to get up.Your entire body weight should be on your toes, then a bounce with a little forward bounce, which will allow you to move in any direction fast enough … this is very important on the serve. Concentrating body weight on your toes while serving your opponent is bound to lead to success in my opinion. Raznozka shortens your reaction time when serving an opponent … The player who is often served aces is a sedentary player.

Where are you looking when the opponent starts his / her serve move at what I would call the most critical moment? Do not look at the ball while it is in the server’s hand. It is sufficient that you catch the moment the server makes contact with the ball … which usually happens about 3 to 4 feet above her / his head. From the time the server starts the serve motion until the moment of contact, my eyes are focused on this area above the server’s head. As I did this, I noticed that I was practically “guessing” the direction of the ball and was moving faster.

I developed this habit of looking over the pitcher’s head as a result of playing a lot of American baseball.I’ve always been a very good hitter in baseball. Why? Well, partly, I suppose, because I would never pay attention to the server’s fear. Instead, I would look at the area where the pitcher was going to toss the ball. At the same time, I became more able to predict his movements.

Now I know that some of you might say, “But if I don’t look at the pitch of the pitcher, I won’t be able to feel the body language that would tell me if he / she wants to pitch harder or otherwise.” …Well, in this case, it is necessary to include lateral vision in the work. Your eyes are focused on the area above the pitcher’s head, but they can still see some nuances of the pitcher’s body language and movement that indicate exactly how he is going to serve. In fact, I find that my peripheral vision is usually more accurate at “guessing” these actions than if I would be deliberately observing the server’s body during the serve movements.

There is one thing in all serve that is most essential … is a short swing! When you think it is short enough, shorten it a little more.A short swing will not diminish the power of your move. With today’s modern racquets, the opposite is true.

The key to receiving power is calculating … to hit the ball before it reaches its highest bounce point. This is the reason for Agassi’s devastating reception. He hits the rising ball better than any other tennis player. I certainly don’t think most of us will be able to do exactly the same as André in this sense, but we can do better than we do at present.Try to play ascending, it will help you. If you look at the nature of the blows from half-flight, you will see that these blows are played on an ascending ball, that is, we make very little movement with the racket, or we do not make any movements at all. Thus, a half-flight hit is more like a block than a hit. However, a half-shot has a certain tempo because it is based on the power of the ball itself when it is already flying with a certain force.

When teaching people how to improve their serve, I do a little practice test.I just serve her or him and force him or her to just block the ball from moving with the racket … without using a swing or any other movement. They are immediately amazed that they can easily direct the ball on the reception and still hold it deep enough by simply making a slight movement with the racket. Usually they immediately begin to believe in the power of a short swing.

However, there is another lesson that can be learned in training. Each player will always have to make a blocking move.This is especially necessary when you are “gripped” by a serve that is going straight at you or when a very deep serve is being directed at you at a high tempo. You need to practice taking such blocking feeds! Trust me, it helped me score a few points in some important moments of the match.

Finally, there is sometimes a need to take a strong serve. Often, our partners in training are not strong enough to serve at a high pace, how strong our opponents are in the match.So, here’s what the professionals do.

Have your partner serve you … but she / he should be standing a few feet behind her or his service line … and not on the back line. It may take a few serves to get used to this position, but soon you will feel like you are working on a very strong serve. This shortening of the distance increases the pace and shortens your reaction time … two things that really matter when taking a strong serve. At one time I saw Michael Chang preparing for the match against Goran Ivanisevic.His brother, Karl, stood on the service line and served Michael in different directions, both with incredible spin and very powerful. After about the first 15 innings, Michael could take with all his might. He just put the balls from the reception where he wanted.