Friday, November 14, 2008
PistolasFC.com fans, after spending the last number of weeks on hiatus, we are back from our recent trip to South Africa where we were checking out the developments for the 2010 World Cup.
While we were there, we held a mini-camp in Cape Town where prospective new PFC recruits came out to show there stuff.
Now, before we left, we were kindly given a Nike 10R Magician Ball and a Kwikgoal Coaching Notebook from our friends at SoccerPro.com, which we decided to take with us to Cape Town to use at our mini-camp; and let me tell you, we were quite impressed!
First off, we tested out the Nike 10R Magician Ball. The 10R ball (named after #10 himself – The Magician – Ronaldinho), is crafted in the same colours and in the same texture as the black Nike Tiempo Ronaldinho shoes worn by the world class players alike including A.C. Milan’s Ronaldinho himself, as well as Pistolas FC striker Romerinho.
The most interesting and distinguishing characteristic of the Nike 10R is the 12 panel design. At first the squad was skeptical that a 12 panel design would serve well as the inclination was that it would affect bent kicks on set plays and corners. There was also doubt that a ball designed so “beautifully” that it looked more like a showpiece would have the construction fit for match play. Well let me set the record straight and say all this doubts were quickly put to rest.
Playing for the Lions, I found myself content with how comfortable it felt to the touch and was responsive to receiving/trapping the ball coming in at high rates of speed. Other balls – even premium match balls – sometimes tend to go overboard on cushioning so much so that they affect the key elements of the game such as trapping but not the 10R. It was firm but match suitable when it came to delivering a hard pass or a rip hard shot on target. I still can’t get over the fact that it’s a 12 panel ball, which in my opinion looks aesthetically good in the looks department, but it totally exceeded not only my expectations, but also those of all the camp members when it came to bending the ball. Corner kicks with the 10R turned from a banana into more of a capital ‘C’. At first our corners were off the mark with this curve, but adapting to this, it made for some interesting free kicks for the offense, and a more than difficult time for the walls and our keepers. Speaking of which, our keepers found the detailing and raised texture of the ball to be helpful in gripping – whenever they did manage to get a glove on it that is.
Final point, given its black colour, one would anticipate it would heat up quite a bit, but under that African sun it held it’s own and was not exaggeratedly hot by camps end.
Overall, we’re quite impressed with the 10R, as it withstood over a months long worth of battery from plenty of players, impressing as it went along and staying true to form after quite a beating and many a match. I would definitely recommend the 10R to any soccer fiend.
As for the Kwikgoal Coaching Notebook, well, there’s not much too it. Simple, pretty straightforward yet, its simplicity and design were what appealed to me the most. Basically, it features facing pages whereby the left offers a diagram of the field followed by two empty columns to be used however you see fit. On the facing page was just a lined sheet. 
I used some pages with the diagrams to set line and underneath used the empty boxes as a way of managing players, cards, time, and stats. On other pages, I used the diagrams to design a play whether it be a set piece or as a change in strategy.
The lined side was used for notes mainly on players and their performance, but of course can be used to whatever you want to write down.
Again, simple, well laid out and effective. The only thing I would have appreciated was perhaps more blank field diagrams at the end of the book, but that was just me thinking ahead to the winters indoor scrimmages, where off the cuff plays rapidly come to my mind and I need to constantly draw them down in order to adapt to unchartered or well rehearsed strategies of opponents.
Once again, thanks to our friends at
