Napoleon Dynamite and Power Soccer?

Okay, does anyone remember the amazing scene at the end of Napoleon Dynamite where he is playing tetherball with the girl whose name I am forgetting right now? Well, I now have found the power soccer version that would allow me to recreate the scene. The Power Soccer Shop sells a device which is essentially a metal pole that rotates 360° just like a tetherball would. I know that the Kick It Shop also had something like that except with a chain instead of pole. Either way, I now feel like watching that movie or playing that game or preferably both at the same time. I think it looks like a lot of fun and also allows you to develop a better spin kick. I also think of the slight adaptations that could be made to create a game very similar to tetherball in that one player would be on each side and whoever cannot return the spin kick loses a point. Competition is great! The only potential downside to the device is that it takes up quite a bit of room, but that is no different than normal power soccer. Maybe I will have to try one out!

Photo from http://dollface-is-candysweet.blogspot.com/2008/10/something-for-weekend.html

Passion Grows

You know what really surprises me? There is no USPSA team based in New York City. The largest city in America does not have an official power soccer team. I wonder why? Maybe some reader in New York City (if I have one?) will see this and decide that there needs to be a team there. That is how I believe power soccer is going to grow. It needs to be word-of-mouth and it needs to be because of passion. I am not going to say that power soccer is a cheap sport to start. That is where the passion needs to kick in. The sport requires technical equipment that is much more than buying a basketball from Wal-Mart. Even power soccer balls run around $70. Nevertheless, people keep on playing. Why? Well, because most of the time passion comes without regard to price. For many of us, this becomes the one sport that we are able to compete and excel at. We get excited and decide that we want to elevate our game. We develop technique and strategy to become students of the game. That is how the sport will grow. It will grow through excitement and passion.

Which Shape Guard Gives the Most Power?

I love my new power soccer chair although I guess it really isn't new anymore. Anyway, another thing I love about it is that it came with a metal guard. However, I'm starting to think about metal guards and what shape produces the best power from a physics perspective or if it really matters. Let me give a rundown of the different types.

The type of guard that I use is produced by the Power Soccer Shop and is sold for $399.99. As you can tell, it has a flat front with rounded corners and flat sides. Personally, I do enjoy using the guard as it is easy to control the ball while going forward.

This next type of guard is produced by the Kick It Shop and is sold for $399.98. It looks very similar to the one I use except for it has sharper corners. I think that it would work very well because personally when I used to play with a plastic guard, I liked having square corners because I felt like they hit harder.

The third type of guard is also produced by the Kick It Shop and is also sold for $399.98. Personally, I think that this guard looks great for an experienced player. I feel like it might be hard to control the ball at first because the rounded design might make it easier for the ball to slip off while dribbling forward. However, the rounded front also allows for several shots at angles that a square guard could not make which is definitely valuable and unexpected.

So, I have no idea if the design matters at all in the power. It may be as simple as the different types of metal used. Can anyone float some physics knowledge out to inform us all about what shape, if any, would allow for the most power with a similar shot or spin?

Better Writing than Mine!

As I have done before, I have something else that I want you to do tonight instead of reading my writing. Tonight, I want you to go and read this article that was in Seven Days today about our power soccer clinic as well as watch this video which was also produced by Seven Days. This was such an exciting event for all of us, hype it up!

Shopping for Wheelchairs

I bet that very few of you have tried shopping for a used rear wheel drive wheelchair. After our power soccer clinic on Sunday, it became incredibly obvious to me that rear wheel is the way to get more power. Not that I would automatically rise to that level just because of a new chair, but I would have the potential to raise my game to a level where I could be competitive. I have never been on the market for a used wheelchair before, so this is a bit of a new experience. However, it seems as if there are very few power soccer caliber chairs on the market. Most of the chairs are either mid-wheel or the portable type meant for people who don't need to use their wheelchairs all the time and want to fold them up. So, I just throwing this out there, but if anybody knows of a website with a good inventory of tilt wheelchairs, please let me know. I think that some people have to be selling, and I just need to find them. In fact, I will be selling my backup as well once I find a rear wheel chair. If anybody has any good leads, please let me know.

Soccer, We Are Go!

Customization never hurts, and often times it definitely improves performance. Personally, I am hoping that this is the case with my new power soccer guard. I purchased the adjustable fiberglass guard from the Power Soccer Shop based in Minnesota. However, because I ride a red tilt-and-space Quantum 6000Z at roughly a 30° angle, these guards do not fit my chair. Therefore, because I'm not very technical, I needed help. It is always good to know people who know how to do things that you don't know how to do. The dilemma consisted of crafting a lightweight structure to attach a fiberglass guard to the frame of my wheelchair so that it could withstand the head-to-head collisions that power soccer sometimes involves. Enter Clark Agnew, a family friend as well as skilled carpenter. After exploring the various attachment points and potential hangups for less than an hour, he had a design beginning to develop. Tonight, I got to pick up the final product and have already begun to push my 13 inch black and gold soccer ball around the house, putting my family’s personal property in perhaps substantial danger (just kidding, I really am most of the time an overly cautious driver).

This is the value of personal craftsmanship in that a product that would be marginally useful to me at best is now perfectly adjusted to me. I am not blaming the Power Soccer Shop at all because they do provide high-quality products that satisfy the needs of most of the wheelchair market, and as a business major, I understand that businesses cannot fulfill the individual needs of every person in the potential market. However, having a personal connection in this area made this product that is of a high quality in and of itself, useful for me. I am very grateful that we were able to have a friend who was able to make this game much more solidly accessible to me. Now, I don't worry about how to attach the guard to my chair; all I need to worry about is how to put the ball into that goal beyond the swiftly spinning wheels of the opposing goalie.

On a totally unrelated note, tomorrow is April Fools' Day. While I will not explicitly write about April Fools' Day, you might see it integrated into my blog. Sports Illustrated fans might have some idea where I'm going with this...

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