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The Week in Germany: Sports
April 18, 2008
A Training Machine that can Bend It Like Beckham
An inventor in Berlin has created the ultimate football - or soccer - training machine: A large installation that uses eight machines to shoot a ball out to the player practicing.
It can simulate almost any type of shot. Barcelona and other clubs have aready signalled their interest.
The training machine is built up around a 14 x 14 meter field. The player receives the ball from one of eight ball machines mounted around him. Before the ball is passed to him, the machine indicates which direction the ball will come from by emitting a sound.
The player then has to control the ball and shoot it into one of 75 fields measuring 1.4 square meters that light up. Union Berlin’s youth player Tom Trybull holds the current record, as he managed 40 shots in a row without making a mistake, whilst averaging a new ball every 5.3 seconds.
The machine, called “Footbonaut”, allows players to specifically work on their weaknesses. As the shots can be fired at up to 120 km/h, the machine could also be used for goalkeeper training.
The prototype is currently being tested and developed in East Berlin. Germany’s team manager Oliver Bierhoff has already stopped by to take a look at the Footbonaut. So perhaps it will not be long before we see the likes of Lukas Podolski practicing his skills in the first football training machine. (Young Germany)
Links:
 Footbonaut kickt wie vom anderen Stern (SpiegeONLINE, in German)
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