9781422286784

with fewer seams and more flat area is more consistent in flight and easier to control. Soccer balls can also now talk back. The miCoach “Smart Ball” from adidas has sen- sors built into the ball. The sensors track the movement of the ball, as well as pressure put on it by players’ kicks, and transmit the in- formation to an app that can be read on a smartphone. Players can then see how fast their kicks went and in what di- ty basketball can act like a coach and a trainer. The ball’s sensors count dribbles, bounces, spin, and motion and provide feedback after a workout. Users can read the arc angle on their shots, the force of their dribbles, and even their strength of drib- bling with each hand. Golf balls seem among the simplest balls in sports. Small, hard, covered with small dimples , they seem to all look the same. But millions of dollars of research and technolo- gy go into each company’s design, inside and out of the ball. The number and arrangement of those dimples, for instance, is continually evolving as new tests show different flight paths. How the air moves over those tiny rections, and how they can improve their footwork to make the ball do exactly what they want. It’s not just soccer. The 94Fif-

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