Hands-on review: DribbleUp Smart Soccer Ball

“Play football in the living room,” said no parent ever, but I’m about to change all that. I have tweens and they’re welcome to use the DribbleUp Smart Soccer Ball indoors. The ball-and-app combo encourages dainty footwork and hey, if they get really good, they might get signed and keep me in my old age.

It isn’t the first smart football on the market. Actually, it isn’t really a smart ball: it’s more a clever app that uses your device’s camera to track the non-smart Dribble-Up ball, with its distinctive colour and markings.

I never could play football. I’m not even a soccer mom really. But I do like videogames and I have a lot of time for the gamification of fitness: I get a buzz when I hit my step count, who doesn’t? And now I discover that I quite enjoy ball-control drills.

Setup is pretty straightforward, but requires you to sign up for a DribbleUp account via the website; it isn’t possible via app (you can do it on a phone or tablet’s web browser though). Then you launch the free app and punch in your shiny new username and password, prop up the phone or tablet on the supplied stand (phones balance on it more securely than tablets) and let the camera see your DribbleUp ball. Game on.

Rather like early videogame levels that any numpty can survive, designed to teach you the controls rather than challenge you, the first couple of sessions are very simple. A video coach explains the ball-handling exercise, showing you how to do the footwork, then circles on screen indicate where you have to get the ball to. At this point, it falls down a bit. Because so long as the ball hits the circles in roughly the right place, you can progress to the next level. It’s the soccer equivalent of when kids realised they could shake their wrists to outwit pedometers.

Persist though and you unlock new drills that get progressively trickier. There are hundreds built in. Virtual coaches demonstrate each drill and then you see yourself on screen practising in augmented reality, with on-screen targets for the ball.

Practice doesn’t have to be indoors. We found it worked well enough outdoors as long as direct sunlight doesn’t make it hard to see what’s happening on screen. And you need to be fairly near your device to see the AR on screen properly, so it’s perfectly playable in a normal-sized room. You can also use Apple TV or Chromecast to put the picture on a larger TV screen for more of a living room games console-style experience. If Nintendo made footballs, they’d be like this.

And that’s where it belongs really; as much video game as training tool. If your child loves football then they will get much more out of this than sitting on the sofa playing FIFA. But, crucially, they have to be committed to the beautiful game. They have to want to learn these skills. I, on the other hand, am a cheat. I found that, just like I can warble up and down to hit the right notes in SingStar for songs I don’t even know, I could get good marks in AR footie just by getting the ball to the right spot. How I get it there doesn’t matter. My legs got a workout in the process but I didn’t learn much.

But if your child (or you) wants to apply themselves to learning ball handling skills, they will watch the video lessons and then try their hardest to emulate the moves. They’ll soon progress and develop new skills to take back to the pitch. And the precise skills will mean they can progress to playing keepie-uppie indoors without trashing the place.

DribbleUp also makes a Smart Basketball and Medicine Ball, but they aren’t available in the UK yet.

From £85 dribbleup.com 

Alternatives

SenseBall

An unusual football on a tether with a handle, complete with app to teach you ball handling skills. Again, you get training videos.

€39.90 senseball.com 

Smart Ball

More of a toy, this has built-in lights and sounds rather than a companion app. It counts up to 100 keepie uppies. Swap out the counting sensor if you just want to play footie.

£20 argos.co.uk 

Zepp Play Soccer

Not a ball, more like a Fitbit for footie. This wearable soccer performance tracker fits in a calf sleeve (supplied) to gather stats including kicks, sprints, distance and max speed.

£84.90 zeppeu.com

“Play football in the living room,” said no parent ever, but I’m about to change all that. I have tweens and they’re welcome to use the DribbleUp Smart Soccer Ball indoors. The ball-and-app combo encourages dainty footwork and hey, if they get really good, they might get signed and keep me in my old age.

It isn’t the first smart football on the market. Actually, it isn’t really a smart ball: it’s more a clever app that uses your device’s camera to track the non-smart Dribble-Up ball, with its distinctive colour and markings.

I never could play football. I’m not even a soccer mom really. But I do like videogames and I have a lot of time for the gamification of fitness: I get a buzz when I hit my step count, who doesn’t? And now I discover that I quite enjoy ball-control drills.

Setup is pretty straightforward, but requires you to sign up for a DribbleUp account via the website; it isn’t possible via app (you can do it on a phone or tablet’s web browser though). Then you launch the free app and punch in your shiny new username and password, prop up the phone or tablet on the supplied stand (phones balance on it more securely than tablets) and let the camera see your DribbleUp ball. Game on.

Rather like early videogame levels that any numpty can survive, designed to teach you the controls rather than challenge you, the first couple of sessions are very simple. A video coach explains the ball-handling exercise, showing you how to do the footwork, then circles on screen indicate where you have to get the ball to. At this point, it falls down a bit. Because so long as the ball hits the circles in roughly the right place, you can progress to the next level. It’s the soccer equivalent of when kids realised they could shake their wrists to outwit pedometers.

Persist though and you unlock new drills that get progressively trickier. There are hundreds built in. Virtual coaches demonstrate each drill and then you see yourself on screen practising in augmented reality, with on-screen targets for the ball.

Practice doesn’t have to be indoors. We found it worked well enough outdoors as long as direct sunlight doesn’t make it hard to see what’s happening on screen. And you need to be fairly near your device to see the AR on screen properly, so it’s perfectly playable in a normal-sized room. You can also use Apple TV or Chromecast to put the picture on a larger TV screen for more of a living room games console-style experience. If Nintendo made footballs, they’d be like this.

And that’s where it belongs really; as much video game as training tool. If your child loves football then they will get much more out of this than sitting on the sofa playing FIFA. But, crucially, they have to be committed to the beautiful game. They have to want to learn these skills. I, on the other hand, am a cheat. I found that, just like I can warble up and down to hit the right notes in SingStar for songs I don’t even know, I could get good marks in AR footie just by getting the ball to the right spot. How I get it there doesn’t matter. My legs got a workout in the process but I didn’t learn much.

But if your child (or you) wants to apply themselves to learning ball handling skills, they will watch the video lessons and then try their hardest to emulate the moves. They’ll soon progress and develop new skills to take back to the pitch. And the precise skills will mean they can progress to playing keepie-uppie indoors without trashing the place.

DribbleUp also makes a Smart Basketball and Medicine Ball, but they aren’t available in the UK yet.

From £85 dribbleup.com 

Alternatives

SenseBall

An unusual football on a tether with a handle, complete with app to teach you ball handling skills. Again, you get training videos.

€39.90 senseball.com 

Smart Ball

More of a toy, this has built-in lights and sounds rather than a companion app. It counts up to 100 keepie uppies. Swap out the counting sensor if you just want to play footie.

£20 argos.co.uk 

Zepp Play Soccer

Not a ball, more like a Fitbit for footie. This wearable soccer performance tracker fits in a calf sleeve (supplied) to gather stats including kicks, sprints, distance and max speed.

£84.90 zeppeu.com

Caramel Quinhttps://eandt.theiet.org/rss

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/02/hands-on-review-dribbleup-smart-soccer-ball/

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