Soccer Throw or Basketball Shot?

[av11d]

I'm trying to find out which is the best way to shoot for both the large goal and mobile goal. I find I'm a little more accurate by using the soccer throw on the large goal. On the mobile goal, however, the basketball style shot is much easier because of the lack of a large backboard.

What are other teams doing and any thoughts?

[ngreen]

Basketball would be better....more arc is better....the soccer through might go through...the best way we've found, it will be difficult for competition though, is a one bounce approach. We can make 75%+ of our shots easy. We have a 11 foot ceiling where we practice so we have been using the one bounce and the soccer throw. We need a higher ceiling so we could do more of a basketball shot. We've already hit the ceiling tiles several times and since our building is borrowed and ceiling in good condition we're careful not to try and hit it.

[OneAngryDaisy]

I still say toss it underhand like Rick Barry.. I mean, hey, the man is one of the all-time leaders for NBA free throw shots...

[abeD]

That is true, but how far back would you have to stand to throw it underhand and get it over the barrier?

[pras870]

easiest answer: do what you feel you're most comfortable with.

[nicole839]

i have a similar question. i'm from team 839 up in agawam mass. and i'm in charge of human players. i'm not one myself but i run the practices and work with the strategy team. we have both a movable and a stationary goal built and an 8ft wall to shoot over. i'm curious as to how i should have the human players run practice shots. most of them do throw soccer style and all of them shoot with at least 65% accuracy. but i want to do better than we've been doing as we head to WPI and Beantown for post seasons. any suggestions?

[randomtask108]

Our team's field is in a closed room so we can only throw socor style intill we bring it out doors, other wise we hit a fire alarm or two but i would most likley presume that basketball style with an arc is excelent for the four foot by far, but we have no choice to throw soccor style.... and only few pop out the back, but we have trained people for both....

[Liz Smith]

I've been practicing with soccer style throws and have been pretty successful... probably because I've been playing soccer for 10 years and basketball never. But other shooters on our team have been equally successful with basketball throws.

[Sachiel7]

Soccer for the stationary. We have 2 soccer players on our team, they didn't miss a single shot. As for the mobiles, we're mainly bringing them back and dumping them over. If you wanted to shoot it from a distace though, I'm not sure. Is the PVC flexible enough (like zone zeal) to get a ball through if tossed hard enough? If so, just do a hard soccer shot at the mobiles.
Otherwise, do something (maybe granny shot?) that uses 2 arms for good control.

[JP_1163]

Shot put. Higher arc and greater ability to come straight down into the goal versus a flatter trajectory.

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by Sachiel7

Soccer for the stationary. We have 2 soccer players on our team, they didn't miss a single shot. As for the mobiles, we're mainly bringing them back and dumping them over. If you wanted to shoot it from a distace though, I'm not sure. Is the PVC flexible enough (like zone zeal) to get a ball through if tossed hard enough? If so, just do a hard soccer shot at the mobiles.
Otherwise, do something (maybe granny shot?) that uses 2 arms for good control.

Really, you can do a soccer throw. You must have a taller ceiling than we do, 11 feet. When we try soccer throw, especially when the goal is over half full, we put them easily through the pvc and bouncy all over the shop near sharp pointy metal, luckily we haven't popped one yet. You must have more height to work with if they didn't miss a shot.

[Matt Adams]

Definitely discus style. Get a full revolution going to wind up, and you can get it in all the way across the field, so distance is irrelavent. It's the obvious choice from a physics standpoint.

We have our high schoolers training between 3 and 4 hours a day on doing this, and have 5 track coaches from local high schools perfecting their steps. They're shooting about 95% from 24 feet into the mobiles

Stand back when 461 come out to play.

Matt

[Gabe Salas Jr.]

Originally Posted by pras870

easiest answer: do what you feel you're most comfortable with.

I have to agree with pras870. Although personally I feel that there is better control of the ball with the soccer style throw. But I have been practicing more often with the basketball style throw because its a bit easier to throw at a higher arc.

On an interesting note, I have been trying to imitate a throw one of girls on our team has been practicing and with good success. Since she is a bit short, she tends to hit the top of the lexan barrier. So what she would do is hop once (I guess to build momentum or rhythm), and on her second hop, toss the ball soccer style (while in the air) and balance her weight by lifting up her left leg (sort of in a fashion that a girl would do when she is on her tippy toes and would bend there knee backwards at a 90 degree angle) then land with both feet. I think that sounds right. I wish I could be a bit more articulate. Regardless. So yea... I have been practicing at throwing like a girl. Ha ha.

[Collin Fultz]

on another note but kind of similar:
has anybody tried herding those balls into the chutes? i don't have our field done all the way yet, but i'm close, and i think it's gonna take a lot of control to put the balls in the chute. you only have 3" vert. clearance minus whatever that lip ends up being. it seems to me like it would be very difficult to do. so: a good human player can get you points, but a good robot is needed too.

as per the question at hand...soccer it to me.

an answer to my question...it's a lot harder than i think most people were thinking it would be to herd balls. they have to be rolled quite slowly and with about zero bounce to go in the chute...good luck to all the ball herders!

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by collin234

on another note but kind of similar:
has anybody tried herding those balls into the chutes? i don't have our field done all the way yet, but i'm close, and i think it's gonna take a lot of control to put the balls in the chute. you only have 3" vert. clearance minus whatever that lip ends up being. it seems to me like it would be very difficult to do. so: a good human player can get you points, but a good robot is needed too.

as per the question at hand...soccer it to me.

an answer to my question...it's a lot harder than i think most people were thinking it would be to herd balls. they have to be rolled quite slowly and with about zero bounce to go in the chute...good luck to all the ball herders!

Yeah, It's not an easy task to get the ball into the corrals. They short, narrow and the aren't very deep. Any bounce misalignment or too much speed can throw your chance of sucessfully keeping it in the goal off. The two best ways I've seen to have maximum control of the balls is either gather them in a hopper of sorts and release them straight into the goal or use some type of pool stick device. I'm very interested in the second way but haven't found a successful way to make this happen. It relies on more speed than the cyclinder can give and I haven't figured a good mechanical way to do this yet. If anyone is using this way to so call kick the ball into the corral I would be interested in how. One of the most interesting ideas I've thought of is a octagonal crab drive robot in which each side plate pops out 4-6 inches. I would call it the puffer fish bot. The ultimate ball controller. Maximum mobility and barring no obstruction it could make shots from the opposite corral. And it could make 45 degree angled shots to. Oh I would so have loved this robot.