NIVIA ASTRA, A BALL WITH THE MAGIC !

Nivia Astra, the magic ball !

The quality of football is the most important part if you want to make the sport better.
Thus FIFA recommends certain quality check and  approve them.

Now, the highest quality of  FIFA approved football ball is FIFA Pro.
Highest quality ball is used in the most of the leagues and which is a good step.

Nivia being the official ball partner of the Indian Super League, provide the ball for the league.
Nivia Astra is the ball which is in use in the league.

Now from where the magic comes ?

As we have seen that there is something different in this ball. It curls well, dips alot and certainly causing problems for the goalkeepers.
If you have any doubt, please  ask Dheeraj.

Let's see the factors involved in this.

In 2013 MIT conducted experiments regarding the quality of ball and it's movement in different environments.

They found that the surface of the ball is one of the important factor in the ball movement with speed also adding it's value.

They termed it "The magnus effect" and in opposite situations was termed "The reverse magnus effect"

Both this effect are related with the movement of the ball

Let's go in to the details.

Spin, curvature and turbulence and the drag force is taken in to the consideration.

There are two type of flow involved here. When the speed is low the flow is laminar phase but when it is high, the flow is turbulent phase.

At high speeds the drag force, which slows down the ball becomes weak,it means that the movement of the ball will be different here.

It is difficult for the keeper to adjust for it.
As the ball with high hit is in turbulent phase when slowed down after few moments it increased the drag, as ball was curling so there was a drag on the ball which made it to move inside. This is the magnus effect involved .

You all can connect Stewart goal with this!

There is another scenario when ball is hit with good amount of speed and in the height.
It causes two different situations as the height brings the air drag in to the play, also it slows down a bit but also with speed on it there is movement on it.

So two different forces act upon it, drag force with brings it down and the speed which make it curls in the different directions.
That's why it is difficult for the goalkeeper to adjust to it both in flight and the curve on it.

You probably remember that famous Ronaldo goal where ball moved in different directions.
It was caused due to the magnus force involved.

Luna's goal against goa is the perfect candidate for this, ball moved with good speed but not fast as Stewart's but still got good height in decreasing speed.

When reached it's peak, fell making a slop also with reverse magnus effect moving the ball in outward direction of the initial spin .

The fall and the spin made difficult for the goalkeeper to adjust to it and it hit the cross bar and went in amazingly.

Certainly there are more technicalities involved in this. Let's just keep it limited for normal understanding.

Now, comes in to the play Nivia Astra which is in use in the ISL is different ball from the Ashtang which was used last season.
As it is better in quality and finishing because stiched by the machine.
It gives less amount of drag and do attain good speed which makes it unique.

So the magic is that with improvement in it's quality, the ball is following the fundamentals of physics more clearly.
That is why, every goal is beautiful when hit with precision.

Astra is surely an astra for everyone for the strikers here, either goalkeepers need to understand physics more or hope that the defense does it's job properly.

For fans, certainly there are more beautiful goals to come.Enjoy