00:00 “Kick
off 2006” sign in World Cup window display
World
Cup Flag on sale
Sports
equipment shop with England insignia
c.u.
England Soccer Team memorabilia
c.u.
children attending soccer training
Wide
of above
Wide,
Julez Broomes setting up goal posts
c.u.
of above
Focus
pull through goal netting
c.u.
ball and feet
Wide,
young player kicking ball
Tilt
up from base to Soccer Buddy logo
Guide Voice: This year the Soccer World Cup
will fire the dreams of many a schoolboy around the world, hoping
that one day they’ll be the one raising this iconic
trophy.
But it takes practice to get to the top – and good
training aids to help that practice. Now a children’s soccer
coach from Birmingham in the UK, working with specialists at the
University of Warwick, has produced what many believe to be the
future of training for young players. Many young people who train
regularly are hampered by poor or inappropriate equipment –
having to use traffic cones or piles of clothing to represent
opposing players. Enter the “Soccer Buddy”, the first
training aid designed specifically for the younger player.
00:38 SOT: Julez (Julian) Broomes,
Soccer Coach and inventor of the Soccer Buddy –
“I looked at what was available on the market and on the
market was 5’4” youth mannequins but there are not many
children between the age of 10 and 6 who are 5’4” so I
started researching and looking into the size of the mannequins and
that’s what started me on my journey to develop them with a
very good friend of mine, to make them 4’ tall which was the
average size of kids between the age of 8-10 years
old.”
01:09 Wide
– young players training, Julez in background (black
shirt)
c.u.
Soccer Buddy banner
Medium
wide – Soccer Buddies being set up
p.o.v.
young players dribbling past Soccer
Buddies
Guide Voice: Julez Broomes, a semi-professional
footballer and soccer coach has designed the “Soccer
Buddies” – colourful, free standing figures that are
roughly the same height as the young players and can represent
opponents as the youngsters learn to control the ball and direct
their shots.
01:23 SOT: Julez Broomes -
“Soccer Buddies gives them a passive opponent,
that’s an opponent for them to actually manoeuvre around
rather than gliding over a cone. If you do not perform this skill
properly you will bump into the Soccer Buddy. If you do that with a
cone nothing will happen because the cone is not an object, it is a
flat object on the floor.”
01:43 Wide
– Assistants setting up Soccer Buddies
Wide
– Assistants carrying Soccer Buddies past camera
2
shot – Soccer Buddies
Wide
– Young players in training
Soccer
Buddies training banner
Guide Voice: His aim has been to create a
mannequin that would be easy to use and affordable to clubs and
schools – but he hit a problem with manufacturing and turned
to the Innovation Direct team at the University of Warwick for
help. They found him an extremely cost-effective manufacturing
process and helped him re-engineer the “Soccer Buddy”
to make it even more child-friendly and easy to transport and
use.
02:04 SOT: Julez Broomes –
“I’d come to a bit of a dead end with my project
and I was running out of money very quickly and also I was
over-engineering the product. I didn’t know who to turn to, I
spoke to my business partner, Greta Allen, who in turn
contacted the Chamber of Commerce who then in turn put us in touch
with the University of Warwick. The innovation team who are great
which is Stuart Ward and Ricky, they sat us down and went through
task analysis, exactly the process I went through on a day-to-day
basis with my mannequins and broke it down and ironed out some of
the problems that were stopping us getting to this point
today.”
02:45 SOT: Stuart Ward, Industrial Designer,
Innovation Direct, University of Warwick –
“Julez brought in a product that was made out of wood and
a plastic body and basically there was trouble manufacturing it and
also it’s too expensive so what we did was we went through a
plastics design method, we did a task analysis which was…it
identifies how the product is going to be used so you can put all
the right features on it. So we arrived at an accurate brief and
then embodied those features onto the design and as you can see
today it’s here, it’s working and it’s got all
the features on it and I think Jules is delighted with it so I
think it’s been quite successful.”
03:19 Low
shot – ball and Soccer Buddy wall
3
x Soccer Buddies
c.u.
radar tracking unit
Wide
– young player shooting at goal
c.u.
ball speed on radar display
Wide
– young player shoots into the mannequin wall
Overhead
shot – wide of training
Focus
pull through netting to show mannequin
Young
player kicks ball
Goalkeeper
parries ball over the bar
Group
of Soccer Buddies
Tilt
down Soccer Buddy
Guide Voice: And the Soccer Buddy can be more
than just a passive opponent. Julez latest development incorporates
a radar powered display that can track and record the speed of a
kick at goal – encouraging young players to better harness
their striking power. The University of Warwick team are now
working with Julez to help him design other football training tools
using the Soccer Buddy concept. But he already has orders for some
35 of his mannequins following solid endorsements from the Football
in the Community team at Derby County Football Club.
03:48 SOT: Simon Carnell, Community Scheme Manager,
Derby County F.C. - “Julian’s driving
it forward, he believes in it, we’ve used it and seen the
results of it and I just think that because he’s so committed
to it and developing talent in children then that’s why it's
been a success.”
04:01 Wide
– players dribbling ball towards camera
Tracking
back with dribbling players
Wide
from behind goal
Guide Voice: The “Soccer Buddy”
looks to have a very bright future among young players, helping
them develop their game and reach the top levels of their chosen
sport. Perhaps the final word on the Buddies should come from the
players themselves…
04:13 SOT: Kerion Allen –
“Working with a Soccer Buddy makes me a better player
because it’s like a human really; it’s like –
when you’re playing for real you have to get past it. So
it’s the same as that really.”
04:24 SOT: Megan Chauhan –
“They stay in one place and you can go round them and you
can shoot at them, they won't move, so it’s good for
that.”
04:32 SOT: Niall Small –
“If you want to hit the ball hard at them you don’t
want to put people in the wall and so – if you want to put
one in goal, not many people want to go in goal, they want to take
shots and everything, so I think it makes me a better player
because I get to do all rounder sort of things.”
04:46 END
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