The most amazing soccer flip
So, I watch soccer. Have all my life. I like women's soccer, because more seems to happen than in men's soccer. But I apparently missed this trick. The women are throwing the ball in from the sideline with an acrobatic flip to give the ball more momentum.
I was watching the Missouri Valley Conference college women's soccer finals on local cable, between Creighton and Southern Illinois. At one point, one of the Creighton players goes to throw the ball in from the side. She backs up really far, and I think, well, she's going to try to get it close to the goal, she needs a lot of room to run. Then one of the announcers says, very matter-of-factly, "She's got a good flip throw."
Then this woman runs up to the line, puts the ball to the ground, flips over it and lands on her feet, using the force of her flip to launch the ball a mile into the air! I had to stop and rewind the TiVo several times, finally watching it in slow motion. It was just incredible.
A brief search of YouTube this morning points out that I'm pretty late to the party. Not only are there women's soccer teams all over doing this, but apparently some guys do, too, including someone on Dynamo Kiev back in the early 90's1.
If you've never seen this (I'd love to see someone do it live) you owe it to yourself to watch this video of a player from Utah State doing the flip throw. The video says her name is Dana Peart, fwiw.
- An Estonian by the name of Risto Kallaste, and here is a video of him doing it, though it is in crappy YouTube black and white (↩)
I'm always interested in these examples of sports novelty (360 slam dunk; BMX freestyle back flip; etc.). If nothing else, they answer that age-old, "What'll they think of next?"
Looking at this video, and thinking about some of the gymnastics floor exercises I've seen, I wonder if another flip or two wouldn't increase the ball's velocity even more? Looks like this guy might be on the case.
I'm not sure this is a novelty. I think it is an adaptation by the women to get the ball further onto the field. I've seen some men (professional soccer players) who can throw it (conventionally) all the way to the goal area. I think this move evens the playing field, as it were, for the women. Though I wonder about the accuracy of the throw, since you essentially take your eye off the target, then disorient yourself completely.