KEY QUESTIONS

As an ambitious boccia player or a responsible coach, you must be asking yourself the following questions:

1) Which boccia balls are the most suitable and of the highest quality?
2) Which are the best and worth investing more money in?
3) Which balls are better to avoid?

More experienced players already know that even within the same set of the same hardness from one manufacturer, balls can differ in accuracy. What determines the accuracy of a boccia ball? It could be likened to a bullet fired from a rifle, where the rifle is the boccia ramp in boccia. This comparison is valid for the BC3 category. For players in other categories, this "bullet" is thrown by hand. In both cases, however, it is important that when the ball leaves the ramp (hand), it should be heading directly at the target.

CRUCIAL FEATURES OF BOCCIA BALLS

The crucial features of a boccia ball are:

a) Distance – how far it can roll,
b) Direction – whether the ball follows a straight line or veers sideways,
c) Repeatability – whether the ball always arrives at the same place on the same impulse.

You can test the ball by experience. You throw the ball many times during practice and see if it goes where you want it to go. However, such experience contains a certain amount of subjective insight. In order to test the ball with scientific accuracy, we need to incorporate mathematics into the testing.

BASHTO CALC APP

Our company has developed a unique BashtoCalc app for measuring the accuracy of boccia balls. This app is based on my years of experience as a coach, but also as a manufacturer of boccia equipment and as a qualified physicist. At the same time, I have brought in a permissible simplification that still preserves the scientificity of the testing, but at the same time makes it relatively easy for testers to measure and use.

The principle of measuring the accuracy of boccia balls is based on throwing one ball under exactly the same conditions several times. The more times you throw the ball, the more accurate the measurement will be. How to ensure that the ball is always thrown the same way? One way, which we are currently using for our app, is to launch the same ball off the boccia ramp from the same place (from the same height in the ramp) every time, without moving the ramp.

Players throwing with their hands might argue that they do not find such a boccia ramp measurement useful. But the thrower also needs to be sure that his ball goes straight and some distance when it leaves his/her hand. Here, too, however, we bring a solution. We are already working on a throwing machine that will throw boccia balls into the pitch in a similar way to a thrower's hand. With the difference that the throw of the throwing machine will always be precisely defined. Both the same direction and the same throwing force of the boccia ball will be maintained for each throw.

However, we recommend all boccia players of all categories to feel free to do testing with a boccia ramp.

TEST YOUR BALLS

Are you interested in the quality of your boccia balls? Would you like to know the differences in their accuracy? Then don't hesitate and try our BASHTO CALC app. It's free and available online for everyone. The link can be found below this article. You will also find links to instructional videos and sample animations on how to use the app.

I wish you to be able to use BASHTO CALC to eliminate the faults in the game which are not caused by you. The ones that are caused by your balls...

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mgr. Ondrej Bašták Ďurán
owner of the BASHTO SPORTS brand

You can try the app at the following link:
https://bcalc.bashtosports.com

You can watch an instructional video on how to use the app here:



Here is a sample animation to supplement the video: