Sports Mash-Up

Two teams face each other on opposite sides of what looks like a warped Ping-Pong table. With a quick side kick, one player serves a soccer ball. It bounces off the far side of the table. Before the ball can hit the ground, a player on the opposing team kicks it up with his foot and then bounces it off his chest toward his teammate. She heads it back to the other side of the table. The other team fails to return the ball. The header scores a point! The crowd cheers!

The teams are playing a new sport called Teqball. Since its invention in Hungary in 2012, it’s been gaining popularity around the world. More than 100 countries now have professional, semipro, or amateur Teqball teams. Even soccer stars like Lionel Messi are getting in on the action, with videos of them playing Teqball going viral.

To design the game, its creators had to consider the physics of how soccer balls bounce. That allowed them to engineer a Teqball table that keeps the ball in play longer, making the game more exciting. Players also rely on physics as they juggle and pass the ball, as well as when they perform acrobatic trick shots.

Two teams stand on opposite sides of an unusual table. It looks like a bent Ping-Pong table. With a quick side kick, one player serves a soccer ball. It bounces off the far side of the table. Before the ball can hit the ground, a player on the opposing team kicks it up with his foot. Then he bounces it off his chest to his teammate. She heads it back to the other side of the table. The other team fails to return the ball. The header scores a point! The crowd cheers!

The teams are playing a new sport called Teqball. It was invented in Hungary in 2012. Since then, it’s been growing more popular around the world. More than 100 countries now have professional, semipro, or amateur Teqball teams. Even soccer stars like Lionel Messi are getting in on the action. Videos of them playing Teqball have gone viral.

The game’s creators wanted to design a table that keeps the ball in play longer. That makes the games more exciting. So they considered the physics of how soccer balls bounce. Players also rely on physics to juggle and pass the ball, plus make acrobatic trick shots.

The idea for Teqball started with two friends, computer scientist Viktor Huszár and former professional soccer player Gábor Borsányi. The pair lived in the same apartment complex, and they wanted to find a way to play soccer more often. “Most people don’t have a soccer field at home,” says Huszár. “And getting enough people together for a game is challenging.”

Borsányi came up with the idea to play soccer on a Ping-Pong table. That way, you’d need less space and just two people for a game. “The scientific challenge was that a Ping-Pong table is designed for Ping-Pong balls,” says Huszár. “A soccer ball is more than 150 times heavier.” Borsányi and Huszár needed a table with a sturdier design. Also, after a soccer ball bounced off the flat surface, the rebound tended to land on or near the table, making it hard for players to return the ball. The pair realized that if they curved the table’s surface, they could change the ball’s trajectory—the curved path of a flying object (see Teqball Physics). The ball would rebound toward opposing players, so they could easily keep back-and-forth rallies going.

The friends created prototypes, or early models, of tables made with different materials and curvatures. They tested the tables using a machine that dropped soccer balls onto the surfaces. With a high-speed camera, they recorded the movements of the balls as they bounced off each table.

The idea for Teqball started with two friends. Viktor Huszár is a computer scientist and Gábor Borsányi is a former professional soccer player. They lived in the same apartment complex, and they wanted a way to play soccer more often. “Most people don’t have a soccer field at home,” says Huszár. “And getting enough people together for a game is challenging.”

Borsányi came up with an idea. They could play soccer on a Ping-Pong table. That way, they’d need less space and just two people for a game. “The scientific challenge was that a Ping-Pong table is designed for Ping-Pong balls,” says Huszár. “A soccer ball is more than 150 times heavier.” Borsányi and Huszár needed a table with a stronger design. Also, a soccer ball bounced off the flat surface and often landed on or near the table. So it was hard for players to return the ball. The pair realized that they could curve the table’s surface. That would change the ball’s trajectory—the curved path of a flying object (see Teqball Physics). The ball would rebound toward opposing players. Then they could easily keep back-and-forth play going.

The friends created prototypes of the table. They made these early models with different materials and amounts of curve. They also built a machine to test the tables. It dropped soccer balls onto their surfaces. As the balls bounced off each table, a high-speed camera recorded the movements.

After three years, Huszár and Borsányi settled on the ideal table shape, and a surface made of layers of paper and plastic resin on a tough steel frame. They named the sport Teqball because of its emphasis on technical skills—used to control the ball—borrowed from soccer.

The partners also found that gameplay works best when they lowered the air pressure—the force of air molecules pushing against a given area—inside the soccer ball. When a foot collides with a soccer ball, the ball compresses. “It’s like compressing a spring,” says John Eric Goff, a physicist at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia. “It stores some potential energy.” A ball with higher air pressure will spring back harder against the foot as that potential energy is converted into kinetic energy, or energy of motion. That’s great when a ball needs to sail the distance of a soccer field, but it’s not so helpful on a Teqball table’s smaller field of play.

After three years, Huszár and Borsányi picked the perfect table shape. Layers of paper and plastic resin made up its surface. A tough steel frame was underneath. They named the sport Teqball because it focuses on technical skills from soccer. Players use these skills to control the ball.

The partners found another way to improve gameplay. They lowered the air pressure inside the soccer ball. That’s the force of air molecules pushing against a given area. When a foot hits a soccer ball, the ball compresses. “It’s like compressing a spring,” says John Eric Goff, a physicist at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia. “It stores some potential energy.” Then that potential energy is converted into kinetic energy, or energy of motion. As this happens, a ball with higher air pressure will spring back harder against the foot. That helps a ball to sail across a soccer field. But it’s too much for a Teqball table’s smaller field of play.

A Teqball match can involve single players or teams of two. A team can touch the ball up to three times before returning it to their opponents, but they can’t use their hands or arms. They’re awarded a point if their opponents either fail to return the ball or break a rule, such as by using the same body part to hit the ball twice in a row.

The game requires quick thinking, fast reflexes, and some understanding of physics. “Athletes are very good at knowing what’s going to happen if they hit a ball a certain way,” says Goff. For example, they know that the harder they hit a ball, the faster it will travel. That reflects Newton’s second law of motion, which states that an object’s acceleration depends on its mass and the amount of force applied to it. And athletes are good at accounting for where and how the downward pull of gravity will cause a ball to land. They also know they can put torque on the ball by kicking it off-center. This twisting force causes the ball to spin, which changes the direction it will bounce when it hits the table.

Huszár dreams that one day Teqball teams will compete against each other in professional leagues, much like Major League Soccer or the National Basketball Association. But he also hopes that friends everywhere will play the game just for fun. “I think the ultimate success will be that wherever you see a Ping-Pong table, there will be a Teqball table next to it,” says Huszár.

A Teqball match is between single players or teams of two. A team can touch the ball up to three times before they return it to their opponents. But they can’t use their hands or arms. They get a point if their opponents either don’t return the ball or break a rule. For example, the other team might hit the ball twice in a row with the same body part.

Teqball players need quick thinking, fast reflexes, and some understanding of physics. “Athletes are very good at knowing what’s going to happen if they hit a ball a certain way,” says Goff. For example, they know that the harder they hit a ball, the faster it will travel. That reflects Newton’s second law of motion. This law states that an object’s acceleration depends on its mass and the amount of force applied to it. And athletes account for the downward force of gravity. They know where and how it will cause the ball to land. They also understand how to put torque on the ball. This twisting force makes the ball spin when they kick it off-center. That changes the direction it will bounce off the table.

Huszár dreams that Teqball teams will compete in professional leagues someday. The leagues might be like the Major League Soccer or the National Basketball Association. But he also hopes that friends will play the game everywhere just for fun. “I think the ultimate success will be that wherever you see a Ping-Pong table, there will be a Teqball table next to it,” says Huszár.