{"id":7045,"date":"2024-01-17T17:58:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T17:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/?p=7045"},"modified":"2024-01-17T17:58:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T17:58:36","slug":"drone-soccer-movement-is-spreading-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/drone-soccer-movement-is-spreading-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Soccer Movement is Spreading Worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zU5IRinp8DM?si=v6u6g5B_0N8u00f7\" width=\"740\" height=\"415\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\nLearning about drones could be one way to pique younger students\u2019 interest in STEM topics, educators insist.\u00a0 In fact, a growing number of high schools are incorporating drone classes into their standard curricula for just this reason.\u00a0 But how to get kids interested in drones in the first place?\u00a0 Through drone \u201csoccer,\u201d some say.<\/p>\n<p>The drone soccer movement started six years ago in South Korea and has since mushroomed into national leagues and competitions across two dozen countries on three continents.\u00a0 Last year featured the first annual drone soccer \u201cworld cup,\u201d a sign of just how fast the sports movement is growing. The second world cup is scheduled for this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.\u00a0 There\u2019s even a movement to build a drone soccer stadium near Seoul at a cost of $25 million.\u00a0 In fact, construction of the stadium has already begun.<\/p>\n<p>How is drone soccer played?\u00a0 With drones, of course \u2013 five to a team, with a striker, a midfielder and three defenders, each controlled by a remote pilot standing on the sidelines.\u00a0 The light-weight quadcopters fly in circular shells made of hard plastic that protects them as they whizz back and forth above a mock soccer \u201cfield\u201d about 100 feet in length.\u00a0 Each team tries to \u201cscore\u201d by sending its lead drone through a hanging tire-like structure 60 centimeters wide \u2013 the \u201cgoal.\u201d\u00a0 The action is fast and furious, with lots of harmless collisions at speeds up to 90 miles per hour.<\/p>\n<p>Tim Ingraham, a representative of the Federation of International DroneSoccer Associations, or FIDA, the sport\u2019s official governing body, says drone soccer\u00a0 is taking off rapidly at the professional level but it\u2019s primarily aimed at reaching youngsters, some of them in preschool.\u00a0 At this week\u2019s international competition, FIDA exhibited a scaled down version of drone soccer balls suitable for kids still mastering the basics of hand-eye coordination.\u00a0 The tiny drones fly at speeds up to 30 miles per hour but include extra safeguards to minimize possible injuries to their pilots, some of them as young as four.<\/p>\n<p>Drone soccer officials like Ingraham are anxious to provide a fresh sports outlet for young kids that might also get them interested in drones and aviation as a career path.\u00a0 \u201cRight now, the aviation industry faces critical shortages in aircraft production, mechanics, engineers and pilots,\u201d notes the trailer for Drone Soccer, FIDA\u2019s U.S. affiliate. \u201cWe want to make high-paying aerospace careers accessible to all students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Drone Soccer works with local high schools to set up their own drone soccer programs, which includes all of the materials needed to construct a drone soccer field and its netted enclosure, plus the drones and their remote piloting controllers and software.\u00a0 The movement is still in its infancy but participating schools in states like Colorado and California report a high level of enthusiasm from their students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this sport is going to take off very quickly, \u201csays Alden Henry, a senior at Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado, a small town of 15,000.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re up here doing all these events and showcases, and we\u2019re going to have nationals in May.\u00a0 And I think the whole thing is just going to skyrocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A high school in Long Beach, California is the first to institute a drone soccer program in the state, though several middle schools established drone soccer camps last summer.\u00a0 Albert Gallo, an aerospace engineering teacher at the high school, said he quickly saw the sport\u2019s potential for stimulating student interest in science and engineering topics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it was the most amazing thing for kids to do because it involves a lot of STEM skills and would teach them about aeronautics and would give them lots of different avenues to get into the field,\u201d Gallo says.\u00a0 The school is currently preparing for a regional competition in Palm Springs and then hopefully will make it to the national competition in New York.<\/p>\n<p>Drone soccer may also offer a special path to diversity.\u00a0 \u201cEverybody doesn\u2019t play basketball and everybody\u2019s not good at sports, but they\u2019re gamers,\u201d says Theo Nix, who coaches the Delaware Drone Soccer League at a YMCA in Wilmington.\u00a0 He notes that the vast majority of participants in the new league are inner-city youth, mostly from disadvantaged minority backgrounds. The teams, which are gender-mixed, include a high proportion of young girls who might not have the same access to regular sports teams.<\/p>\n<p>Ashlee Cooper, who helps coach the teams but also serves as an on-field referee during competitions, notes: \u201cNone of [the girls] could fly when we started, but some had the natural ability,especially, if they were gamers. I\u2019m really excited to see how they continue to grow together,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff Learning about drones could be one way to pique younger students\u2019 interest in STEM topics, educators insist.\u00a0 In fact, a growing number of high schools are incorporating drone classes into their standard curricula for just this reason.\u00a0 But how to get kids interested in drones in the first place?\u00a0 Through drone \u201csoccer,\u201d some say&#8230;. <a href=\"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/drone-soccer-movement-is-spreading-worldwide\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}