by JoeC » 05 Jan 2012, 22:53
I had the chance to see some Turbo Twist chairs at the 2011 FIPFA world cup, and I have to say that they do seem to be quite impressive chairs. The ones I saw were built specifically for electric hockey. They were low to the ground, had cambered drive wheels with a fairly wide stance, had the center of gravity nearly correct, appeared to be light weight, and had many other features that I'd have added if I was building- they even had Anderson connectors and a manufacturer supplied 30 amp charger!
The chairs were not great for power soccer, though, for a few reasons. The foot guards were too rounded, and not very far forward, greatly reducing their potential for spin kicks. They were also geared for speeds of around 10 mph, which of course was not helpful in a game with an enforced speed limit of 6 mph. Regardless, with their 120 amp R-net controllers and groove motors, they seemed to hold their own quite well. The athletes I asked who'd played against teams using those chairs (Australia is the main team that comes to mind) told me things that lead me to believe that the chairs did not have some of the drawbacks you'd expect from a 10 mph chair- they weren't especially easy to push around, and they weren't too slow at accelerating off the line.
If they made a few soccer-specific changes, they'd be fearsome on the court. Increasing the motor gearing to reduce top speed to something between 6 and 7 mph, and putting a better guard on the front is all it would really take... and some very serious programming, if the R-net is capable.
