|
HAVANA, Oct. 28-- Cuban ex-football player Erick Hernandez has a boundless mastery of the ball that was proved once again over the weekend after he set a new Guinness World Record. On Saturday, Hernandez, 52, broke his previous record by bouncing the ball on his head for an hour and 59 seconds while sitting with 1.5-kilogram weights on each ankle. In July of last year, he won the record with a time of 43 minutes and five seconds. The challenge, he told Xinhua, lies in being seated, because it is harder to bat the ball when you're virtually immobile. "The base of controlling the ball with the head is in the feet, and when you're sitting, you're not using your lower limbs, so you have to give impetus to the ball with your upper body and that makes it very difficult to break this record," Hernandez said. During the record-breaking attempt, Douglas Hernandez, Erick's coach and older brother, was relaxed and unconcerned, a testament to his confidence in his pupil. "He has undergone strict training to strengthen all of the upper back and neck, which are the parts that work the most in this feat," said Douglas, who has set a few records of his own. Today, he is happy to coach his brother, one in a long line of Cuban record holders. In this attempt, Erick used a Telstar 18, the official match ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, and trained for a month just to strengthen his back muscles. | 
