Be Your Best CEO, Andreas Olsen, recently chatted to Dan Rolinson of the popular Claret & Blue - An Aston Villa Podcast about why more and more Premier League players are training in virtual reality (VR).
The conversation arose after videos were shared on social media of Aston Villa first team players, Emi Buendía and Tyrone Mings, each being filmed training in VR headsets.
Both Buendía and Mings are currently in the process of recovering from ACL injuries so the topic of VR technology being used as part of a footballers rehabilitation process was inevitably discussed.
Olsen shared that “Martin Ødegaard was actually using our product [Be Your Best] for four months when he had a broken leg to have that cognitive load even without any physical load…even though you can’t run or you can’t do anything physically, you can still do a lot with [training] your cognitive skills.”
Watch Ødegaard training in VR →
The benefits of VR training in football go way beyond purely being able to train whilst injured and without any physical load though. Rolinson and Olsen also talked about VR being used as a tool to recreate the on-field playing experience from a player’s first person perspective.
“What we have learned from researchers that we have spoken to is that the way to improve your skill to scan and your ability to take in information before receiving the ball, it has to be trained in a game-like experience," Olsen explained.
"The best would be to play in a game to feel the pressure of players coming towards you to understand where your teammates are and the opponents, also what information to take on before you take the ball. Then, when you get the ball you can make a more informed decision."
"The best is of course to do this in a physical world, but it is really hard to replicate that because of injury risks and because you need resources, players and a field. But if you use technology to replicate those situations, you can train that even more efficiently.
"We [at Be Your Best] are using VR and AI to replicate these situations over and over again for players who want to become world-class in the skill of scanning and game intelligence."
Be Your Best allows users to play through 800+ scenarios recreated from real life professional games. Meaning players can train and improve their scanning, vision and decision making skills. The fact that this VR football training can also be done anywhere, anytime and on a schedule that suits the user only increases the benefits.
And it explains why thousands of professional and amateur players are training in VR to improve their game intelligence and gain an edge on the pitch.
Professional players who have trained with Be Your Best include Real Madrid star and French international, Aurélien Tchouaméni and talented Serie A and Norwegian midfielder Kristian Thorstvedt.
A number of professional clubs have also partnered with Be Your Best to improve the cognitive skills of their players, including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Borussia Dortmund and FC Copenhagen.
To watch the full Claret & Blue - An Aston Villa Podcast episode, click play below.
In addition to Dan and Andreas’ chat, you can also enjoy Claret & Blue hosts Dan and John Townley go head-to-head on the virtual football pitch to test their scanning 'skills'.
John wrote about his experience training with Be Your Best in Birmingham Live →
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