The way football players train is changing. The truth is, at the elite level, not much separates the best players.
Every single player will have an incredible first touch, amazing passing range, and powerful shot.
For players to get ahead, they need to look towards the finer margins of their game. The parts that aren’t as obvious, and aren’t as easy to train. One of those areas is a player’s cognitive abilities. Their vision, decision making, reactions. Skills that are super important on the pitch, but ignored by many players due to a belief that they’re natural, or can’t be improved with practice.
Without world class coaching, these skills can be extremely difficult to train. And that’s exactly where Be Your Best comes in.
Be Your Best: Improve your Game
For over 6 years, our team of football and tech experts have been building a tool that allows players to train these difficult skills.
Used on an Oculus/Meta Quest VR headset, Be Your Best takes players to a virtual pitch, where they play through simulations of moments from real Premier and Champions League games.
In these moments, it’s up to you to put your cognitive skills to the test, as you develop your scanning, vision, and decision making skills.
But how exactly does Be Your Best improve your game? Let’s take a look.
Improved Scanning Ability
Perhaps the skill that Be Your Best trains most effectively, scanning is when a player temporarily looks away from the ball to take in additional information.
This info can then be used to help a player when they next receive the ball. Scanning can help a player in all kinds of situations…
Whether it’s noticing a pressing player to avoid being tackled
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Or whether it’s scanning before making a pass to find your teammate’s run
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When it comes to scanning, the two most important things are frequency and timing.
Frequency is how often you look around.
Timing is all about scanning at the right moments. Scan the space when the ball is moving or in between touches, but keep your eyes on the ball whenever it’s kicked or touched.
While the best way to learn these skills is through practicing in a real game, it’s only physically possible to play in a few games every week. Be Your Best gives you a way to get those extra hours in, without physically overwhelming your body.
Improved Vision and Decision Making
Scanning is all well and good, but if you make the wrong passing decision after receiving the ball then all that hard work is wasted.
That’s why in Be Your Best, you’ll also be putting your decision making skills to the test. After scanning your surroundings you’ll eventually be passed the ball. At this moment it’s up to you to make the best passing decision possible.
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After each training session in Be Your Best, you’ll receive a score for your decision making. The better decisions you make, the higher your score will be.
Improved Memory and Awareness
Football is such a fast paced, chaotic game, that it’s often difficult to remember to do everything right. Scanning is a skill that can suffer because of this. You may find yourself checking your shoulder regularly in a game, but struggling to remember what you saw.
This often means a problem with your memory and visual recall.
In Be Your Best, we help to train this area of your brain through regular awareness tests that could come at any moment.
In these tests you’ll be challenged with remembering which team certain players are on
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The more you practice, the better you’ll get at actually taking in and remembering information whenever you scan.
Learn from your Mistakes
In Be Your Best, you’re able to replay each moment you train back, analysing what you did well and where you could improve. With access to our replay feature, you can take a look back at your actions from any angle on the pitch.
Review your scanning from above, working on getting your timing and frequency spot on. Check to see if you made the right decision, or whether there was another pass you could’ve made.
Just like the pros do, you’re able to break down your actions, analyse and improve.
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Monitor your Progress
With the Be Your Best Stats tracking hub, you get to monitor your progress over time, with a detailed record of every single scan and decision made.
Browse through graphs of your progress, as you see how far you’ve developed as a player.
We’re working on releasing a dedicated mobile app to track your stats in the future, stay tuned for more info in the next few months.
So there you have it. Now that you’ve seen how Be Your Best can improve your game, why not take to the virtual pitch and start practicing right away? If you’d like to start training with Be Your Best, head to our home page, create your Be Your Best account and get started right away.
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