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Be Your Best has partnered with the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) to accelerate the development of its best young talent.
Through the partnership, NFF seeks to set a new golden standard for how to train and test players’ cognitive abilities in Norway and enable their top talents to reach their full potential.
As reported in this Sky Sports interview with Thomas Brantsaeter, Head of Talent Identification at NFF, in 2024 120 of Norway’s best young players, 60 boys and 60 girls, used the Be Your Best Cognitive Assessment Tool - otherwise known as BYBCAT - the world’s first cognitive assessment tool tailored for football.
BYBCAT measures the cognitive skills of players in virtual football environments. Players are immersed into various game-situations, via a VR Headset, and are challenged to find solutions to scenarios in real time. Players are measured and tested across the following areas:
- Scan Rate
- Scan Timing
- Pattern Recognition
- Working Memory
- Motor Inhibition
- Pass Progression
- Sustained Attention
- Reaction Time
BYBCAT results are instantly available for players and coaches to review and offer valuable insights in terms of benchmarking and which cognitive skills players need to develop.
One of the major benefits virtual-reality football training offers young players is the chance to accelerate their learning process by adding hours of useful training without increasing the physical load. This helps alleviate any concerns about managing the demands on bodies that are still maturing.
Norway at the forefront of football cognition
Thomas Brantsaeter referenced Geir Jordet, a Norwegian psychology professor who was the first to popularise the idea of the importance of scanning, in his interview with Sky Sports.
"Geir Jordet has had a huge impact on Norwegian football," says Brantsaeter. "Thinking quickly, looking around - these are ideas that have been talked about for a long time.”
“The giant step in recent years is the evidence to suggest scanning is important and how it is important. The best players use this information, they know when and when not to scan."
Nurturing the next Haaland, Ødegaard, Hegerberg and Graham Hansen
Speaking of the partnership with Be Your Best, Brantsaeter said:
“Norway has a tiny population. This means that our talent pool is always going to be fairly small, which means we need to do everything we can to nurture the ones we have in the best way possible.”
“Game Intelligence, scanning and decision making is one of the areas we want to focus on in our player development strategies. Therefore, it was an easy choice to partner with Be Your Best. In our view, they are the undisputed world number one in the field of technologies to train and test cognitive skills.”
During Brantsaeter’s interview with Sky Sports, the Head of Talent Identification explained how the aim of the NFF in using Be Your Best’s VR football training technology is to improve existing talent.
"We think we could learn more about our best players. Are they better at scanning? It will be interesting to see if it correlates across different positions on the pitch. Are there blind spots we have when we analyse them that the tests can reveal?”
Additionally, Brantsaeter highlighted another benefit of VR football training, in that; "Players can use it in their hotel room to maximise their time during a camp." Even revealing an U23 player is using Be Your Best to train whilst recovering from an injury to stay mentally sharp before returning to the grass.
Speaking of the partnership with the NFF, Be Your Best CEO Andreas Olsen said:
“Knowing how good NFF are at nurturing talents to become some of the very best players in the world, we at Be Your Best are honoured to be recognized by them as the company they want to partner with in their quest to further improve how they train and test the cognitive skills of their players.”
Interested in training with Be Your Best?
If you want to start training your cognitive football skills in virtual reality and improving your game intelligence, become a Be Your Best subscriber today.
A Be Your Best subscription gets you:
✓ Access to our VR training and mobile app
✓ Advanced scanning and vision training
✓ Memory and awareness training
✓ Ability to play 800+ scenarios recreated from pro games
✓ Replay Analysis
✓ Stats Tracking
✓ Access to 3 profiles
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