After trying Be Your Best VR football training, I discovered why scanning and split-second decisions matter long before the ball arrives.
Be Your Best is a virtual reality football training platform designed to develop something that can often be overlooked in the game – what happens before a player receives the ball, the decisions they make and how they read the game both in and out of possession. All of these elements are hugely important to understanding the game and becoming a better footballer.
Built around research into scanning, awareness, vision and decision-making, the platform puts players into realistic match situations where they have to constantly assess what is happening around them, process the information and make decisions under pressure.
It is already being used across the game, from developing young players to professional footballers, and the concept is fascinating. Rather than simply training what a player does with the ball, Be Your Best focuses on what happens in the mind before the ball arrives.
I had read about the technology, watched how it worked and understood the research behind it before visiting Be Your Best. But actually putting the headset on and experiencing it for myself was something completely different. Within minutes, I understood why it is attracting so much attention in football.
The science behind it comes from Norwegian sports psychologist and professor Geir Jordet, who has spent years analysing how elite footballers perceive and process the game. His research found that the players scanning most frequently were often the elite players.
One example shown was Frank Lampard, who was renowned for constantly scanning his surroundings before receiving the ball. A visual example showed Lampard scanning the pitch six times before receiving the ball in one particular situation, highlighting just how much information elite players are taking in before they even get possession.
Thinking about what Lampard was doing. He was gathering information: where is the space, where are the opposition, where are my teammates and what can he do next?
Take that to another level and you have players such as Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi, players who always seemed to have that extra second on the ball. In football, that extra moment can be vital, and sometimes the smallest margins are all it takes to make the difference in a game.
Be Your Best’s current research shows that the best players can scan eight or more times in the 10 seconds before receiving the ball, while players with higher scan rates have been found to be more than twice as likely to complete successful forward passes.
Even more interestingly, Be Your Best reports an average 28% increase in scan rate after nine weeks of consistent VR training in a study involving the German U16’s national team.
Having now experienced Be Your Best myself, I started to understand why.
My first challenge was playing the role of a defensive midfielder. I had to receive the ball, scan what was around me and decide where to play it. I was then given scores for my scanning, vision, speed, timing and decision-making.
The great thing was that I could immediately try again and attempt to beat my own score.
I then stepped into the mind of a striker, experiencing real match scenarios based on Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé, before finishing as an attacking midfielder in the role of Bruno Fernandes, looking to create chances, provide assists and score goals!
The biggest thing that hit me was the speed.
Football is fast, but when you’re inside the game, you realise just how quickly you have to act. Scanning isn’t simply about looking around as many times as possible. You can scan too early or too late. It is about taking in the right information at the right moment, processing it and then using it to make a decision. That, to me is where football IQ really comes into play.
It is incredibly immersive too. I was standing in a small room, but when the headset was on I genuinely felt like I was on the pitch. At one point I even kicked the chair beside me, completely forgetting that I wasn’t actually playing football!
Having coached football for many years, I found this particularly interesting because so much of what Be Your Best focuses on is already part of everyday coaching. Whether you’re working on passing patterns, phases of play, small-sided drills or even a warm-up, you’re constantly encouraging players to head check, scan their surroundings, know what is around them and open their body up to see the pitch.
These are habits we try to build into players from a young age, and if technology like this can help reinforce them and make that scanning second nature, then I think it can only benefit the player and ultimately the game.
Having players such as Frank Lampard, Martin Ødegaard and Lionel Messi as reference points also helps bring those coaching messages to life. The game is constantly evolving and this feels like another way of developing not just the player, but the football brain too.
Another fascinating point was the injury side of the game. You can train while sitting down, meaning your body doesn’t have to take a physical load while you continue working on vision and decision-making. Professional players including Martin Ødegaard and Endrick have used Be Your Best during injury periods for this reason.
It is also being used with younger players, helping them develop scanning and awareness from an early age. The idea is that if you train your brain to look, process and understand the game, it can eventually happen without thinking too much about it.
I’ve spent years coaching players and watching the game develop; it made me think about how much time we spend working on passing, shooting, dribbling and fitness, and how little we sometimes think about training players to see.
I’ve watched Messi scan the pitch before even receiving the ball countless times. After experiencing Be Your Best, I looked at it differently. Maybe the best players don’t actually have more time; they simply know what to do before everyone else realises what is happening.
Check out Be Your Best: www.beyourbest.com
