Arsenal pay £100,000 to boost flop stars performance in virtual reality… but it's making players SICK

Posted Friday, October 20, 2017 by Thesun.co.uk

ARSENAL have forked out £100,000 for a virtual reality system to boost their players performance.

But the state-of-the-art technology has proven to be a flop, with several of Arsene Wenger's men complaining the new training technique gives them motion sickness.

Arsenal pay £100,000 to boost flop stars performance in virtual reality… but it's making players SICK
Arsenal spent £100,000 on virtual reality technology which is making the players feel sick

Players use headsets to view the virtual reality

Dutch company Beyond Sports is behind the unique method and created the Analysis Suite for the Gunners, decked out with TV's, VR headsets and a small 'pitch'.

However, Football London report Arsenal's first team aren't keen on the technology after regular use at the start of the season often left them feeling sick.

The smart room allows players to recreate any moment of a match from any angle and perspective with the hopes of improving the players decision-making and decreasing reaction times.

Using tracking data from Premier League games the gear can recreate the movements of players but in a 3D space.

Some Arsenal players have complained of motion sickness

A Hand of God tool allows players or coaches to spotlight anyone on the pitch while viewing the game from a choice of angles on the headset including through the eyes of a player.

They can then freeze at any moment and make a choice on where to run or play the ball by pressing a button on the controller and get feedback on their decisions straight away.

Beyond Sports say this can "make you a better player by training you to see where the ball should go, without the extra load on the body, which is great for injured players, who can keep on training."

The company has also worked with Ajax youth team claiming their decision-making improved by 20 per cent and reduced reaction times by a second after extended use.

Though it doesn't appear that the Arsenal stars are willing to persevere with the technology and instead the club will use it to focus on improving their young players and getting them ready to step up to senior football.

A spokesperson for Beyond Sports said: "Youth Academy players will also be able to train at the speed of the first team, making them ready for the first team a lot earlier."

Some experts dispute the effectiveness of the technology - including Javid Farahani of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London.

Farahani, who has conducted research into video-based training for football clubs around the world said: "It is not possible to improve decision-making by 20 per cent using VR.

"The amount of information received by the brain is also more than normal in VR so the response time is going to be longer than it would if you are using a tactics board or game video.

"VR is about showing you all the information but your brain does not need it. It is not the optimal way for the brain to learn."

Beyond Sports also work with Stoke City to help train their goalkeepers and the company is hoping to spread to other Premier League clubs.