How Martin Odegaard and Aurélien Tchouaméni have enhanced a massive element of their games with revolutionary Be Your Best technology

Martin Odegaard and Aurélien Tchouaméni are among many footballers across the globe who have utilised Be Your Best to improve their performances on the pitch.

The revolutionary VR technology gives both professional and aspiring players an opportunity to gain a valuable insight into making the requisite changes necessary to take themselves to the next level, with the company focusing on one particular skill, which if applied correctly, can make the world of difference.

How Frank Lampard and Xavi fuelled Be Your Best to change football forever

Be Your Best is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. When I headed down to London to try out the headset, I was exceptionally impressed by the innovative product that this company had created.

Upon placing the headset over my eyes, I was instantly transported into a locker room, right before marching out into battle with my teammates.

As a Sunday League right-back, my footballing IQ is relatively limited, which is why I was so surprised by how rapidly Be Your Best was able to help me develop my decision-making skills.

The technology focuses on scanning, where a player is encouraged to constantly look around the pitch, so they know exactly what to do before the ball arrives at their feet.

Taking this into account, I was able to deliver accurate passes to my teammates in moments when ordinarily I’d have taken too long and either lost the ball or failed to create a chance of any real impact.

Interestingly, research proved beyond doubt that scanning makes a massive impact, with Be Your Best discovering that two of the greatest midfielders of all time have mastered the skill.

CEO, Andreas Olsen, who played as a youth player for Viking, explained: “One of our co-founders, Geir Jordet, is a renowned researcher within the field of cognition within football. Frank Lampard was one of those players, whom he looked at and measured how much he was scanning. Xavi was the highest, he scanned 8.3 times in the ten seconds before he receives the ball, which is crazy when you think about how fast the game is going.

“In some of the videos, you will see that when the ball is coming towards him, he will look two or three times to make this final picture. They do this so they can act faster and find the right opportunities. They can see how the game progresses and how the patterns unfold. By building expertise within the game, they can use that to make the best decision when they get the ball, which is why they’re so high level. This was the basis for us understanding that this should be trained, this is something that we want to provide to players, we want to give players what I didn’t have when I was a young, aspiring player – the opportunity to train this vital skill.”

Be Your Best lets you replicate Cristiano Ronaldo

As the day went on, my stats began to improve, with my pass-completion rate growing significantly, and the number of scans I was able to produce rising at a tremendous pace.

After attempting practice mode, I channelled my inner Cristiano Ronaldo in Challenge Mode, where I was put in the same scenarios as the Portuguese legend has found himself in.

Taking advantage of my newfound scanning ability, I was able to anticipate the passes, while knowing exactly where the goalkeeper was, meaning I was fully aware of where I was going to place my shots, saving much-needed time, and, consequently, scoring goal after goal.

Being referred to by those in attendance during the training session as ‘Better than the real Cristiano Ronaldo’ was undeniably a boost to the ego. However, it’s the satisfaction from within myself that made the world of difference because I was able to apply the knowledge I’d learned to become a better player within an extremely brief period of time.

Martin Odegaard and Aurélien Tchouaméni are better players because of Be Your Best

Be Your Best helps footballers across the board, from taking a limited athlete like myself up a grade or two, to giving an academy star the necessary boost to help make them break through into the professional game, and even providing an opportunity for world-class players like Aurélien Tchouaméni and Martin Odegaard, to bring on their already fantastic skill sets.

Olsen explained: “What we see in a player like Aurélien Tchouaméni, for example, is that they’re after the small percentage of improvement, which can mean the world to them. A player like him, who has all those fantastic abilities, if he can make slightly better decisions, because he’s calmer when he gets the ball in the very tight moments that can make the difference between him being a great midfielder to being one of the best midfielders in the world.

“Lots of our user base are players in the academies, down to 14, who’ve decided football is their number one passion. Improving their scanning abilities and game intelligence, that can really make the difference between you being like I was [and going to the next step] because if I’d had the opportunity to have something like Be Your Best, I’m sure this would’ve taken me to a higher level. This is what we’re seeing: if you start off in the development phase, [you can really enhance your skills]. At the lower level, we see the big improvements, but I think the reason top players are interested in using this tool is because they want to gain that edge because those improvements make the difference at the highest level.”

Following this, I had one last mode to try – Matchplay, in which I was able to move around the pitch, while working on all the elements that I’d learned throughout the session. For someone of the quality of myself, I had the speed set fairly low. However, Premier League-quality players can significantly up the intensity, making for a fantastic challenge for every single level of ability.

Be Your Best wants to completely change the game, providing a service to any footballer who has the aspirations to give themselves the edge over their rivals. And from not just my experience, but from all the players around the world who’ve tried it for themselves, it looks like the company is doing just that.

Featured Image Credit: Be Your Best/Getty