‘Footbonaut’ Train Human Footballers to Play like Machine – THE BORUSSIA DORTMUND SECRET

Footbonaut machine Train football Players

Talk about real German machine. Christian Guttler has designed one that will change the way football is being played. The machine called ‘footbonaut’ is already helping Borussia Dortmund take their football to a whole new level.

Footbonaut is a robotic cage which football players can use to train and to improve skills such as passing, spatial awareness, and ball control. The 14 meters cage is powered by a smart device.

Once inside the ‘footbonaut’, a player is fed balls by eight different loops at an intensity indicated by a flashing green light, which make up the space contraption before receiving another ball from the 72 panels.

The machine can be operated using smart devices such as tablet or smart phone and can serve ball at different intensity. It improves players’ technique, spatial awareness and peripheral vision. It makes players’ control and reaction time so quick.

Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga Champions

Perhaps, this may be the secret behind the recent successes of the Borussia Dortmund team, which has been using footbonaut for the past two years. The intensity and precision with which the team play now is just beyond what many of their opponents could handle.

Little wonder Borussia Dortmund won the Bundesliga in the last two seasons and is currently placed fourth on the league table. The team has already qualified for the knock out stage of UEFA Champions’ League after dismissing Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax. And Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid manager, has already ticked Borussia Dortmund as his favorite team to win the champions’ league this season.

Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Borussia Dortmund, has admitted that footbonaut has helped his team maintain a ‘stellar standard.’ He said, “You can closely monitor players’ development and progress using data gleaning from the machine. You can as well use the machine to get all your players to play at a certain precision and intensity.

Dortmund’s Australian youngster, Mustafa Amini, who has used the machine again and again said, “In course of normal training that level of intensity is just not possible. The footbonaut allows you to work on any weakness and ensures that you play at certain pace with precision…”

“Repetition and intensity are crucial if you want to conquer a particular skill, whether playing football, tennis or even learning piano,”

Footbonaut cage will surely be a change factor in the coming years – as most top football clubs may have to purchase the wonder machine. And that means that in the coming years, we are going to see games with increased pace and intensity. Footbonaut has finally ushered football into space age. More machines and devices will be developed, and we may soon begin to see modern football played more like a computer game.

HighLights

• German champions Borussia Dortmund pioneer the use of "space age" training

• The "Footbonaut" is a 14-meter cage which delivers balls to a player by eight machines

• The player must then pass to one of 72 panels which is signaled by a flashing green light