A few months ago, German football club and Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund unveiled the newest addition to their training facility – the “Footbonaut.” The Footbonaut is a 45 foot cage that feeds ball to a player standing in the middle of the contraption. The player then returns the ball into one of the machine’s 72 panels.
The panels have red and green flashing led lights around them, so when a player receives a ball, the lights around that panel flash red, while the lights of the panel the player is supposed to return it to flash green. With the Footbonaut, players can focus on things like ball-handling, reaction time, footwork, precision and much more.
“In the course of normal training that level of intensity just is not possible. The ´Footbonaut´ allows you to work on any weaknesses and ensures that you play at pace but with precision.”
Guttler claims that after 15 minutes in the cage a player “will have received and passed on as many balls as he would in a normal week of training.
“Repetition and intensity are crucial if you want to conquer a particular skill, whether that be playing football, tennis or learning the piano.”
One of the coolest things about the Footbonaut is that it can be operated from a tablet.
[CNN]
