A green circle appears in the middle of the artificial turf. Ben takes a step into it, triggering a countdown.
After three seconds, a whistle sounds. Ben sprints into the space in front of him, heading straight for the ball, which comes at him fast and flat from the ball machine. On the screen surrounding him, animated teammates in red Bayern jerseys and opponents in blue have started moving. Two plastic dummies obstruct the view and passing paths. Ben brings the ball under control with his right foot, raises his head and passes it into the virtual fray. It lands just behind his teammate on the screen. No points scored. “Don’t get upset about that. The first contact was very good!” Ben hears from the background. He trots back to the green circle and tries again.
The 18-year-old is one of around 250 talents working on their dream of becoming a professional football player at the FC Bayern Campus. Since September 2020, a skills.lab Arena has also been part of the Munich-based youth training center. With the help of the training and assessment system, the German record champion aims to closely monitor and specifically improve the performance of its players – in both the technical and cognitive areas. Very often, both areas are combined in the exercises. As was the case with Ben on this Monday afternoon. He plays for FC Bayern’s U19 team and comes to the skills.lab Arena on campus once a week, where he trains individually under the guidance of Oskar Kretzinger.
The 36-year-old DFB football coach (“Fußballlehrer”) is the Leading Expert at FC Bayern’s skills.lab Arena. With his tablet in hand, he controls the training program, starts or stops exercises, and thus always has the action on the artificial turf under control. Occasionally, he uses a notebook to call up individual attempts via video in order to analyze movement sequences or the foot position when receiving the ball or taking a shot in more detail. “Many players can work even better with this than with verbal coaching alone,” says Kretzinger.
His personal feedback is clear and direct. As the training session continues, he increases the complexity of the exercise. This leads to the point where he ends up becoming a part of it himself, placing himself as an additional obstacle in the passing and running path. Again, the ball comes sharply at Ben. This time the first contact fails and he sprints after it. Kretzinger extends his right leg, deflects the ball to the side with his heel and grins, “Always find the right mix of dynamic and control!” At the next attempt, the exercise is perfectly executed. Ben plays the ball onto his teammate’s foot with two contacts, forcefully and precisely. The coach is satisfied: “That was the best, did you notice?”
Which exercises in the skills.lab Arena make it onto the training plan depends on age, position and the respective focus, which is determined together with the team coach. “For me as a full-back, first contacts with corresponding dynamics are often required in the game. Here I can fully concentrate on that,” says Ben after his session. He is standing in the entrance area of the skills.lab Arena with his football shoes under his arm, while the next warm-up exercises have already begun on the artificial turf. Emilie is a central defender in the FC Bayern women’s squad, which is also based at the campus. Kretzinger reels off an hour-long program of passing and cognition exercises with her. “The training in the skills.lab Arena is intense, but great fun,” says the 21-year-old, who comes by once or twice a week. “In team training, we practice a lot of tactics, because of all the games. That’s why this is a great way to improve individually.”
Meanwhile, Maximilian Luckner looks at who is improving and how. He works as a coach and game analyst at FC Bayern and is also part of the multi-member skills.lab team on campus. On his computer, he has opened the club’s own database, into which all the players’ performance data flows. The screen shows a ranking of the U13 players, listed in descending order by a total score. The score consists of the categories of passing, ball control, dribbling, and goal scoring and is derived from the skills.lab Arena screenings that all teams at each age level complete every six months. Before two players from the U13s come to the Arena to train with Luckner, he goes over recent scores with the team’s coach. “In 80 to 90 percent of the cases, they match the coaches’ impressions from team trainings and games,” Luckner says.
If this is not the case, the results are discussed in detail. Particularly in the younger age groups, it happens that players impress with their speed, dynamism and presence on the field due to their physical development, but fall behind their teammates in the skills.lab Arena technique test. “At first you think to yourself that this can’t be the case when you follow some players on the field. But it can be, if you take a closer look,” says U13 coach Philipp Deppner.
If this is not the case, the results are discussed in detail. Particularly in the younger age groups, it happens that players impress with their speed, dynamism and presence on the field due to their physical development, but fall behind their teammates in the skills.lab Arena technique test. “At first you think to yourself that this can’t be the case when you follow some players on the field. But it can be, if you take a closer look,” says U13 coach Philipp Deppner.
From Monday to Friday there is always a lot of activity. Depending on the phase of the season, also on weekends. On mornings, there is time to further develop the exercises of the system. Soon, a separate cognition test will become part of the biannual screenings. “So we are constantly trying to come up with new concepts and monitoring. However, we never see the skills.lab Arena in data-based isolation, but as a subset of many data we collect in the Game Analysis and Innovation department. It is a central piece of the mosaic,” says Kretzinger. A piece of the mosaic that contributes to the big picture.
