Premier League club Stoke City partners with virtual reality company Beyond Sports
July 20, 2017
Premier League club Stoke City will start working with virtual reality technology ahead of the start of the 2017-18 campaign.
The Potters’ use of the rapidly evolving technology will focus on analysing matches in virtual reality and training their goalkeepers in collaboration with the Dutch sports tech company Beyond Sports.
The technology is based on real match data and will allow the club to create scenarios based on a certain game-plan or specific approach. Mark Hughes’ staff plan to recreate situations in virtual reality to improve their players’ positional intelligence.
A Beyond Sports statement read: “Scientific research fuels the possibilities for more specific training for individual athletes and promises structural player enhancement in both performance and tactical decision making.
“Reliving certain situations through the eyes of the player gives incredible insights that come from the position from which the player actually witnessed the game. Recognition leads to enhancement.”
Stoke City is not the first professional football club in the United Kingdom to use virtual reality to enhance their players. Beyond Sports already partnered with Arsenal two years ago.