Using your head: neuroscience is fast becoming football’s gamechanger
By harnessing brain power and speeding up ability to process information, players are being helped to fulfil their potential
Four years ago, Arsène Wenger was asked what he thought would be the next game-changer in football. His answer was neuroscience. “Why? Because we are at the end of the improvement of physical speed,” Wenger said. “In the last 10 years, the power and speed of individual players has improved, but now you have sprinters everywhere. The next step will be to improve the speed of our brains.”
Neuroscience is the study of the human nervous system, particularly the brain, and all the multitudinous connections and interactions that go on within it. It is a branch of science that, in the popular imagination, summons up images of electrodes and scanners and illuminated sections of the cerebellum. In football, it has also become a term to refer to a better understanding of the mental skills and qualities necessary to succeed in the game.
