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Additional Training Accessories
Besides the standard training equipment, there are several other accessories that can help you improve your performance and make your training more effective. These include sports tape, GPS trackers and BlazePods.
Tracker
GPS Tracker
A GPS tracker allows you to see where you have moved on the pitch, how high your heart rate was, and how long you stayed at a particular intensity.
You can also track your top speed, total distance covered, and average running speed.
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This makes it easy to track your progress over time.
Some trackers also offer a live session, allowing you to see your current speed and distance covered while you are training or playing.
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A GPS tracker gives players and coaches detailed information about physical performance. This can help optimise training, improve fitness and reduce the risk of overuse injuries.
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Important data such as distance covered, sprint performance, heart rate and positioning can help players understand their physical performance and work towards improving it.
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By continuously monitoring training load and fatigue levels, coaches and players can reduce the risk of overtraining and injury.
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Measuring top speed, total distance covered and movement patterns makes it possible to analyse both strengths and areas for improvement.
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GPS trackers can record accelerations, decelerations and heart rate, giving you a clearer picture of the actual intensity of a training session or match.
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Some trackers, particularly leg-mounted trackers, can also record the number of shots, passes and ball contacts, providing additional insight into technical performance.
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Coaches can use this data to assess whether a player is ready to handle match intensity and adjust their training programme accordingly.
When returning from an injury, the data can also help coaches gradually and safely increase a player’s training load.
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Use the data from your tracker as motivation. Try to improve on your own previous performances and continue to challenge yourself to become fitter, faster and more resilient.
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Sports Watch
A sports watch can be a useful tool for footballers because it collects detailed performance data, such as distance, speed and heart rate. This information can be valuable when planning and evaluating training and managing injury risk.
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Unlike a GPS tracker, however, a sports watch should not normally be worn during matches. Some coaches also do not allow players to wear watches during training because there is a risk of the watch getting caught on another player or equipment.
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During your own running sessions, however, a sports watch can be very useful for monitoring your pace and seeing how fast you are running.
One advantage over a GPS tracker is that you can check your data during the run directly on your wrist. With a tracker, you may only be able to review your results afterwards, unless you use a live session with your phone.
Blazepods
BlazePods
BlazePods are an innovative and motivating training tool that can help athletes improve their reaction speed, agility, coordination and explosiveness in a fun but highly effective way.
The wireless light pods provide visual stimuli that you have to react to as quickly as possible. This trains both your body and your brain at the same time.
BlazePods can be used by elite athletes and recreational players, as well as in physiotherapy, personal training and team sports.
What can you train with BlazePods?
- Reaction speed
- Agility and footwork
- Hand-eye coordination
- Explosiveness
- Concentration and focus
- Decision-making under pressure
- Conditioning and interval training
- Rehabilitation and motor skills
The exercises can easily be adapted to different levels and training goals. Because they combine physical movement with cognitive demands, they provide a highly functional form of training that can be directly applied to sports performance.
With consistent training 2–3 times per week, athletes may begin to notice improvements in reaction speed, decision-making speed and coordination within 4–6 weeks. For more noticeable improvements in sport-specific performance, such as faster footwork and quicker reactions, a training period of approximately 8–12 weeks is often used.
Examples of achievable goals
- Faster starts and changes of direction within 6 weeks
- Improved reaction speed during match situations within 8 weeks
- Improved explosiveness and conditioning within 10–12 weeks
- Better focus and decision-making under pressure within several weeks
How Many Pods Do You Need?
The number of pods you need depends on the type of training you want to do:
- 2 pods → Basic reaction training and simple exercises
- 4 pods → Ideal for individual training and small-group sessions
- 6 pods → A versatile setup for a wide range of exercises
- 8+ pods → Suitable for larger circuits, teams and more complex reaction drills
For most players and coaches, a set of 4–6 pods is more than enough to create varied and effective training sessions.
You can use the BlazePod app to make the lights activate in random sequences. You then have to react by touching the pods with your hands or feet.
This allows you to challenge yourself and improve your reaction speed, helping you make quicker decisions under pressure. It can also improve your focus and visual scanning, skills that are highly important in football.
The app includes more than 100 pre-programmed exercises, including:
Agility Star
An exercise focused on agility, acceleration and changes of direction between different points.
Ball Control
React to different colours while dribbling or juggling the ball.
Scanning
Place the pods behind you so that you have to scan over your shoulder before making your next action.
A Cheaper Alternative
A cheaper alternative to BlazePods is to use cones, coloured markers or reaction-ball exercises combined with a timer app such as Seconds Interval Timer.
A coach or training partner can provide visual or verbal signals that you have to react to as quickly as possible.
Other affordable alternatives include:
- Coloured reaction lights from less well-known brands
- Agility ladders combined with colour commands
- Smartphone apps that provide visual or audio signals
Although these alternatives are generally less interactive and advanced than BlazePods, they can still be effective for improving reaction speed, coordination and agility at a lower
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Running Shoes
When buying running shoes, it is important to find the right balance of cushioning, stability and fit.
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You should also make sure that your running shoes are suitable for the surfaces you will run on most often.
For pavement, concrete and asphalt, choose shoes with sufficient cushioning and good grip for hard surfaces.
For running in dunes, forests or on trails, choose a running shoe with a more aggressive tread pattern. This provides better grip on uneven and unpaved surfaces and can offer additional stability.
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When buying running shoes, you may want to choose around half a size to one full size larger than your everyday shoes, as your feet can swell during running.
You should generally have approximately 0.5–1 cm of space in front of your toes.
Tape
Tape
Footballers often use sports tape to create a smooth transition between short grip socks and cut-off club socks.
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Long grip socks are also widely available nowadays, but some players still feel that they do not provide the level of grip and comfort they prefer.
Tape can also be used to help keep shin pads in place and prevent socks from slipping down while running.
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When using tape over your socks, it should generally be the same colour as the socks underneath it.
