Putting on the headset instantly transports me from a bland meeting room in central London to the very heart of a virtual football pitch, right on the centre circle of a simulated match. I have chosen to play as a holding midfielder, and I clutch a controller in each hand, my thumbs poised over the pass button, ready for the first cue. A brief countdown ticks down, and then the build‑up phase begins.
A virtual teammate receives the ball at his feet, and my job is to anticipate the pass, position myself, and make the correct decision. Every flick of my head, every glance, every subsequent choice is recorded by the system and fed into an analysis engine. The gadget, developed by the company Be Your Best, is built specifically to train a skill known as scanning – the rapid, almost instinctive side‑to‑side glances that elite players use to gather information about the positions of opponents and teammates before they receive the ball. By practising these micro‑glances, a player can make faster, more accurate decisions once the ball arrives.
My first trial runs at a modest 80 % of game speed, which gives me a chance to get used to the environment. I move cautiously, get tackled a few times, but I am rewarded with a ‘critical scan’ badge when I spot a teammate making a run and thread a pass through the defensive line. The positive feedback feels encouraging and validates the concept. When the speed dial is cranked up to 100 % – the tempo of a top‑level professional match – the experience becomes a reality check.
The ball arrives quicker, opponents close down faster, and the margin for error shrinks dramatically. I am then tempted to try the 120 % setting, a feature that was added after Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard tried the headset for the first time and asked for an even greater challenge. Ødegaard, celebrated for his extraordinary vision and lightning‑quick thought process, is the type of player that fascinated Andreas Olsen, the CEO of Be Your Best, back when Olsen was an academy prospect at Viking FK in Norway. "It was mind‑blowing to me how some players just seemed like they had eyes in the backs of their heads," Olsen told Sky Sports.
"I didn’t have the language to describe it, I just wished I could read the pressure and know where the next pass should go." The scientific roots of scanning stretch back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Norwegian professor Geir Jordet began investigating what would later be labeled as scanning behaviour. His research focused on the ten‑second window before a player receives the ball. He discovered that the very best players in the world consistently displayed higher scan rates during this crucial period.
"Those ten seconds are critical," Olsen explains. "If you make the decision before you get the ball, you won’t be surprised when it arrives. All the visual information has already been captured, so you simply execute." Jordet’s studies highlighted Barcelona and Spain legend Xavi Hernández as the epitome of a scanner. Xavi may not have been the fastest runner, but his mind operated at breakneck speed.
"He made his decisions before the ball was even at his feet, and then the ball was already moving," Olsen says. "He would turn left because he knew pressure was coming from the right.
Watching his clips, you see he always covered the ball with his back because he knew exactly where the opponent was." Scanning is not a new training mantra. Former England and Arsenal youth coach Frank Lampard recalls his father shouting the word "pictures" from the sidelines, urging him to take mental snapshots of the field.
However, as the sport speeds up and the time a player can hold the ball shrinks, the importance of scanning is rising. Data from the Premier League shows that players now cover significantly more sprint distance per game than they did a few seasons ago, a trend driven by the rise of high‑pressing tactics and overall increased intensity. "Arsène Wenger once said we have solved the physical side of football – we know how to get faster and stronger," Olsen notes.
"But in a game that is becoming ever more physical, we also have to train how fast the mind works. Being the strongest and quickest is no longer enough." The principle applies to defenders as well as attackers.
Dan Micciche, a former England and Arsenal youth coach now working with Saudi Arabia’s national team setup, describes a defensive masterclass he witnessed from Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci during the Euro 2021 semi‑final against Spain. "They were not sprinting; they were jogging, scanning, and skipping around the pitch. It was as if they knew where every player was, which gave them a calm confidence," he told Sky Sports. Most coaches today accept that situational awareness and scanning can be taught, although some remain skeptical about the effectiveness of virtual‑reality (VR) tools.
Micciche says, "I still think the game itself is the best teacher, and the feedback from a coach watching the details is invaluable. You can improve players by asking open questions: What did you see? Why didn’t you turn?
Where was the space?" He adds that modern football culture often demands instant answers, which can short‑circuit the scanning process. "We sometimes give players the decision for them, or we rush to provide the answer, rather than letting them develop the habit of looking and thinking first." Be Your Best has tried to address these concerns by programming the headset to capture not only how often a player scans, but also the timing of each scan and the quality of the subsequent decision. Their data suggests the approach works.
In a nine‑week program with Germany’s U16 and U17 squads, scan rates rose by 28 %, and coaches reported improved positioning in 80 % of the participants. Individual success stories bolster the case.
Manchester City centre‑back Marc Guehi uses the technology, Chelsea midfielder Romeo Lavia has invested in the company, and in 2023 Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouaméni employed the headset to acclimate himself to a temporary centre‑back role during an injury crisis. After helping Real keep a clean sheet in a 4‑0 win over Osasuna, Tchouaméni posted about his headset experience on social media, highlighting the practical benefits. From my own perspective, the headset’s appeal is clear. After each session I leave aware that my scanning still needs work – Ødegaard’s 120 % setting will have to wait for another day – but I find myself instinctively checking my shoulders as I walk to the train station, a small habit that could one day translate into better on‑field decisions.
The evolution of football is pushing players to become faster thinkers as much as faster runners, and tools like Be Your Best’s scanning trainer may become a staple in elite development programmes. As the game continues to accelerate, the ability to capture the right visual information in those fleeting seconds before contact with the ball could be the differentiator between good and great.