Effective Training Setup
In addition to providing a fun and competitive training environment, Goal Station aims to create the most effective and match-related training sessions. Modern football demands higher technical skills from players in all positions. It is crucial to stay calm and have a clear view in high-pressure situations because players need to quickly understand, process, and react to outside information. A study for the UEFA Pro License exam found that 76% of the actions in a football match relate to three key actions: first touch, first pass, and short passes.
However, it is often difficult to train these technical skills in match-related situations on your own because you don't experience the same pressure as in matches. In a match, there is much more to focus on, such as pressure from all angles and teammates calling for the ball. Everything happens faster and with more impressions. Here, the lights (Ignite Trainers) on the Rebounders are the perfect tool for training this. The lights indicate where the player should pass next, making the player constantly engage with something while practicing technical skills, just like in match situations.
This training system contrasts sharply with just passing a ball against a wall in the schoolyard or garden. One player in Kenneth Cortsen's study pointed out that Goal Station helps build a bridge between technical and tactical elements, enhancing players' match intelligence when they perform exercises in pairs. “[…] If they work together two and two. If one of them is on the right side and must kick the ball to the rebounder, then the other player may be able to predict the pattern of the game and move in the direction where the ball will go. So, there is something verbal but also something about relating to the ball and the game and where the ball may go”.
Goal Station's training system also provides many more ball touches and repetitions than players typically experience in regular team-based training exercises such as 4v4, 7v7, or 11v11, which often focus more on tactics. Results from a UEFA Pro-license study show that a player experiences 150-250 football actions in a regular training session, while a player using Goal Station equipment and data gets 800-1100 actions per session.
A current professional U19 coach and former professional football player in England added to Kenneth Cortsen's study that players and coaches using Goal Station equipment can create more situation-specific training: ”If I have a right back who continues to do self-guided training and kick balls to the goal, how much does he/she gain compared to going to the pitch and finding him-/herself in situations where he/she practices what he/she needs as a right back such as touches, passes, positioning etc.”