High-tech has found its way into almost all areas of our lives. In sports, too, more and more technical aids are being used to record and improve performance. With the Goal Station, modern and innovative technology has now reached soccer training on the pitch. The goal with the help of this Goal Station is to use technology to optimize the individual player and his performance, to show weaknesses and to train them specifically. Brian Sörensen demonstrated how this goal is to be implemented by means of video sequences on the Goal Station and later in the practical part by using the Fokus 360 Arena.

The Goal Station is a training facility with a maximum size of 44 x 22 m. The heart of the Goal Station is an individually programmable, fully automatic ball machine with a magazine of up to 30 balls. Within this facility, various rebound walls and AIR-Bodys are installed, on which light signals, so-called FitLights, are mounted, which indicate the next action to the players by lighting up. These requirements are designed to help a player improve individually in the areas of speed, agility, perception, reaction time, movement in different directions, and initial contact with the ball. Because the light signal only lights up for a short time - the timing of the intervals is individually programmable - each action must be implemented as quickly as possible within this short time span. The data of each player is then individually recorded via sensors built into the rebound walls. Once the course has been completed, this data can be immediately accessed in a database. Repeated training constantly improves performance in the areas addressed. According to Sörensen, research results show that performance can be increased by about 30% within a year.

Using a weekly training plan, Sörensen made it clear how his training is structured. It was interesting to note that the players on his team train almost exclusively individually in the Goal Station in the mornings, while the team as a whole only trains in the afternoons in game formats of 4:4 or more.

A significantly scaled-down form of the basic principle of the Goal Station is the Fokus 360 Arena. In the practical part following the theory, Brian Sörensen presented how this system works. The arena, which was developed in Denmark, is available in three different sizes. The smallest system is equipped with eight rebounders, the middle one with 12 and the largest version with 16. FitLights, i.e. light signals, are built into all these rebound walls, which indicate to the player on which rebound wall of the system the following ball must be played. As with the Goal Station, the player must react quickly to new stimuli triggered by the FitLights and find a quick decision. Within a given time, as many shots as possible are to be made on the walls indicated by the FitLights. Thus the speed of the technical execution, the precision of the first contact, the reaction time and the orientation ability should be trained and improved with a player. Since the values are always recorded by the sensors incorporated in the rebounders, each player can recognize his individual performance and determine his development on the basis of the numerical data.

Since the materials used are weatherproof, the facility is good to use outside in all seasons. The assembly and disassembly time for the Focus 360 Arena is only about 10 minutes, so the arena can be used quickly.