What is Athletic BCN?
Athletic BCN is a training center specialized in the development of soccer players. They offer personalized programs that combine technical, tactical, and physical training, with the focus on personal and professional growth of each player. Their mission is to enhance talent and prepare their players to compete at the highest level. Athletic BCN is located in Barcelona and Dubai, creating an environment that combines playful scenarios and technical training to maintain continuous motivation throughout the athlete’s improvement process. A-Champs supports their unique approach to athletic development by providing tech based systems to assist their training.
About Athletic BCN
Athletic BCN recently held a camp in Finland where they hosted over 100 players and they are planning on expanding to further European locations in the coming years. At their Barcelona and Dubai camps, they are able to hold over 400 training sessions per month. They are able to do this all while providing personalized training to over 200 fixed clients and over 300 rotating clients. With the implementation of A-Champs technology, Athletic BCN has been able to optimize their training and grow their customer base, while providing quality and tailored training sessions.
Challenges Faced Before Using A-Champs
Maintaining Player Engagement
Ensuring that young athletes were remaining fully motivated during drills became difficult. Repetitive drills lost the attention of many youth and adolescent athletes.
Improving Cognitive-Motor Skills
Their training sessions needed better integration of decision-making, coordination, and reaction time training.
Game-Like Intensity
Traditional drills lacked the real-time adaptability and reaction-based stimulus needed to evoke game-time decision making from athletes.
Why They Chose A-Champs
Gamification and Engagement
The interactive and sensor-based design makes training fun, improving player commitment. Player’s initial engagement to drills were much higher when using the ROX system.
Cognitive and Physical Integration
Unlike physical drills, the ROX system works to enhance cognitive reaction time while also developing physical performance. This delivers a combined training experience to maximize performance.
Customizable Training
The ROX system is able to adapt to different skill levels, allowing for personalized workouts for elite players. The ROX Dashboard also provides workout data, giving them the ability to assess any improvements or declines in agility, speed, and decision-making.
How was ROX Implemented in Training?
Setup & Use:
ROX was integrated into training warm-ups, agility drills, and reaction drills. Training sessions including ROX were structured for both individual and team-based cognitive-motor skill exercises, giving training sessions more flexibility. There was also variation in the use through the use of both indoor and outdoor training areas with ROX to simulate real-game training scenarios.
Specific Exercises
A combination of training exercises using the ROX and rebounders aided in the development of Athletic BCN’s athletes. Players responded to spontaneous visual and auditory stimuli to enhance their reaction time, they combined ball control, quick turns, and reaction movements to improve their cognitive-physical performance. As a way to simulate game-time scenarios, ROX was used as part of competitive drills to enhance athletes' awareness and promote fast decision-making.
Frequency and Session Structure
Implementation of ROX occurred daily. It was used for both individual and group training sessions that ranged from 60-90 minutes with progressing difficulty levels.
Results & Benefits
After 6 weeks of use during training sessions, Athletic BCN found an average 15% improvement in athletes reaction time with trainers stating, "The ability to train reaction speed in a controlled environment has been a game-changer for us." Younger athletes were more engaged during their training sessions, especially technical drills, and were more motivated to practice. Also having the ROX Dashboard accessible so that coaches and athletes can see where they are improving has helped encourage training and producing results. Replicating game-like conditions increased athletes agility and improved their efficiency, translating to effective results on the field during gameplay.
Global Growth and Franchising
Athletic BCN has rapidly expanded beyond its Barcelona roots, establishing a presence in Dubai and organizing intensive training programs across Europe. Their international reach continues to grow, with Finland hosting a recent training stage that welcomed over 100 players. With the use of A-Champs equipment and technology, these international camps provide young athletes with a 360º football experience, exposing them to top-tier coaching methodologies in multiple languages. As Athletic BCN expands further, it remains committed to offering world-class training while embracing the cultural differences in each player’s development.
Conclusion
The integration of A-Champs and the ROX system had a significant impact on the training methodology of Athletic BCN. The combination of physical, technical, and cognitive challenges has elevated the performance and playing capabilities of their athletes. They found easy integration for various training methods, boosted motivation and engagement for younger athletes, and improved cognitive decision-making and reaction time for all groups.
Leave a comment
This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.