Because River goalkeepers train with special lenses in pre-season

Just as for players it is no longer just about running or working with the ball, For archers, it’s not just about rolling from side to side. In the last few years, neuroscience has taken on a leading role in the daily life of professional teams (River was fully involved when Gallardo arrived with Sandra Rossi in its technical staff) and it is no longer strange to see lights, speed of movement and other coordination exercises that serve to stimulate the brain.

Nor is it thatArchers wear dark glasses emulating Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith Men in black, as usually happens with the River team and was evident in some photos that the club uploaded to their networks from training on Tuesday. In fact, they don’t have to see better without squinting: They are called stroboscopic lenses and they serve exactly the opposite…

Part of the tools used by Mariela Arangio, head of neuroscience of the Primera team (with the arrival of Demichelis, Sandra Rossi was responsible for the area at global level), and put into practice by the young Lucas Lavagnino and Santiago Beltrán (third and fourth goalkeeper), the glasses emit light pulses that try to generate a visual disturbance in the person wearing them (stroboscopic effect).

The function and the objective

In this way, when goalkeepers lose sight of the ball for a moment, the goal is to optimize reaction times. “It makes you react and make decisions more quickly, thus creating the opportunity to improve the processing of visual information and enhance the use of other sensory information during sports performance”American cybersecurity researcher Jacob Appelbaum described the method 13 years ago.

The idea is that different brain areas related to memory, perception or attention are able to generate stress, such that by reducing the visual field, the other parts of the brain work to maintain optimal performance. .

Now, why for archers? Although glasses are also widely used in tennis, former English left-back Robbie Elliott (11 years at Newcastle, the highlight of his career) explained the advantages: “If a doorman regularly wears glasses, When you stop using them the ball will seem bigger.your concentration level will increase and, therefore, it will be easier for you to deal with it.