The method

SenseBall is a key element of the CogiTraining football training method.

We see with our brain, not with our eyes

Nevertheless, 6 of these 140 boys have ended up playing for the male Belgian national team (among them, Dries Mertens and Steven Defour who played in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil) and 50% of the female players that are core members of the women’s Belgian national football team have come from this sports study training programme.

This is a remarkable result if you take into account that the Belgian Football Federation has just 400,000 players registered (375,000 male and 25,000 female). In other words, the CogiTraining method and SenseBall have proved their capacity to train top level players from a limited number of players, many of whom were not naturally gifted at the outset.

CogiTraining and SenseBall maximize the players’ training by means of drills that improve brain organization, therefore enabling faster decision-making and increased accuracy in their movements. Players are better able to assimilate the essential components of today’s football: speed of vision, speed of decision-making, speed of execution.

The daily practice of SenseBall (20 minutes per day) makes it possible for a young athlete to touch the ball approximately 500.000 times a year (whereas a professional who trains in the “traditional” way will only touch it about 50.000 times!). Most importantly, players play in a perfectly bilateral way (50% right foot; 50% left foot) which forms a complete two-footed player.

The acquisition of this speed (speed of vision, speed of decision-making, speed of execution) is, among others, the result of the fact that SenseBall is based on the concept of bilateral activity. At a training session, a player uses (plus or minus 2%) his left foot as many times as his right and moves left/right and backwards/forwards through space in a balanced way.

In addition to the sports aspect, it should be noted that CogiTraining and the practice of SenseBall, by developing and organizing the brain, enhance learning at school. From our research at the University of Leuven, we have seen that after practising our method for a year, on average children’s results at school had improved by 10% and their general behaviour had slightly improved (calmer, better concentration).

Specific exercises also permit practical applications outside the sport world, such as physiotherapeutic rehabilitation for bad posture in children and teenagers. It also contributes to the treatment of ADHD, the fight against cognitive disorders, and muscle atrophy in the elderly.

We continuously receive requests for both CogiTraining and SenseBall courses. For this reason, we have decided to offer training courses in our facilities (in Belgium) as well as customised training courses in your facilities (worldwide). For more information, please visit CogiTraining.

CogiTraining and the practice of SenseBall have been applied in: