Secrets of Success Behind Borussia Dortmund’s Training Ground
When it comes to the world’s best football teams, one of the things that a lot of people don’t spend much time thinking about is their training facilities.
In order to compete with the best of them on the pitch, a team has to be able to push itself off it, and the best way to be able to do that is by having one of the top places on the planet to train.
In the case of Borussia Dortmund, their training base, Hohenbuschei, sits alongside the club’s Academy in Brackel, a district of the city, with any number of top-level areas for the players to use.
Mixing Tradition with Modern Advancements
The Head of Sports Science at Borussia Dortmund in 2023, Paul Schaffran, was always aware that his role was a tricky one. In many senses, Borussia Dortmund is a traditional football club, coming from a down-to-earth area of Germany.
Dortmund’s location in the heartland of German industry means that hard work and a need to knuckle down will always be seen as one of the basics that anyone associated with the club can be expected to achieve. The problem is, that alone isn’t enough to succeed in the modern game of football.
Borussia Dortmund made a £279 million profit from the departure of just four players! 🤑⚽️
Some great scouting and business from the German side, buying young talents across Europe and selling them off for large fees 🔥💰
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–— Zflix Football (@zflixfootball.bsky.social) 22 November 2024 at 03:38
The more that technology grows and develops, the more that football clubs have to adapt and change in order to keep up with the times. That is something that is ever-present at Borussia Dortmund’s training facility, which is why the club has been able to train some of the best players in the world to go on to bigger and better things.
The likes of Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, and Jadon Sancho all made their names playing for Dortmund and being developed at Hohenbuschei before moving on to Real Madrid, Manchester City, and elsewhere.
Jürgan Klopp’s Footbonaut
When Jürgen Klopp was the Borussia Dortmund manager, taking the club to back-to-back Bundesliga titles before becoming the first person to win the Premier League with Liverpool, he installed a device created by an inventor from Berlin, Christian Guttler, called the Footbonaut.
It is made up of a square of artificial turf that measures 14 metres by 14 metres. Around it are what look like window frames, of which there are a total of 72, whilst in the centre of each side is a pair of cannons that fire footballs into the Footbonaut area at random.
The job of the person in the middle is to control the ball and then pass it through whichever of the windows has been lit up green. Given the fact that the balls can be fired into the arena at a speed of 50 kilometres an hour up to 100 kilometres per hour, it is fair to say that the theory sounds a lot easier than the practice.
The trajectory can also be altered in order to ensure that a player can develop a particular part of their game, whether that be chest, headers, or using their feet to control and move on the ball to its new location.
Training in the Footbonaut, Germany. Such a great experience. This was at 60 km/h but the training can go over 100 km/h. pic.twitter.com/5yOLoPfy3G
— Kylee_Soccer29′ (@kylee_soccer29) March 16, 2024
When the session is complete, having received 32 balls, a player can be assessed on how quickly and accurately they got the ball back to where it was supposed to be.
The Borussia Dortmund hierarchy would expect their players to have excellent touch and technique, but the Footbonaut asks questions of their ability to assess information quickly and accurately and then make the right decision. As they are told which type of pass to expect courtesy of whistles and lights, they also need to look to see where they are supposed to pass the ball.
Be Your Best (The App)
Whilst ‘Be Your Best’ might sound like some sort of trite phrase you’d seen written on the wall somewhere alongside quotes like ‘Nothing changes if nothing changes’ and ‘Hard work today brings success tomorrow’, it is, in fact, a virtual reality football training app.
It is another example of how Borussia Dortmund looks to ensure that their training facility is one of the best in the world, pushing their players to develop and become the best that they can be. The software is similar to that you might see in a FIFA game, but offers so much more.
@kishannprince Improve your Scanning with this Game!#vr #beyourbest #premierleague #laliga #arsenal #zidane #scanning #footballiq #kevindebruyne #oculus ♬ Abstraction – Muspace Lofi
It is about testing a player’s ability to scan the pitch in various scenarios, with younger Dortmund players using them at the Academy in order to ensure that they can improve their on-pitch learning. The information can be used to see not just how often they scan the pitch around them but also how they time their decision to do so.
It isn’t a replacement for getting out onto the pitches at Hohenbuschei, but it is an opportunity for the coaches to learn about their players and for the players to learn about themselves.
