Will Eduardo Camavinga be the source of a small revolution in modern midfield training? In an interview with RMC Sport in April, the Real Madrid midfielder/full-back spoke about his recent progress in gathering information and anticipating the game, as well as the tool supposed to bring him to perfection in these areas. “I work a lot with kinds of lights, where I put myself in the center and the lights vary in direction. »
Blurry definition unless you’ve tested it. Fortunately, Cama goes further in the description. “As soon as there is a light, I go towards this light or I make a pass towards this light like that, it allows me to always turn my head. “As on a football field, what. Be careful all the same, scanning the 360° field of vision requires some osteopathic precautions, such as cracking your neck to avoid torticollis. “It allows me to always turn my head to take the information”, continues the Frenchman.
A flourishing market
If the tool is in the process of democratization in football, it is far from new in the most popular disciplines in the United States, where these diodes have made their nest in the NFL, NBA and NHL during the previous decade. The brand used by Camavinga, Fit Light, thus displays on its site the logos of the Warriors, the Toronto Maple Leafs, which Manchester United and even Ferrari have joined. The luxury version of a product that now has its more affordable derivatives from competitors like BlazePods and Powereact, a French brand launched by Fabien Tchenkoua, whose career as a professional footballer has not been spared from injury. And not just any. “I got my cruciate ligaments. When I saw that nothing would be like before, I ended up anticipating other projects. »
In his misfortune, the now entrepreneur landed at the Clairefontaine medical center and forged links with physiotherapists and trainers, his best clients and relays. “I had knee surgery three times, so the physios are my guys,” he jokes. When I launched my business, I was able to make a promo video for the product at Clairefontaine. And the [kinés] have agreed to sell my project a little, to spread the word a little about the thing in, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne, etc. Now clubs are ordering online. There is the Young Boys of Bern, a Romanian club too… Things are starting to move. A little too much for the taste of Fitlight’s lawyers, who would closely monitor the competition. A patent case, it seems.
Ok, that’s cool, but what are the diodes for?
The fashion for games of light reflexes responds both to the obsessive need for perfectionism in very high level sport and to a love of gadgets. “Especially in football” smiles Yacine Ziouche, physical trainer of Moussa Diaby (among others) and leader of the 19th arrondissement of Paris, where he welcomes us. “We find that a lot in the recovery of players, with cryotherapy, massage guns, etc. They love it, when nothing is more effective than a good night’s sleep. »
In the midst of dozens of superfluous objects, diodes such as those used by Eduardo Camavinga are rather to be classified among the good students, if only because of their extremely wide field of use. “Most of the time, we use them in physical preparation but also in re-athletics, explains Fabien Tchenkoua. For someone who has crossed paths and fears changes of direction, the use of stimuli will make him forget his blockages thanks to the fact of playing and concentrating on the lights. And therefore to think of something other than the injury. Or when fun allows you to go beyond your own limits. Yacine Ziouche:
It’s a way to hook the players, to keep them a little longer in training. They have less the impression of working, so the impact on the nervous system is less heavy. This does not mean that the session will be weaker. On the contrary, thanks to that we will be able to lengthen them. I can also use them pre-workout after warming up, to immediately capture the athlete’s brain. The lights solicit the nervous system and immediately involve the player and allow him to be very concentrated throughout the session. »
Better for combat sports than football
On the other hand, if the use of equipment as designed by Camavinga seems relevant in the eyes of our physical trainer for a midfielder, it is not applicable for each position. “When you’re on sentry, you play in the middle and you have to have a 360 vision, it’s going to be very interesting. On the other hand, for central defenders who play with a 140 degree vision, it is a little less so. »
Ironically, concludes Yacine Ziouche, if football is a profitable market for this kind of brands, there are a lot of disciplines where LEDs are even more useful. “For example, in all ball sports, where reaction time is going to be tested. Combat sports such as boxing… Sports where it is essential to act quickly in the face of external interaction: a blow approaches, we react. The light comes on, we react. Off the field, reflex games are also useful in the fight against cognitive decline in the elderly, whose reaction time is much shorter than in a young person. Especially if the latter is called Eduardo Camavinga.
