I ducked so ‘ball’ didn’t hit me in face!

FOR 20 minutes I was given the chance to pretend I was a professional footballer by stepping into the world of virtual reality, courtesy of Rezzil’s Player 22. After putting on the VR headset, I was told: ‘We’ll start you off on level one, then once you get the hang of it you can move up.’ How hard could it be? The first ball came in and I made a fantastic defensive header, sending the ball straight back to where it had come from. The only problem was the aim was to direct the ball into the goal or to flick it on to one of the pretend team-mates behind me. Not as easy as it sounds. After three or four attempts I finally managed to score some points but if there had been a virtual manager watching on, they would have been shaking their head. I’m keen to stress, however, that I excelled at the wall reaction game — which goalkeepers use to improve their reflexes. The software is incredibly realistic and it feels like you are really there in the box waiting for the ball to come in. So much so that after I turned round to try and find where the goal was, when I looked back and saw a ball flying towards me I started to duck to avoid being hit in the face! This is a game kids could spend hours playing at home but also a tool professional athletes can use as a viable alternative to physical training.