Trent Alexander-Arnold
FOOTBALLER TRENT ALEXANDER ARNOLD HAS SET HIS SIGHTS ON A SEASON OF SUCCESS BY UNDERGOING GROUNDBREAKING ‘VISION TRAINING’ WITH RED BULL
The Liverpool footballer has been undergoing groundbreaking ‘vision training’
Despite being one of the Premier League’s most exciting talents, Trent Alexander-Arnold was robbed of his chance to shine with England this summer by an injury he sustained in the build-up to the Euros. Undeterred, and eager to constantly improve his impact upon the pitch, he used his recovery time to help pioneer a trailblazing new training technique designed to develop and improve an athlete’s vision and reaction times. MF caught up with the Liverpool man over a video call just before the Premier League kicked o in August. Here, in his own words, he talks vision training, football tness and aspirations for the season ahead.
I’ve been doing Sports Vision training with Red Bull’s sports ophthalmologist, Dr Daniel Laby. It’s something that hasn’t really been tapped into in football to any depth, but this guy works with US sports teams to improve vision and judgement, so that your decision-making on the pitch is sharper.
In football, it’s so important to be two steps ahead of your competition. e training I’ve been doing has made me value that even more. Working with Red Bull on this experiment has shown me that vision is such an important part of the game, and that your eyes can be trained and improved on as much as anything else.
It involves a lot of reactiontime work, tracking of your vision and work on peripheral vision. e clearer I can see, and the more I can see – judging things like the position of opposition players quicker – the better the decision I can make on the pitch.
Obviously missing out
on the Euros was massively disappointing. But after a few days of feeling sorry for myself I decided to reevaluate the situation and see it as an opportunity for me to improve on things that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to improve upon. So, there’s always always a silver lining.
I got the
‘It’s Coming Home’ fever like the rest of the country. It was also interesting seeing it all from outside the team bubble. In Russia (World Cup 2018) we knew about the celebrations and support going on at home, but you never really understand the extent of it. is time I was seeing English people congregate in the pubs and bars, with the support coming from everywhere – it was incredible.
A typical training week looks like this: we’ll have a training session on Sunday, followed by two sessions on Monday – football in the morning, then a 6k run in the afternoon. Tuesday will be one workout session in the morning. Wednesday will be a session in the morning, session in the afternoon – both football – then ursday we’ll have a 60-minute game. Friday is recovery, then a game on the weekend.
Back in the day, pre-season was about coming back from holiday un t and getting yourself back to full
tness. Whereas at this level, these days, you really can’t come back out of shape any more. ere isn’t much time between tournaments and seasons any more, and the gap between being un t and being Premier League match-level ready is world’s apart – you just don’t have that privilege now.
Even with pre-season friendlies it’s still di cult to prepare yourself for a
rst game in the Premier League. It’s so hectic. It’s so, so intense. You can’t really prepare for it. I need to start the season well, because the competition for places at England is, well, overpopulated you might say! For the club I want to win as many trophies as I can. Just as long as I’ve got one or two medals around my neck come the end of the season I’ll be made up.
“In football, it’s so important to be two steps ahead of your competition”