Meeting Goals & Context
Uri
We're starting with the mapping of the knowledge. Just to repeat the goal: we'll take the content — the knowledge — that's in your mind, in your brain, extract it and then decide how we're going to use it. On the other side of the blank is: now trainers know how to train better using BlazePods. And hopefully this will get them to invite more athletes, which will in turn get more subscriptions.
The things I care about more is connecting it to their world. So who are they? How do they start? Where do they meet BlazePod first? What do they think when they first see it? How they classify it? Is there an aha moment? And what are the gaps between how they're using it and how you think they should use it?
You said you're going to see Chelsea — what are you going to do?
Simon
I've got a meeting at Arsenal, at Brighton and at London City Lionesses.
How to Position BlazePod to Coaches
Uri
You're reaching those tremendous clubs. And you're meeting those experienced guys, and I'm sure they're cynical, many of them. What are you going to show them? What are you going to do with them?
Simon
So what I got planned is very different. Some of them I'm able to go out to the pitch and do training with them. Some of them I got 45 minutes in a meeting room. For the meeting room I create a presentation that has lots of visuals of it in use, first off by the elite level. And then just with specific training that I know is good for them. I explain what we'll be working on, what the solutions are for them with BlazePod and how easy it is to gain those solutions.
Uri
I'm asking this in a cynical way deliberately: What can you tell us on how to train our players that we don't already know?
Simon
We have a sport tech solution. And we're not coming to tell them their job. We're coming to show them how our system and our product is going to help take their ideas and create a better solution in terms of smarter, faster training. We want to work on their reactive intelligence.
Let's say I'm training one of the Chelsea coaches and I say to them — with the goalkeeper coach — "give me three of your training drills that you do to train hand-eye." And they'll go over three drills and I say, "Great. Now what we're going to do is take your amazing ideas, add BlazePod into it, and find the best solution to make your drill a much smarter drill that is both going to help performance levels, create data, collect data, and you're going to be able to see improvement fast."
I'm basically getting their ideas and making sure they're in the front line of coaching, and I am adapting our system and our product to what they do. It can't be about me coming there and telling them what to do. No one's gonna like that. It doesn't matter if they're elite coaches or coaches of your son's six-year-old basketball team. No one likes to be told they're doing it wrong. They're not doing it wrong. They could be doing it better or they could be doing it more advanced. But I've got to show them how, and I've got to use their examples and their knowledge to do that.
Three Value Propositions
Uri
So the things that catch their ear — I really only understood one of them: measurability. We can see improvement over time. What were the other two?
Simon
1. Measurability — Adding data to drills that previously had none. See improvement fast.
2. Motivation — Split into two: First, you're motivated by the product itself — you want to turn out that light as soon as you can. That's just how we're wired as human beings. We're animals. Second, you're motivated by the data — wanting to beat your own score, wanting to improve, wanting to beat your teammate's score, wanting to be the best in the team.
3. Technology — It's a plus and a minus. It's actually our hardest point or our pain point in getting in. I can take you with a ball to the pitch and teach you a million things. But now taking you, a ball, and technology equipment, taking my phone out — it seems and sounds like it's a difficult task and a chore. So we've got to prove to them and show them it's not a chore. You're going to get so much from it that you're going to enjoy using it. You're going to enjoy taking this team to a modern level, to a tech level, to be ahead of your time.
The Champion-Coach Adoption Strategy
Simon
Especially elite teams — but also smaller clubs — are made up of tens of coaches. You've got the head coach, assistant coaches, strength and conditioning coach, physios, set piece coaches, goalkeeper coaches, forwards coaches, defensive coaches, and it goes on and on.
You need to plant and find the coach who takes on BlazePod the quickest — takes on the fact that it's technology, who wants to lead by example, who wants to find something new, who wants to be innovative. And once you find that coach, what I tend to do is stick to them. Not try to sell — "can I speak to your strength and conditioning coach as well?"
You've got to groom them, you've got to make them love it. You've got to make them become advocates for BlazePod so that then within the team they say "we should be using this also in strength and conditioning drills, we should be using this also for defensive drills."
Coach Motivations for Adopting BlazePod
Uri
Let's focus on that coach that lets you in. He's innovative, not afraid of technology. What is running through that coach's mind? What is the main problem he wants to solve?
Simon
Type 1: Competitive edge seekers. "I want to find a way to win. And I don't always know that way. So I'm going to research different coaches, different training — I'm just going to go out and find a different way to coach that's going to make me win." They don't even know exactly what they're looking for. They're willing to try anything for an edge.
Type 2: Innovation-driven leaders. Example: Tom Hammond — played for national team, one of our best strikers. Now he's head of the Brighton academy. He came to me and said, "Simon, I'm now head of the academy and I want to come in and bring something new. I want to make a difference." These coaches want to be seen as modern, forward-thinking. They want to show "I do things in the now, I'm looking for the future."
Type 3: Solution seekers. They already understand reactive intelligence training improves their players. They just need to find the best tool to do it.
Reactive Intelligence: Two Levels of Understanding
Uri
So what I'm hearing is: we do not need to sell them on reactive intelligence. They're already sold on that. We're just showing them that our tool makes it more efficient.
Simon
Yes and no. I think elite level — yes. But lower than that, some coaches still need to be taught what reaction training is properly.
They know all the elements of it. They just haven't put it all together and made the puzzle whole. I could say to a coach, "Does your player scan well?" and they'll say "Yeah, we learn to check our shoulders and look over our surroundings." And "When the ball comes to his feet?" — "He's got to either pass or hold the ball or turn around." They know what is needed. They don't all know that reaction training is what's going to make all of that better. They're not putting two and two together.
The Coaching Gap — "Raise Your Head"
Uri
What do they think is going to make it better? They want to practice scanning? They think shouting at them "why didn't you pass the ball?" would help?
Simon
They do old school drills. I'll pass the player the ball, he'll get the ball and I'll say "head up, look around." And you hear all the time coaches saying "keep your head up, keep your head up." But they're not then putting two and two together and saying, "Now I've got that — now what am I actually doing with that?"
What if before I got the ball, I've already seen what's going on? I already know exactly what's going to happen when the ball hits my foot. I don't need balls on my feet, head up. No — I've got to have my head up and turning 90 minutes, bringing in information the whole game.
But then it's not just that. The second element — decision making — they're not explaining: "What did you see when your head was up? If you would have been looking around before you received the ball, what would have happened?" And the third one is the actual physical response. But they're all connected. You need to train those three elements together properly to actually improve performance.
Simon
A lot of people don't understand that there's an element of reactive intelligence. If I ask most people "What's a reaction?" — the majority of answers is going to be about speed. It's about doing something fast. And you don't even think about the processing side of it. You're cutting that element out completely.
I can be quick to anything, but I could be doing it wrong. If someone throws a grenade — I can be quick and jump on it, or I can be quick and throw it back, or I can be quick and run. But if you're not doing the right thing, you're going to get hurt.
Uri
Ask a soccer trainer to write a manual for how to kick properly, and he'll fill four pages. Then ask them how they become better at understanding the patterns. And all they have is "raise your head." That's a gap.
Simon
Yeah, it's a huge gap. And we've got to be very careful in a way — we don't want to push away the coaches that are progressive thinkers, because we're still helping them. They just know what it's all about. The coaches that are not progressive thinkers — we need to explain first of all what it is we do. We're going to help both of them. Some need explaining how we're going to help them. Others just need to say, "Great, I know what I need. I just don't have the tools. And this is the tool." You don't want to degrade either group. You want to make sure we catch both of them.
Soccer Drill Walkthrough — 360 Scanning
Simon
Setup: Player receiving ball with defender approaching. Three pods placed behind the receiver — one left, one right, one behind.
Execution: Pods change colors continuously while the player scans 360 degrees. I want you looking for those pods the whole time — they're going to be changing, a certain color. You've got pods in the back giving you colors. Now he's not just looking one way, he's looking at everything 360, every second.
As soon as the ball comes in, the last thing you saw — that's what's gonna happen. "I looked — that one wasn't on. So I know I've got to go either right or back. The ball's coming in. One of these has come on. It's come on red. That's a no-go. So I know: don't go there. Turn and go backwards or turn left."
I've now created an ever-changing scenario. It's never going to be the same. Because people on the field are running and moving and changing.
Rep Density Advantage
Uri
What trainers already have is an understanding that you first work on each skill separately. They understand that to apply that on the field, there are more elements, more noise. But the reactive intelligence muscle is something they kind of expect is just going to happen naturally by working on other things.
Simon
You can't do "seeing and responding, seeing and responding" enough in regular practice. You can't do that enough with people.
If I was to do the drill I just said 20 times, I can do that within probably 45 seconds. I've done probably what he could do in five weeks of training, that same example.
While I'm drilling, I take breaks every 30 seconds: "Who was the red pod? That was the defender. I'm not gonna pass to him. Who's the green pod? That's my man. He's open. Going to pass to him." And then you start recognizing: green = open player, red = marked player. It becomes not just go/no-go — it becomes a reality.
Uri
But there's something more. The trainer can say "stand like that, kick here, if you hit here it's bad, if you hit here it's good" — they become very granular with the way they improve physical skills. Whereas here, the instructions are very bulk: "raise your head, pass to the open player." It's not about how to help recognize the pattern. By showing green light, red light, you're starting to say: first, there ARE patterns. There IS a technique to it. Second, you need to be able to work on improving those patterns because that's the same muscle.
Simon
There is something there. You're basically trying to say that with technology, we're hitting coaching protocols that we never used to have.
The Confidence-Calm-Performance Link
Simon
So a player receives the ball, a defender's running straight at me, I probably have about one second before he's gonna dive in. My quickest instinct is "get rid of the ball." Now, if my intelligence is working and I practiced it — I would already know because I've been doing this before I even got the ball: I've got a player over there who's open, a player there who's being marked, and space behind me. Those are my three options.
If I didn't think about that, I could just go "get rid of it" — but I've sent it to one of their players. Game over.
Simon
If I'd already thought about this: he's come in. I'm calm because I know what I'm doing. I'm relaxed because I've thought about it beforehand. The ball comes to me. I've got one second. Simply turn around. Why? Because I know he's marked so I can't pass to him. The winger's running — I probably won't have time for a good pass. All I need to do is turn around with the ball.
My processing has calmed me down. If I'm impulsive and I just act, I'm usually doing it with tense muscles, out of fear. Basically I'm not knowing what to do.
If you're confident that what you're doing is correct, you're going to be calm. Otherwise you're nervous, you contract your muscles, you become shaky, stressful. Your movement becomes very strong and quick — not fluid.
Simon
You know how Ninja Warrior athletes — before they get on the course — they're doing this [gestures, pointing]. They're basically telling themselves what's going to happen: "I'm going to do this, I'm going to go there, I'm going to hold on to that, I'm going to turn here, I'm going to jump onto that." They're processing exactly what's going to happen beforehand. And they're doing it while breathing. They're taking their stress levels right down. Why? Because they know exactly what's about to happen.
Cognitive Element as the Next Competitive Frontier
Simon
A well-trained reactive intelligence is always going to get you further than a less-trained one. Because it's that calm element. If I'm calm because I can perceive quicker and process quicker through training, even if I'm more tired, it's more likely I'm going to make better decisions than someone who hasn't trained reactive intelligence.
At one point the competitive edge was nutrition — back in the 90s. Then it became physical sports science. And now it's about the cognitive element. Everyone's now got good nutrition, everyone's now a physical beast. Who's now smarter? Who's got the best reactive intelligence? That's today's game.
Four Pillars of BlazePod Value for Soccer
Simon
BlazePod is going to help with four major elements of soccer:
1. Neural Priming — Pre-training, pre-competition. This is very easy to show. It's non-fatiguing. It's about explaining how this is going to help them.
2. Strength & Conditioning — We're going to help motivate their S&C with lights and data. Make sure they push harder, beat the best scores, get moving better. And what we're doing through that is never forgetting that everything we do has a cognitive element. I could be in the gym pushing and pushing, but I need that cognitive element involved in everything I do. There's no point doing anything that doesn't require a decision to be made because that's how they play 90 minutes.
3. Skills Training / On-field — Scanning, decision-making drills. It's all about that specific reactive intelligence muscle. Learning to perceive, process and respond in the correct way.
4. Return to Play / Rehab — All the players that are going to go to the physio. It's basically the other end of strength and conditioning. Same solutions, just a different end goal.
Decision-Making Under Fatigue
Uri
Do you put emphasis on decision-making at the beginning of the game versus the end of the game when you're tired?
Simon
You're always going to talk about: is my physical preparation going to take me through to 100 minutes, not 90? Once my physical preparation is there, my mental preparation is calmer, more relaxed.
There's a percentage game — as soon as you hit 37%, your decision-making is going to go off. You're not going to be thinking as well. The oxygen isn't going to be getting up to your brain enough. You're going to be using it to move your muscles. You're not going to be the perfect player you were on the first minute when you're in the 90th minute.
But you want to get your muscles and your physical elements strong enough so you can last as long as possible to be able to think more. And a well-trained reactive intelligence is always going to get you further.
Three Elements of Reactive Intelligence (Detailed)
Uri
What are the bullet points of things you need to improve in order to improve your reactive intelligence?
Simon
The elements of reactive intelligence are very simple. Three elements:
1. Perceive — Also called recognition, vision training, scanning, spatial awareness. It's all about taking in your environment through your eyes. All the different millions of visual cues.
2. Process — The cognitive element. I've got to make a decision on everything I've seen about how to act. What does it all mean? All right — what does it mean when there's space over there, there's a defender over there? Everything I've brought through my eyes, I now need to process in my brain.
3. Respond — The best response possible. And that response has to be the best by speed AND by decision. It has to be precise, it has to be fast, it has to be correct.
Assessment: Impulsive vs. Overthinking Players
Uri
When you see a player — what's in a trainer's toolkit other than "do it again"?
Simon
Trainers need to assess. I can say "do it again, do it again" — but I've got to assess what you're doing, tell you how it's helping, what's not helping, what you're doing wrong, how you're going to improve more. I need BlazePod to guide me through that and be the tool to help me get the answers.
Using it as a tool, I could assess you and tell you what was good and what was bad, what you need to improve. The coach is going to have to assess every time you're doing something, understand what you're doing correctly, what you're doing wrong, and get that across in the right way. I'm not taking anything away from the coach. I'm using BlazePod as a tool to help the coach train your reactive intelligence.
Simon
Impulsive players: Always react to the first pod they see. Solution: Give them two similar color blues and say you're only reacting to the light blue. If you react to the other blue, you're doing laps. Now he's gonna see blue and think — "hang on, is that the right one?" It makes him understand: "I've got to see everything before I make that decision."
Overthinking players: Miss opportunities by processing too long. Solution: Time pressure drills — bang, bang, bang, bang. Ball's gone. Make a decision.
The goal: find that middle ground between impulsive and overthinking. That's the main element in the processing side of things.
Simon
If a player receives the ball and gets nervous — players can either freeze or make a crazy fast move that does nothing. They'll do one of the two if they're not calm and relaxed. I can't tell them "breathe, relax" — that's not going to help. I need to improve their reactive intelligence. Once they've trained it, they'll naturally be calm because they've already seen what's going on. No one's going to surprise them. They know exactly what's happening.
If you watch any elite game — basketball, soccer, no matter what — the elite of the elite, they're relaxed. They're doing things fluidly.