Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's brain recovery toy and football's craziest training games

The international break can make the most level-headed people do some odd things and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is no exception, judging by his latest Instagram story.

The Arsenal and Gabon striker, who takes on Thailand with his countrymen on Thursday – posted photos of himself using NeuroTracker equipment to aid brain training.

It looked more like a challenge from the Krypton Factor but apparently it is a treatment to help players’ situational awareness during a game by having them track moving targets. NeuroTracker also work alongside Manchester United, NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the French rugby union team.

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The company’s website claims: “NeuroTracker has been developed out of 20 years of cutting-edge neuroscience research at the Faubert Lab of the University of Montreal.

“Scientific studies around the world show that NeuroTracker training rapidly enhances mental performance across a wide range of people.”

“NeuroTracker boosts the mental skills that are key in human performance. Science shows that superior cognitive abilities give elite athletes a competitive edge, and that NeuroTracker training can directly improve awareness and decision-making abilities in competitive performance.”

But Aubameyang isn’t the first footballer to try out some fancy new training regimes. Here are four other bizarre examples.

The Footbonaut

It may sound like some sort of terrifying robot footballer from a dystopian future but it is in fact is a ball-feeding machine in a room to aid footballers and help them develop their passing game.

It looks more like a room from the Crystal Maze and in many ways it is; with balls being fed out of a hole and then squares on all four sides of the room lighting up.

We have no idea if the footballers get locked in if they fail to hit all the targets. We can only hope.

The Videowall

Ever wanted to watch yourself playing football live? If you play for Bundesliga side Hoffenheim you can. (They are also another Bundesliga team who used the Footbonaut, by the way.

Last summer, Hoffenheim tested having a 6×3-metre screen positioned on the halfway line of their training pitch in Zuzenhausen. It is fed by four cameras, which are controlled by the training staff, and like modern TV sets can he stopped, rewound, fast-forwarded and allows players a birds-eye view of formations and systems working in real time.

Head coach Julian Nagelsmann is a big fan: “We can leave the players in their positions during most match situations, but still show them solutions.

“For this, I have an iPad in my hand that I can use to control the cameras. When I stop a situation, I have the opportunity to draw my solutions and suggestions for improvement all from the iPad.”

After the initial test it is now a permanent fixture at their training ground.

Futuristic.

Rubik’s Cube game

This one is a training game that tests the body and the mind, which let’s face it we all need.
Barcelona B players make their players play a sort of tic-tac-toe game with different coloured bibs.

The players have to put together the puzzle, switching different coloured bibs until they have three identical lines in different teams. The first team to finish wins, and presumably lauds it over the others for the rest of the week.

As ever, Barcelona are way ahead of the curve here.

You have to be mad to be a goalkeeper

And finally, there’s this. Whatever it is.

They say you have to be mad to be a keeper and this crazy training regime from Argentinean side Sportivo Dock Sud proves that, with shot-stoppers diving behind balls of fire and hanging upside down to catch balls.

I don’t even want to see what the strikes have to go through.