Although everyone suspects that Petr Cech isn’t exactly human, does this recent admission about his training regime confirm it?
Speaking recently, the former Chelsea goalkeeper revealed some of his training methods, including honing his reflexes with the aid of robots!
“You have a natural ability so your body allows you to be super fast or not, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t get faster, even if you are super fast already,” he said to the Arsenal Podcast.
“You can use tools outside of football, you can use table tennis robots because they are perfect for reactions and hand-to-eye co-ordination. Even tennis robots which feed you the ball help because it can go in any direction with any different spin or flight.
“The ball is also smaller which helps your hand-to-eye co-ordination as it means you have to use separate hands. It makes it much better. You also have the luminous boards… the game where you have to hit the lights and react to it.
“There are plenty of things that you can do outside of the football pitch which can make your reactions better. It depends on the person, too. There are no limits. If you want to find an exercise, you search it and you really put your time into it. Then it will become really efficient.
“Sometimes 10 minutes outside of the pitch, doing things which are not physically demanding, can help just as much. It all depends on how much time you want to put in, how much you want to improve and how much you want to do the research. Without that you will not go any further.”
In modern football, the top clubs will be using the newest training methods to hone their skills and up their game. Therefore, having our first choice goalkeeper up-to-date with all the latest equipment and techniques can only be an advantage.
It’s fascinating to get some insight into what Cech does at the training ground. We get to see the likes of Ramsey and Ozil running out with the senior squad but it’s rare to really see what our goalkeepers get up to.
Whatever Cech does, he’s obviously doing something right because he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
The Czech international will probably make his Premier League return against Crystal Palace on Sunday after a number of weeks out with a calf injury.