Former professional trains body awareness: DFB team relies on special helpers for the brain

The end of his career was only three years ago, now the ex-Augsburg native Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker is a supervisor at the European Football Championship.

Former professional trains body awareness: DFB team relies on special helpers for the brain

The end of his career was only three years ago, now the ex-Augsburg native Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker is a supervisor at the European Football Championship. The DFB women get to know him as an unusual problem solver. Klara Bühl raves in the highest tones.

Anyone who speaks to national player Klara Bühl about Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker's neuro-centric training will hear a real hymn of praise. Her body feeling, said the winger from FC Bayern, has improved "enormously" thanks to the former Bundesliga professional. At the European Championships in England, too, the former central defender works as part of the supervisory staff on the "movement efficiency" of the DFB women.

His training methods are sometimes "not commonplace", as the 37-year-old himself admits. A clear example: he practiced "tongue circling" with Joti Chatzialexiou, sporting director of the national teams, as a kind of preparation for the coach kick in the evening in the sweltering heat in London.

Eyes, balance, body perception: Roughly speaking, it is about analyzing the stimulus processing of the brain in terms of competitive sports and optimizing it in the event of problems. Tools are sensorimotor exercises, with many repetitions, "whether to improve performance or reduce pain".

Callsen-Bracker himself was a "seeker" for a long time, after his Champions League debut at Bayer Leverkusen aged 18 he suffered an injury in 2004 that overshadowed the years to come. "I kept having problems, all from an incorrect load," he reported. When he came across the "neural approach" it was his "aha moment". Pain, mobility, strength - he felt improvement everywhere.

So Callsen-Bracker became an expert himself. During his time at FC Augsburg, he continued his education, also spent his summer break in the USA and completed certificates. Since 2019 he has been in charge of the "Neurocentric Training" department at the German Football Association.

The fact that he can refer to his own history often breaks the ice with skeptics. "It helps if you have a certain credibility and experience," explained Callsen-Bracker, who also sees himself as a "valuable support" for the medical staff at the EM. With his exercises, for example, passive treatment is "actively secured" for typical knee, hip or neck problems.

DFB sporting director Chatzialexiou described himself as a "fan" of the training methods that are already much more widespread in US sports. The tongue circling, reported the 46-year-old with a laugh, also helped him "with all the ailments that one has".