Football players are many times smarter than many other people
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Although repeated head blows on the ball are unlikely to be useful for the brain, participating in a football team develops the intellectual abilities of athletes. According to Swedish researchers, football players are many times smarter than many other people.
In the course of the study, scientists analyzed the following cognitive functions in professional football players: memory functions, creative thinking and the ability to perform several tasks at once. As it turned out, athletes received higher scores, compared to other subjects who do not play football. In addition, the players entered into 5% of the smartest people in the world.
Scientists explain this by the fact that players continuously have to adapt to the surrounding conditions to successfully play. These constant volatile processes train their brain, which makes it possible to quickly switch from one strategy to another, keep a large number of elements in their heads, abandon irrelevant information and immediately make important decisions. Along with the speed of running, a good football player must develop speed of running and sharpness of thought.
"People think that kicking a ball does not require a lot of brains. But this study has shown that professional football requires people not only with good physical preparation, but also intellectual capabilities, "experts said.
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