Thèmes et Conférenciers
Werner HELSEN
Werner HELSEN is full professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
He is chairman of the Research group for Movement Control and Neuroplasticity and head of the Perception and Performance laboratory.
His research interests focus on the visual control of voluntary movement as well as on the development and acquisition of expert perception and performance.
He teaches motor learning and control as well as training and coaching theory in team sports in general and football, in particular.
Prof. Dr. Helsen has published many scientific papers in international peer-review journals.
As from 1999, he has been appointed by UEFA as a training expert and a consultant for the match officials' physical preparation. In this respect, he prepared specific training programmes for the referees and the assistant referees at the UEFA European Championship in Belgium/The Netherlands (EURO 2000), in Portugal (EURO 2004), and in Austria/Switzerland (EURO 2008). The European top referees have all been exposed to his theoretical and practical expertise.
Via internet, he provides these top referees with individualized weekly training plans and he monitors their training load using the heart rate files that are send back to him by referees from all over Europe.
In addition to tournaments, he was also invited since 1999 as training expert and instructor in over 50 seminars for different groups of UEFA match officials, such as assistant referees, women referees, futsal referees (indoor) and talent referees (young promising officials). At these occasions, he introduced and explained modern training methods for a more efficient preparation and better recovery. Using technical equipment such as heart rate monitors, he combined the scientific reasoning with a very practical aspect in order to individually monitor referees. From 2001 on, he was also in charge of the physical preparation and evaluation of the Belgian elite referees and assistant referees.
Also impressed by the quality of the training offered to the European referees, FIFA as the international governing body, appointed Prof. Dr. Helsen for the World Cups 2002, 2006 and 2010 as well as for the most important courses and international tournaments organised in this respect. This confirmed that his reputation in this field is worldwide.
In 2003, he obtained a research grant from FIFA's Medical Assessment and Research Centre on 'the acquisition and application of expert performance in football refereeing'.
More recently, in 2007, he also received a research grant from the National Lottery for a project on 'Performance training and injury prevention in professional players and talented youth selections.
He is a former professional football player, having played for over 25 years in the Belgian national leagues, as well as in the national youth selections.
He was also involved 4 years as headcoach of football teams in the semi-professional second and third national league.