Why focusing on cardio during a sport training, when the commander in chief is the brain? The sports world has been able to train what it sees (the body, the muscles).

With Neural Trainer, it is now time to train what it does not see : the brain.

A BETTER ANALYSIS OF THE ENVIRONMENT TO BE MORE EFFICIENT ON THE SPORTS FIELD

Today, the link has been made between sports performance, agility of brain function and reactivity of visual-motor functions.

Indeed, good visual functions mean good extraction of data from the environment. This will then allow athletes to position themselves well on the field and to “read the game” of the opponents, to perform better.

And sometimes it only takes a few tens of milliseconds to make a difference! The French Tennis Federation has published the figures :

• an athlete who saves 50 ms of reaction time can cover 2 meters more on a tennis field.

This of course offers an advantage. This will then allow athletes to position themselves well on the field and to “read the game” of the opponents, to perform better. The conclusions are very clear : when the players control the exchanges, they anticipate 78% of the direction of the opponent’s shot. But this drops to 50% when the players have less advantage.

Thus, anticipating is not only deducing the opponent’s game, but also inducing and influencing it!

IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE AND GAIN CONSISTENCY TOO

Beyond better performance, cognitive training should also be seen as a way to obtain results that last over time.

For example, Wilkerson’s study shows that after 6 weeks of training, there was a 20-25% improvement in visuomotor reaction time, which was maintained for 12 weeks.

VISUAL INFORMATION AND INJURY PREVENTION

RECONFIGURATION OF NEURAL PATHWAYS TO BE MORE EFFICIENT ON THE SPORTS FIELD

The evolution of sports performance is strongly correlated with the increase in cognitive and visuomotor capacities.
How can it be explained ?

In fact, we have to imagine a whole hub of pathways (neural circuits) that can be modified according to the events our brain is confronted with.

Each event leaves a learning trace. These traces will push your brain to develop high cognitive abilities and adapt to make you more effective.

TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO TRAIN YOUR BODY AND PROTECT IT

Even a small delay in the neural processing of visual input could have a major impact on the ability to generate muscle tension that will provide a good level of dynamic joint stability.

A study conducted by Wilkerson in 2016 makes the link between the reaction time of several athletes and the risk of injury (sprains, ACL, …).

The principle : 76 soccer players were part of this study, the first step of which consisted of deactivating light devices by touching them with their hands as they lit up in a random manner.

Those who obtained the best results were part of the control group. Conversely, those who performed less well formed the training group.

They were also the ones who had the worst results in terms of visual memory.

These 2 groups underwent training for 6 weeks and then repeated this exercise.

Results:

• In the control group, the number of lights deactivated within 60 seconds increased: +29 on average!
• The slower the reaction time, the greater the risk of injury. The control group saw its reaction time increase by an average of 28% over these 6 weeks, giving an idea of how quickly they can react and anticipate bad situations on the ground.