Neurocognitive skills combine visual skills and perceptual-cognitive skills. These differentiate good athletes from great because they directly impact on-field performance. While neurocognitive skills are trainable, not all training is created equal. Coaches and athletes want to know, “What actually transfers to the court, field, or ice?”

Why I Learned How to Juggle

In Little League, I was no Aaron Judge. I struggled at the plate. One day my dad handed me a set of juggling balls he had picked up and said figure it out. He told me juggling would make me a better hitter.

I was skeptical, but also desperate. I really wanted to put more balls in play.

Was juggling really going to make me a better hitter? Let’s take a look at the literature.

How to Increase Transfer of Neurocognitive Training to Competition

With advances in neuroscience and technology, there are more innovative ways to train visual and perceptual-cognitive skills than ever before. But which methods or devices truly work? And by work I mean – transfer to real athletic skills and situations. For more information on what neurocognitive skills are check out this article.

Let’s look at what Hadlow and colleagues (2018) referred to as modified perceptual training, which “collectively describes on- or off-field sports training tasks that are specifically designed to develop visual and perceptual-cognitive skill” (i.e., neurocognitive skills).

Part 1: What to Train

Does the Skill Matter?

There are 3 questions you should ask before training a neurocognitive skill:

1. Does the skill differentiate athletes of different skill levels?

• If average athletes are just as good at the skill as elite athletes, then it probably isn’t a contributing factor to improving in that sport.

2. Can the skill be improved through training?

• Review existing research.

3. Does improvement in the skill transfer to improvement on the competition surface?

• Review existing research.

I can’t tell you how many organizations I’ve talked to (at a variety of levels) that didn’t answer these 3 questions first. If the answer to any of these is “No,” then training the designated skill is wasting time.

Visual acuity in baseball is a great example of a neurocognitive skill that doesn’t check all the boxes. This is the eye chart test at the optometrist’s office. While visual acuity is a valid and meaningful measure of basic vision, it isn’t as relevant in baseball where the action is fast moving and dynamic. Consequently, research has demonstrated that while visual acuity can be improved (Yes to Question 2), that improvement doesn’t make a difference on the field (No to Question 3).

Answering these questions can be tough. And knowing how to train these skills can be even tougher. I help teams, facilities, and organizations do just that. And I would love to help you too. Contact me.

Part 2: How to Train

3 Factors to Improve Transfer of Neurocognitive Training

In order to help athletes, teams, and organizations make better decisions about HOW to train these neurocognitive skills, researchers developed the modified perceptual training framework (MPTF).

The MPTF outlines 3 key factors which interact with one another to help us determine the likelihood of a training task to transfer to actual performance in competition. Each factor is represented on a continuum from less to more effective.

1. The skill is being trained – Is it a lower order skill visual skill or a higher order perceptual-cognitive skill?
2. Similarity of the stimuli (i.e., target, ball, etc.) to what an athlete encounters in competition – both visually and how the object moves.
3. Similarity of an athlete’s response in the task to how he responds in competition (i.e., visual tracking, catching, swinging a bat).

First, the target skill needs to score a Yes on the 3 questions in Part 1. Second, the neurocognitive training should be congruent with the sport context to increase the likelihood of skill transfer to competition.

The military units I’ve worked with had a phrase that sums all this up rather well – “Train how we fight.”

An Example.

Let’s look at training information processing speed for soccer goalies defending shots on goal.

Part 1: WHAT

Does the skill differentiate athletes of different skill levels?

• Yes, expert soccer players have a much greater information processing speed than novices.

Can the skill be improved through training?

• The research says yes.

Does improvement in the skill transfer to improvement on the competition surface?

• The research says yes.

Part 2: HOW

A goalie will wear stroboscopic eyewear (i.e., strobe glasses) while defending shots on goal.

1. Which skill is being trained? Is it a lower order skill visual skill or a higher order perceptual-cognitive skill?

Information processing speed is a higher order perceptual-cognitive skill which we are training in a highly sport-specific context. Strobe training forces the athlete’s brain to work harder to process the visual information she uses to identify, track and react to a shot, which speeds up her processing speed once the glasses are removed.

2. How similar is the stimuli in training to what an athlete encounters in competition?

In our training task, the stimuli (a player kicking a soccer ball toward the goal) is almost identical to what the goalie sees in competition. Note: From a training perspective, you may not start the goalie taking full-speed shots on goal. However, a goalie could work up to this level of speed and intensity.

3. How similar is the athlete’s response in the training task to what she would execute in competition?

In our training task, the goalie’s desired response is to make the stop and defend the goal. Therefore, her movements to deflect or secure the ball would be the same as in a competition.

Conclusion: Based on this analysis, having a goalie use strobe glasses to improve information processing speed while practicing shots on goal has a high likelihood of improving goalie performance in competition.

What about my juggling experiment?

The key here is in the skill being trained. If the skill my dad wanted me to train was eye tracking (following a single object as it moves), then we shouldn’t expect a high degree of transfer. The balls were not baseballs, they weren’t coming at me as in a pitch trajectory, and I was catching and throwing them in a coordinated rhythm, not hitting them with a bat. However, the real intent was to improve my concentration and ability to focus on a single task. And for that, juggling was indeed helpful.

Increase the Transfer of Your Neurocognitive Training to Improve Athlete Performance

By designing exercises and using technologies that closely resemble the natural stimuli and responses within a given sport, we can expect a drill to more likely transfer to the real world performance. Remember, train how you fight. Use the above questions and the MPTF from Hadlow et. al (2018) guides when making important decisions about practice drills, training exercises, and technologies. And if you need a little help, let us know. It’s what we do.

Question: What have you seen work or not work when it comes to neurocognitive training? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Additional Info:

• Post: 9 Neurocognitive Skills that Improve Athlete Performance
• Post: 3 Ways to Integrate Neurocognitive Skills Into Strength Training
• Post: The Next Frontier in Mental Performance Training

The post How to Increase Transfer of Neurocognitive Training to Competition first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

There is more to sports vision than meets the eye. We know that sports performance relies on interconnected systems of sensory input, processing information, and motor skills. We also know that the central nervous system relies heavily on visual information. However, when it comes to performance on the court, field, or ice, how important is vision in sports?

I Wasn’t a Slugger

I loved playing little league baseball! My days on those scaled-down diamonds were filled with joys and disappointments, highlights and letdowns.

While I was a decent player, picked up by a few All-Star teams, I wasn’t great. One reason is that I had a hard time seeing the ball at the plate. On defense, no problem. But I struggled in the batter’s box. My coaches tried everything to help me out – and I appreciated their coaching.

A couple of years later I realized I had some minor vision issues. I got glasses, moved where I sat in class, and made adjustments.

Ultimately, my battle to make solid contact at the plate had more to do with my eyes than it did my mechanics or mindset.

Vision in Sports

When it comes to vision in sports, there is a lot we know. Some we covered in our series on Athlete Cognition.

Here are a few stats:

• 70% of the body’s sensory receptors are in the eyes.
• 80% of the information athletes use to make decisions is visual.
• 90% of the brain is involved in vision-related tasks.
• Athletes have better visual abilities than non-athletes.
• Some performance vision skills are easier to train than others.

Do Elite Athletes Have Better Vision?

Yes – well, sort of. Some performance vision skills matter more than others. These findings are surprising!

Do elite athletes have better than 20/20 vision?

Not necessarily. First of all, the measure for 20/20 vision is based on static visual acuity (static meaning non-moving). Sports involve movement – and often fast movements of players and objects. Therefore, a non-moving test is a poor judge of the visual skills athletes require.

Secondly, there is a difference between visual hardware (the biomechanics of seeing) and visual software (the tracking, processing, and interpretation of visual information). For example, researchers found that 15% of NFL players, 20% of NBA players and 13% of Olympic athletes had worse than 20/20 (static) visual acuity.

While elite athlete do not necessarily have better “vision” as defined by the misleading 20/20 standard, elite athletes do have superior visual skills (i.e., visual software).

Eye Movement

Research across multiple sports has demonstrated that eye movements separate top athletes from the rest.

Joan Vickers and colleagues repeatedly found that elite athletes have a longer “Quiet Eye” period just before initiating a reaction or movement. This means they have a longer gaze fixation (e.g., looking at the basket before shooting a jump shot) than lesser skilled athletes.

Investigations in baseball revealed that better eye tracking skills (following a moving object) were linked to plate discipline, on-base percentages, and the highest level attained by players.

Visual Search

We also know that elite athletes have a more refined visual search strategy. This means that better athletes tend to use fewer gaze fixations while lesser skilled athletes tend to use more fixations in an attempt to determine which information is most important. Better athletes also tend to follow a consistent pattern (or routine) to identify the most relevant information in their sport.

An example would be a hitter using more precision to look at a pitcher’s shoulder rotation, arm angle, and release point, whereas lesser skilled hitters focus on general areas and don’t follow a predictable visual search pattern.

Cue Recognition and Utilization

Lastly, top athletes are better at using advance cues to anticipate and make decisions in sports. Advance cues simply refers to any aspect of opponent’s behavior or movement that can be used to anticipate their actions. An example in tennis would be using the server’s shoulder turn, toss location, and racquet swing to anticipate where the serve will go before it is hit.

Research from Bruce Abernethy and colleagues has documented that lower level athletes tend to use information that is only available later, such as judging the spin or trajectory of a ball to determine where it is headed, which causes them to be slower to make decisions and react.

Free Consultation

Need help training the right visual skills for your athletes? Schedule a free 30 minute call.

We can work together to build a custom program that works for you or your organization.

How Important is Sports Vision to Athletic Performance?

Overall, an athlete’s visual skills are extremely important to their ability to perform on the court, course, field, and ice. While an athlete’s visual hardware matters, it is their ability to visually focus on the right information at the right time and process it efficiently that separates the best from the rest. And the most exciting part is that these critical visual skills can be trained at any level to improve performance when it counts.

Additional Info:

• Post: Training Athlete Cognition: 3 Ways to Improve How Athletes See the Field
• Post: The Next Frontier in Mental Performance Training
• Post: 9 Neurocognitive Skills that Improve Athlete Performance
• Post: 3 Ways to Integrate Neurocognitive Skills Into Strength Training

The post How Important is Sports Vision to Athletic Performance? first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

There is more to mental performance than visualization, productive thinking, and pre-performance routines. Although those are important, training an athlete’s cognition cycle is the next frontier. Collectively, the components of how athletes see, decide, and execute are referred to as neurocognitive skills. Advances in neuroscience and technology enable us to now train these skills to unleash athlete potential.

What are Neurocognitive Skills?

Simply put, neurocognitive skills are the underlying mechanisms that facilitate how athletes see, decide, and execute (or perform their sport skills under pressure). I’ve discussed athlete cognition in a series of previous posts. Here we’ll dive into the these supporting skills that can give athletes a significant competitive edge.

Neurocognitive skills come from two overlapping skill areas: visual skills and perceptual-cognitive skills.

Visual skills refer to the ability of an athlete to see and process information to inform their movements and reactions in sport.

Perceptual-cognitive skills refer to an athlete’s ability to locate, identify, and process environmental information in order to integrate it with current knowledge and motor abilities to select and execute appropriate actions (Marteniuk, 1976).

Together, these skill areas comprise 9 neurocognitive skills athletes should train to unleash their potential.

Dynamic Visual Acuity – the ability to track objects while either the object itself (e.g., a ball or puck) or the individual is moving (i.e, tracking the goal).

Depth Perception – the ability to determine the location and proximity of an object (i.e., ball or person) in 3-dimensional space.

Visual Search – the ability to discriminate relevant from irrelevant information.

Pattern Recognition – the ability to recognize patterns of movements or play as they emerge.

Cue Utilization – the ability to notice and adjust to early cues emanating from an opponent’s physical movements (such as footwork or shoulder rotation).

Information Processing Speed – the speed at which an athlete is able to process and interpret visual information in order to make predictions (e.g., situational probabilities) and motor responses on the court, field, or ice.

Anticipation Timing – the ability to predict where an object (or person) will be at a future point in time (such as where a player will be to receive a pass).

Situational Probabilities – the ability to utilize sensory information (including patterns and cues mentioned above), along with current knowledge and working memory, to generate accurate predictions about what others are likely to do in a given situation.

Eye-Hand Coordination – the ability to coordinate visual and motor abilities to interact effectively within the sport context (i.e., throw, kick, catch, hit, intercept, etc.).

Collectively, these skills support an athlete’s perception and decision making on the competition surface. Training these neurocognitive skills also accounts for a large portion of improvements in both reaction time and accurate and efficient skill execution in competition (Dudman & Krakauer, 2016).

Note that this list is not exhaustive. There are additional underlying elements and numerous cognitive skills involved in skilled athlete performance.

Why Should Athletes Train these 9 Neurocognitive Skills?

Research has shown that training neurocognitive skills results in a number of benefits that give athletes a clear competitive edge. This is why I refer to neurocognitive training as the next frontier in mental performance.

Neurocognitive skills training improves:

• Eye-hand coordination, catching, balance, and sport-specific dribbling
• Quality of contact, visual reaction & recognition times
• Anticipation and decision-making
• Reaction time and skill execution

Free Consultation

Need help training neurocognitive skills (or targeting the right ones)? Schedule a free 30 minute call.

We can work together to build a custom program that will work for you.

Introduce Your Athletes to Neurocognitive Training

Athletes who train the underlying mechanisms to cognition (see, decide, execute) have a clear advantage over those who don’t. Introduce your athletes to neurocognitive training by targeting these 9 fundamental skills that improve athlete performance.

Question: Which neurocognitive skills would make the biggest difference in your sport?I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Additional Links:

• The Next Frontier in Mental Performance Training
• Training Athlete Cognition: 3 Ways to Improve How Athletes See the Field
• Training Athlete Cognition: 4 Ways to Improve Athlete Decision Making
• Training Athlete Cognition: How to Help Athletes Execute On Demand
• 3 Ways Training the Mind and Body Together Improves Athlete Performance
• 3 Ways to Integrate Neurocognitive Skills Into Strength Training

The post 9 Neurocognitive Skills that Improve Athlete Performance first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Athletes at every level know the importance of warming up before practice, competitions, and even workouts. Warm-ups are designed to increase heart rate, activate muscles, and prepare athletes for the demands of competition. However, given the importance of visual processing in many competitive sports, it is surprising that warming up the visual-motor system isn’t part of every pre-competition warm-up.

Why Athletes Should Warm Up Their Eyes

Eighty percent of the sensory information athletes use to make decisions and respond in competition is visual. If we break down these visual skills and the processes involved, it becomes clear that activating these systems prior to competition simply makes sense – just like warming up the body.

Here are a few sports vision skills:

• Eye Teaming: The ability of the eyes to work together to shift from one focal point to another, adjust to depth, and track objects in motion. This refers specifically to ocular-motor coordination – using muscles that move the eyes.
• Dynamic Visual Acuity: The visual system’s ability to pursue and track moving objects such as teammates, opponents, and objects (e.g., ball, puck).
• Anticipatory Timing: The neurocognitive process of judging where a moving object will be (i.e., predicting) in space at a certain point in time. This refers to being able to cut off a defender, make ball contact, or catch a pass.

Emerging evidence demonstrates that using strobe glasses to warm up the visual-motor system before competition may give athletes a competitive edge. Strobe eyewear is one of my favorite tools for warming up the visual system because they are extremely versatile, easy to use, and effective.

• Smith and Mitroff (2012) demonstrated that brief Strobe training (5-7 minutes) improved anticipatory timing (a key skill in hitting, catching, and intercepting skills) after training.
• Hülsdünker et al. (2020) found that faster visuomotor reactions after strobe training were accompanied by accelerated visual perception and processing.

A Visual Warm-Up Should Target These Skills

Here are a few visual skills athletes should include in their pre-competition warm-up. We’ll dive deeper in a future post.

Saccades (shifting your gaze from one point to another)

• To loosen and prime the six ocular-muscles that are involved in eye movement and eye teaming.

Near-Far Shift (shifting your visual focus from a near target to a far target and back)

• To quicken the eyes’ ability to shift an athlete’s gaze to different distances.

Dynamic Visual Acuity (tracking moving objects or while you are moving)

• To activate eye teaming to help the eyes smoothly track moving objects.

Eye-Hand or Eye-Foot Coordination

• To transition the above skills into a more performance-focused exercise of tracking objects, anticipatory timing (judging the future location for hitting, kicking, catching, intercepting), and visual-motor coordination.

Using stobe eyewear during your pre-competition warm-up is another great way to activate the visual system. You can wear them during plyometrics, agility drills, or even on-field drills.

For help designing a pre-competition visual warm-up, contact us for a free consultation.

Integrate a Visual Warm-up for a Competitive Edge

Whether on-field or in the locker room, athletes should include their visual system in their pre-competition warm-ups. Warming up the eyes and visual-motor system prepares the athlete’s integrated visual and cognitive processes for the demands of sport performance. This primes the most important sensory system athletes rely on to be their best on the field, court, or ice, so they can see, decide, and react faster than the competition.

Question: What are other reasons a visual warm-up is important for athletes?I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Additional Links:

• Training Athlete Cognition: 3 Ways to Improve How Athletes See the Field
• 3 Ways to Integrate Neurocognitive Skills Into Strength Training
• Save on Senaptec Strobe Eyewear

The post Why a Visual Warm-Up Is Important for Sports Performance first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Almost everyone has experienced it. Many athletes call it “being in the zone.” Others refer to it as “clicking on all cylinders.” I’m talking about flow. Some say flow is elusive. But the reality is that we all crave flow – for good reason. Let me introduce you to the flow cycle and why each phase is crucial for high performance.

A Flow Breakthrough

I remember the situation vividly. We were playing one of the top teams in the country. I was overmatched. My opponent was simply better than me. And we were competing on his home court.

It was under those circumstances that I probably played the best tennis of my college career. I locked in. I brought my best stuff. I didn’t allow myself to get rattled.

While I didn’t win on the court that day in Virginia, it was a victory for me. I was learning to access flow and to linger in it for longer periods of time in competition.

What is Flow?

For decades researchers have investigated flow. Some referred to it as peak experience, while others used the phrase, “in the zone.” One study by Krane and Williams (2006) asked elite athletes to describe what it was like.

Here are the most common characteristics those athletes shared:

• Confident
• Expect Success
• Feel in Control
• Total Concentration
• Focused on the Present Moment
• Positive Attitude
• Productive Thinking
• Determined
• Highly Committed

How do these match your experience of flow?

I hear these same descriptors every time I ask athletes or military operators about flow.

Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi (the godfather of flow research) defined flow this way: A mental state of being completely absorbed, focused, and involved in your activities at a certain point in time, as well as deriving enjoyment from being engaged in that activity.

The key aspects of his definition of flow:

• All in (absorbed in the moment)
• Task-focused (thinking of only what you’re doing)
• Enjoying the moment

If you know, you know how great flow is; how fun it is; and how it elevates your performance – regardless of your arena.

So, how do you access it? How does it work? Let the fun begin!

4 Phases of the Flow Cycle

As you may have heard, success leaves clues. And so does flow. By expanding on the original work of Csikszentmilhalyi and modern advances in neuroscience, flow is now understood to have a predictable cycle. Read Steven Kotler’s The Rise of Superman for a deep dive.

The flow cycle has 4 phases. Each serves a clear purpose. When athletes understand the 4 phases, they can:

• Know where they are within the 4 phases.
• Take action to move from one phase to the next.
• Maximize their opportunities to reap the benefits of flow.

Phase 1: Struggle

When we experience struggle, our brains trigger the release of stress hormones (e.g., norepinephrine and cortisol). These put us on high alert. This is the good kind of stress – eustress, which prepares our minds and bodies for the challenge.

This phase is about recruiting the neurological and physiological resources we need to meet the demands of the struggle.  Attention and awareness are heightened to help us bring our best to the challenge ahead.

When we back down from struggle we rob ourselves of flow. Without struggle or challenge we cannot access flow.

Push outside your comfort zone.

Phase 2: Release

In order to move into flow we first must hit the release valve on the stress chemicals triggered in phase 1. We do this by letting go out the outcome. Athletes refer to this as trusting the process. Holding on to the tension of success vs failure keeps us in the struggle phase and prevents us from getting to flow.

Letting go of the outcome and committing to the task or activity itself triggers the release of the brain’s top shelf cocktail of feel good neurochemicals of dopamine and endorphins.

Hit the release button through a combination of self-talk, task focusing, and diaphragmatic breathing.

Phase 3: Flow

Welcome to the main event! Once we’ve ridden the wave of struggle and hit the release button we can better access flow. Flow occurs when we’re present in the process. The brain changes its neurochemistry and neurofunctionality (a deeper dive for another post) for more automated sensory processing and instinctive responses.

In flow athletes have a heightened awareness (overflow from phase 1) and more automated actions (seemingly effortless). Ultimately, they perform better.

Phase 4: Recovery

Flow is an expensive and taxing set of neuroprocesses – like your brain burning jet fuel instead of unleaded.  Therefore, high quality recovery is essential. This is when we learn and grow.

In the recovery phase there is a release of the neurochemicals acetylcholine, oxytocin and serotonin which aid relaxation and rejuvenation by activating the body’s parasympathetic response.

The recovery phase also increases neuroplasticity and accelerates learning, helping to solidify coaching, feedback, and lessons learned for an even better performance next time.

Hard core performance (e.g., flow) requires hard core recovery. A few keys to maximizing the recovery phase are diaphragmatic breathing, mindfulness, sleep, and nutrition.

Take Advantage of Flow

Flow is the brain state of high performance. While athletes may not get there in every performance, understanding how it works gives them a chance to access it more and more. When they embrace struggle (phase 1) and let go of the outcomes of winning or losing (phase 2), they can then move into flow and perform at their best. Then they need to engage in quality recovery to recharge the systems so they can do it again and again. 

Question: Which phase of flow is keeping you from accessing flow more consistently?I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Additional Links:

• Book: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Book: The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler
• Why Should Every Athlete Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing?
• How to Master Your Thinking: Think on Purpose
• How to Convince Your Athletes to Get More Sleep
• 3 Strategies to Help Athletes Focus on the Process

The post 4 Phases of Flow and Why They Matter first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Time is every athlete’s greatest constraint. When I consult with organizations about neurocognitive training, I often hear that time is a primary concern. They often cite time as the #1 reason athletes don’t invest in training the critical neurocognitive skills that could give them a real competitive edge. However, there is a solution: integrate neurocognitive skills into physical training sessions.

Addressing Concerns When Integrating Neurocognitive Training

In an article on why athletes should train the mind and body together I shared how I helped one organization tackle this very problem. Here we’ll dig deeper into the nuts and bolts of integrating neurocognitive and physical training together.

First, let’s address a couple of common concerns:

1. Time

Integrating neurocognitive training into a strength training period doesn’t require adding time to the training period. However, you can tack on a few additional minutes if you want to or if it is beneficial for hitting your training outcomes.

2. Confusion

As with any other training, familiarizing athletes with the training program and equipment is a key to efficient training and overall success.

3. Distraction

Neurocognitive training is not a distraction from strength training (unless you choose to view it that way). Rather, it forces athletes to utilize cognitive processes that mimic real-world performance such as task-switching, refocusing, and decision making while fatigued.

3 Ways to Integrate Neurocognitive Skills into Physical Training Sessions

While there are a number of ways to integrate neurocognitive training into an athlete’s or team’s practice regimen, here are 3 simple strategies for training neurocognitive skills within a physical training session.

1. Visual Warm-up

The visual system is primarily responsible (80%) for the decisions and reactions athletes make on the field. It also plays an important role in proprioception and balance – key aspects of nearly every physical training program.

Following the RAMP framework, it is just as important for athletes to warm-up their visual systems as it is their bodies.

Examples of neurocognitive drills:

• Eye movement drills that activate the ocular muscles (e.g., saccades)
• Eye teaming drills that require athletes to shift their gaze from near to far and back again
• Eye-hand coordination drills incorporating movement along with simple tossing and catching/kicking

2. Utilize Active Rest Periods

Plugging neurocognitive skills into active rest periods is both efficient (no additional time required) and effective (mimics the real-world demands of competition).

Coordinating with your strength and conditioning staff helps to create a seamless training program that both flows well and maintains the integrity of your (now more holistic) training outcomes. This is a custom service we offer our clients.

Neurocognitive skills can easily supplement active rest within super-sets or HIIT training rotations.

Examples of neurocognitive drills:

• Incorporate simple vision training exercises using heart charts, brock stings, lifesaver cards.
• Include visual processing drills using flashing numbers, shapes, or sport-specific scenes.
• Add Strobe eyewear (link below) to eye-hand coordination drills.

3. Train Decision Making

One of the greatest contributors to poor decisions in late-game situations is a failure to train decision making while fatigued.

By adding choice reaction time, quick decision making, and response inhibition to training, athletes can significantly improve their late-game decision making [link to decision post] and responses. These exercises can be used during active rest periods or between conditioning reps.

Examples of neurocognitive drills:

• Go / No Go is a common yet simple choice reaction drill that forces athletes to make quick decisions with a clear right or wrong response.
• Occlusion training presents sports-specific images or video segments to an athlete, then stops at the critical decision point, forcing her to utilize the cues shown to anticipate the rest of the action (e.g., where a serve will land in tennis) or choose how to respond (e.g., pass to player X as she cuts to the basket).
• Use a simple Stroop, vigilance, or inhibition task where the athlete has to overcome natural tendencies in order to make the correct response.

Bonus Download

To help you integrate neurocognitive skills into your physical training sessions I created a 1-page infographic of the strategies in this post.

Integrate Neurocognitive Skills for Next Level Training

Training athlete cognition is the next frontier in mental performance training. It is important to train the mind and body together to best prepare athletes for the mental and physical demands of competition. Utilize the practical strategies in this post to integrate neurocognitive skills into your physical training sessions and give your athletes the competitive edge they deserve!

If you need additional support, reach out to us. That’s what we do – we build cognitive training programs that work!

Question: What are other ways you are integrating cognitive training?I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Additional Links:

• The Next Frontier in Mental Performance Training
• 3 Ways Training the Mind and Body Together Improves Athlete Performance
• Training Athlete Cognition: How to Help Athletes Execute On Demand
• RAMP framework
• Strobe Eyewear (Use Code “UnleashStrobe20” to save $20 at checkout)

The post 3 Ways to Integrate Neurocognitive Skills Into Strength Training first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Athletes make mental mistakes. Hitters swing at bad pitches. Gymnasts over rotate on tumbling passes. Point guards make bad passes. Linemen jump offsides. We might assume athletes aren’t focused but in reality they are too amped up. 

• Excess caffeine
• Expectations peceived to exceed ability
• Pressure from self or others
• Negative interpretation of nervous symptoms
• Over-energized
• Physical and cognitive stress
• Lack of confidence

An Over-Amped Lineman

An NCAA Division I lineman with whom I worked struggled to regulate his activation (physiological energy) level before games.

Part of the problem was his teammates amping everyone up before tip off like Hall of Fame Linebacker Ray Lewis motivated his teammates in the huddle. When he was too amped up he was more likely to draw penalties or miss blocks at the line of scrimmage.

Some athletes need to be amped up to perform at their best; however others don’t. This young man was the latter, performing at his best when he had a relatively low level of physiological activation.

A technique that would have helped him is called diaphragmatic breathing. It is a technique to dial down the body’s natural fight-or-flight response (sympathetic nervous system) and take control of the body’s physiology by intentionally increasing activity in the parasympathetic nervous system.

Diaphragmatic breathing can help athletes manage their physiological (and cognitive) activation and elevate performance.

Benefits of Diaphragmatic Breathing

Here are numerous proven benefits your athletes can receive from using diaphragmatic breathing (based on McCraty and Childre, 2010):

• Enhanced motor coordination (i.e., hand-eye coordination, speed, timing)
• Improved ability to regulate emotions (i.e., composure)
• Increased focus and concentration (i.e., hearing the snap count)
• Faster information processing (i.e., decision making, problem solving, improvisation, discrimination)

Diaphragmatic breathing has powerful benefits for an athlete’s performance.
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How Diaphragmatic Breathing Works

By practicing this 3 part process athletes can access the powerful benefits of diaphragmatic breathing:

1. Belly Breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing, sometimes called belly breathing, involves intentionally breathing into the belly, not inflating the chest. Inflate the belly as you inhale and tighten the belly as you exhale.

2. Focus on One Thing

Trying to focus on too many things at once increases the fight-or-flight responses. Instead, focus on one thing, such as:

• Counting your breathing rate. Count up as you inhale fully and down as you exhale.
• Focus on the physical sensations of expanding your abdomen as you inhale and feel the tightening in your abdominals as you exhale.
• Notice the continuous flow of air moving through your nose, throat, and lungs as you breathe.

3. Elicit Positive Emotions

Research shows that positive emotions such as gratitude and joy counteract the body’s natural stress response. In fact, positive emotions help activate the body’s rest and digest response. This is the body’s counterbalance to the fight-or-flight response.

To elicit positive emotions athletes can use multiple strategies:

• Think of someone or something you are grateful for.
• Picture a joyful or awe inspiring place or experience.
• Reflect on a past success or achievement, or on how hard he or she worked to get where they are.

By combining this three-part process, athletes can maximize the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing, gain control of their mind and body, and elevate their performances.

Practicing the 3-step diaphragmatic breathing process will enhance an athlete’s performance.
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Diaphragmatic breathing is one of the 4 essential tools we equip athletes with in our premier online course, Mental Training Academy and a key ingredient for developing the critical skills every athlete needs to get more out of practice and compete with consistency. Find all the details here.

Free Download

To help your athletes learn diaphragmatic breathing and practice it, I created this free downloadable poster.

Dial In Optimal Activation

To be successful in sports, athletes need to learn to manage their emotions and physiology. One aspect of this skill is knowing how to dial down the body’s activation when necessary. Even the smallest changes can make a big difference in an athlete’s performance. Help your athletes get into their optimal activation state by teaching them the technique of diaphragmatic breathing. Like anything else, the more they practice it, the more they can count on it when they need it the most.

Question: How could diaphragmatic breathing help your athletes? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Post: How to Empower Athletes to Embrace Their Nerves
• Post: How to Stay Loose Under Pressure by Practicing PMR
• Post: How to Coach Your Team Through Anxiety on Opening Day
• Video: How To Help Athletes Embrace Nervousness

The post Why Should Every Athlete Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing? first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

Coaches like you are constantly looking for a new competitive advantage. You are always on the lookout for new advances in equipment, physical training, or software to give your players better insights. One place that can be easily overlooked is the six inches between an athlete’s ears: their brain. Find out why mental training is going mainstream.

Unreached Potential

As a high school and college athlete I did not fulfill my potential. I tell athletes that I left potential on the table. That wasn’t necessarily a choice, I just didn’t have the tools I needed. I had what it took physically and technically, but my mental game was a mess.

My experience led me to discover mental training – it was just too little too late.

Help your athletes avoid this same storyline by educating them about the value of mental training.

Train Like the Pros

As the Chicago Cubs Manager, Joe Maddon, told the entire organization during his first remarks after taking the helm, “If you’re not talking to a mental skills guy to get better, you’re crazy. I do it, you do it, the best players in the game do it. There’s a stigma to not doing it. If you’re not doing it, you’re not trying to get better.”

Other top tier coaches share this sentiment:

Mike Sullivan, Head Coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, shared his perspective on mental training in the forward of the newly released book, The Playmaker’s Advantage, “Now we have a pretty good understanding of how to train athletes physiologically. The next frontier is how to get players to better understand anticipation skills, recognition skills, and decision-making. How to deal with high-stakes environments. How to handle pressure…Any coach who isn’t tuned in to this stuff, in my opinion, is going to fall behind.”

In his recent book, Above the Line, Ohio State Head Coach, Urban Meyer gave his perspective, “I believe most people want to give the best they have but don’t have the necessary tools and mindset to get there.” He goes on to say, “You won’t achieve excellence until you train your mind to take you there.” To emphasize the importance of mental training to his team, Ohio State football has been integrating a six-part program since 2013.

Mental Training is growing by popular demand:

• Every MLB team to make the playoffs last year has a mental training professional on staff. In fact, only a few clubs don’t have a mental coach.
• In the latest MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement players negotiated for Sport Psychology services to be offered by every club.
• Half of NBA teams employ or consult with a mental training professional (as of 2015).
• 5 NHL teams use mental training services (as of 2014).
• Most NCAA Division 1 programs have access to mental training services.
• Many European Soccer teams have a mental training professional. Many football associations are requiring mental training with their academies.

While mental training is becoming mainstream at the professional levels, there’s no reason for athletes to wait. The sooner young athletes start to train the mental game the better.

Get Started with Mental Training

Don’t get left behind. Make mental training part of your team’s daily battle rhythm. Here are 3 ways to get started:

1. Help Your Athletes Become Self-Aware

Are your athletes aware of how much their performance is impacted by their mental game? I often ask teams how much of their sport is mental. Responses usually range from 50-90%. As Yogi Barra said, “Half of baseball is 90% mental.”

Check my Internal Signal Light as a free resource to help your team build awareness about their mental game.

2. Encourage Athletes to Evaluate their Mental Game Daily

You can’t improve what you don’t assess. This is just as true of an athlete’s mental game as it is their performance stats.

I encourage athletes to set and evaluate goals for every practice. Check out my Daily Practice Analysis as tool you can easily plug and play into your battle rhythm.

3. Help Your Athletes Access Mental Training

My college coach eventually referred me to a book on mental tennis. That was the beginning of my journey with sport psychology and eventually becoming a Mental Performance Coach.

While books are great resources and introductions to the mental game, referring athletes to a Mental Coach like me can be far more helpful. A Mental Coach can work with your team or designated individuals. There is likely a qualified professional in your area. Many offer virtual coaching like I do for athletes outside my local area and those who travel a lot for their sport.

Don’t get left behind. Integrate mental training into your team’s daily battle rhythm.
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Now Available!

To make mental training more accessible for athletes, teams, and even coaches we’ve launched The Excelling Edge Courses – online training for athletes and coaches!  Find our available courses here.

No Longer a Secret Weapon

Whether you choose to become a Course Insider or not, don’t let your athletes get left behind when it comes to mental training. It is the latest frontier in sport science and athlete development. The secret is out. The best athletes in the world are training their minds to help them perform their best when it matters most.

Mental training can help your athletes get more out of practice and perform better under pressure. When the talent gap is small (competing at any level) the importance of the mental game is amplified. Help your athletes gain the mental advantage that others are overlooking.

Question: What are other ways to introduce your athletes to mental training?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Book: The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse by Tom Verducci
• Book: Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Program by Urban Meyer
• Book: The Playmaker’s Advantage: How to Raise Your Mental Game to the Next Level by Leonard Zaichkowsky and Daniel Peterson
• Post: How to Improve Your Athlete’s In the Moment Self-Awareness
• Post: How To Guarantee Your Athletes Get Better Everyday

The post Are Your Athletes Missing Out on Mental Training? first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

How does your team respond when they fall behind on the scoreboard? They may scratch and claw their way back until the very end. However, this isn’t always the case. Some teams crumble slowly while others implode from fear and panic. Find out how to help your team develop a fighting spirit.

What Not to Do When You Fall Behind

I once worked with a volleyball team who really struggled when they got behind. The pressure mounted. At times they panicked. In some cases they seemed to throw in the towel, deeming the deficit insurmountable.

Their coach became frustrated. Why do they panic? Why don’t they keep fighting? Why do they quit?

Perhaps you’ve pondered these same questions about your team before.

Why Teams Lack a Fighting Spirit

Teams can lack a fighting spirit for a variety of reasons. It may be a losing tradition, an unhealthy culture, a lack of team leaders. Or it may be due to youth and inexperience.

Regardless of the reasons, teams that lack a fighting spirit often share four common psychological deficits:

• They lack confidence in the themselves.
• They think they have to strike back right away.
• They don’t manage their thoughts and emotions, losing composure.
• They don’t believe in their ability to come from behind.

Each error carries its own symptoms which negatively impact a team’s performance.

The Ingredients of a Fighting Spirit

Getting your team to fight until the very end involves mixing a cocktail of psychological factors into their DNA.

• 3 oz. of Grit
• 2 oz. of Confidence
• 2 oz. of Composure
• 3 oz. of Belief
• 2 oz. of Perspective

Helping your team keep their cool, play smart, and be patient is no easy task when you get behind on the scoreboard.

Here are 3 key messages to engrain into your team to help them develop a fighting spirit:

One Point at a Time

Yes, its cliche. Understandably, athletes want to erase the deficit as quickly as possible. They don’t have to equal the score immediately, in the next 2 minutes, top of the next inning, or next period.

But you have to start by getting your athletes to understand and trust the process. Focus on playing in the present moment.

Keep Your Cool

Adding pressure by putting more value on the next shot, possession, or inning doesn’t help. Anxiety and panic only make matters worse. Negative emotions restrict communication, decision making, and physical performance.

Encourage your athletes to turn their anxiety into excitement and competitiveness. Remind them to use diaphragmatic breathing to help tone down the body’s stress response.

Keep Fighting

The contest isn’t over until it’s over. Anything can happen – that’s why we play the game, right?

As the Hall of Fame NFL coach Mike Ditka once said, “You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”

Tell your team to focus on what they can control. Keep competing. You never know what can happen. Sports history is littered with legendary comebacks. Why not now? Why not you?

Fostering a fighting spirit in your team enables them to weather the storms of competition.
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Foster a Fighting Spirit

The volleyball coaches and I flooded those student-athletes with messages like the ones above. We developed drills, putting players at a disadvantage to foster a fighting spirit. We emphasized to the team that they weren’t going to erase a deficit in one fell swoop. That was okay. They just needed to get within striking distance – to seize opportunities and take advantage of opponent’s miscues. We taught them to claw their way back into matches.

Their growth throughout the season was tremendous.

Athletes are competitive. No one likes to fall behind. By fostering a fighting spirit you teach athletes to never give up and keep competing.

Question: How else do you foster a fighting spirit in your team?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

• Post: Why Do Great Teams Focus on Culture First?
• Post: 3 Practical Reasons Every Team Needs a Leadership Council
• Post: Does Your Team Have the Edge to Win a Comeback?
• Post: 3 Strategies to Help Athletes Focus on the Process
• Post: How to Coach Athletes to Focus on the Right Thing
• Post: How to Coach Your Team Through Anxiety on Opening Day
• Post: Why Should Every Athlete Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing?
• Post: How To Help Athletes Focus On What They Can Control

The post How to Help Your Team Develop a Fighting Spirit first appeared on The Excelling Edge.

We’ve all heard the ancient axiom, “know thyself.” For athletes, this is a crucial component of mental toughness and consistent performance. How can you, as a coach, help your athletes develop a greater sense of self-awareness, especially in the moment?

You Can’t Adjust What You Aren’t Aware Of

I often tell athletes, “You can’t change what you aren’t aware of.” Think of taking your truck to the mechanic and asking them to fix it. When they ask you what is wrong with it, you say, “I don’t know.” The mechanic would have no idea where to start. You aren’t the expert, but its important to say that it drifts right, or about the clanking noise you hear.

The same is true for athletes. They need to be aware of their mind and body throughout the competition. They can’t adjust their attitude, effort, strategy or mechanics until they know what the problem is.

Jimmy Walker, winner of the 2016 PGA Championship, experienced the benefits of a heightened in the moment awareness as he walked the fairway on Baltusrol’s 18th. He told Sports Illustrated that after hitting his tee shot, “I could feel my heart racing a little bit, could feel my palms getting a little sweaty, my breath getting a little short.”

For Walker, these were red flags. He knew they wouldn’t help him on his next shot. He had to settle himself down in order to play his best.

Why Self-Awareness Matters

An athlete’s mental state has a huge ripple effect on his or her performance. This isn’t just common sense, but scientific.

Author and co-founder of the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, FL, Dr. Jim Loehr, shared that, “Feelings of confidence, energy, aggressiveness, and fun reflect a very specific biochemical and neurochemical balance in the body.” The opposite is also true.

“When our feelings shift from confident to fearful, powerful changes occur in the brain’s chemistry that can profoundly influence coordination and balance, concentration and muscle-response accuracy,” Loehr wrote.

The Thoughts Drive Performance model summarizes this relationship and is an easy way to share it with your athletes.

Once athletes know their indicators, they can recognize their red flags like Walker did and make the necessary adjustments.

In the moment self-awareness is a critical component of mental toughness & consistent performance.
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Build Athlete’s In the Moment Awareness

A simple way to help your athletes tune into “IM Awareness” is to use the metaphor of a signal light. A signal light has three indicators telling us how to proceed. Your athletes can think of these lights as indicators for themselves too.

• Red: they feel out of control (pressing, rushing, panicking) – stop and reset.
• Yellow: they feel a little off (angry, nervous, tense, fearful) – slow down to recalibrate.
• Green: they feel good (in control, confidence, composed, focused) – good to go.

Click here to download a copy for your team!

Help Your Athletes Build In the Moment Awareness

Coaches can help their athletes tune into their inner signal lights by asking them to pay special attention to their inner state during practices, scrimmages, and competitions.

The UCLA Bruins baseball team makes this a daily priority. “In practice we teach guys to learn their own best level of excitement, presence, and demeanor. Know when you are too amped up, trying too hard, trying to make a perfect pitch…,” according to John Savage, Head Coach in Heads Up Baseball 2.0.

By tuning in, athletes can better focus their mental training to target their unique indicators. If becoming too amped up inhibits their best performance, athletes can learn the skill of diaphragmatic breathing to use in those yellow light moments.

Going back to Jimmy Walker’s victory… to address his yellow light, he said, “I focused on controlling what I could control.” This alone is a foundational mental skill.

Bonus Download

To help you develop in the moment self-awareness in your athletes, hang An Athlete’s Internal Signal Light poster in your locker room. Simply, click the button below to download yours – its free.

Increase Athletes’ In the Moment Self-Awareness

As your athletes develop a keen awareness of their minds and bodies, in the moment, they’ll be able to make the micro-adjustments necessary for peak performance.

Your QB will notice excess muscle tension and relax before he overthrows his receiver. Your hitter will recognize her nervousness and embrace it before she chases a pitch out of the zone. And so on…

Help your athletes unlock peak performance by increasing their in the moment self-awareness.

Question: How else can you help your athletes develop in the moment self-awareness?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

The post How to Improve Your Athlete’s In the Moment Self-Awareness first appeared on The Excelling Edge.