From New York Mets great Pete Alonso to the late great Kobe Bryant whose MAMBA mentality incorporated cognitive processing training , to seven-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady who credits training his processing speed for his longevity, the best of the best are leveraging the ability to think and react quicker than their opponents.

An early-mover advantage is also available to athletes who incorporate cognitive training into their core program, as the neurocognitive performance market is relatively untapped by athletes in the present day.

By doing so, you can help your athletes reach their full potential and excel in their sport. NeuroCatch is a subsidiary of HealthTech Connex. Find out more about HealthTech Connex and its subsidiaries at healthtechconnex.

HealthTech Connex is a part of the Lark Group of Companies. The Competitive Edge. Why Measuring and Training Cognitive Processing Speed Is a Must-Have for High-Performance Athletes. By Balraj Dhillon, BSc. Better Reaction Times and Performance Historically, reaction time has been viewed as critical for athletes to succeed in their sport.

Enhanced Attentional Processing for Better Focus Attentional processing is crucial for athletes to stay focused and avoid making mistakes. Figure 1: A radar plot depicting that P attentional processing amplitudes are greater in the meditation trained group versus control group.

Increased Cognitive Flexibility Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch between tasks or mental sets quickly and efficiently. Figure 2: A radar plot demonstrating improvements in cognitive processing speeds following four weeks of transcranial-photobiomodulation treatment.

References: Semple, R. Does Mindfulness Meditation Enhance Attention? A Randomized Controlled Trial. Mindfulness 1 , — Sarang, S. Changes in p following two yoga-based relaxation techniques. The International journal of neuroscience , 12 , — Sambrook, T.

The relationship between cognitive training and sports performance: A systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology , 12 1 , Berry, N.

The effects of attentional focus on motor performance: a review. Journal of Motor Behavior , 43 3 , CONTACT SALES. Powered by Convert Plus. However, during childhood and adolescence the brain is under construction and requires appropriate learning processes.

In addition, children and adolescents are in a phase when their personal and social development is conditioned by multiple changes, to which they must make efforts to adapt.

In fact, adequate cognitive development during early stages is thought to contribute to improvements in wellbeing and mental health in adulthood Gale et al. In recent years, multiple studies have highlighted significant associations between physical practice and abilities, such as attention and concentration, executive functions, cognitive functioning speed, memory, or language e.

Various investigations have analyzed the acute effects of physical exercise Hillman et al. Numerous papers have studied the relationship between physical activity and cognitive functioning, highlighting the importance of physical fitness Hillman et al.

That is, the effect of exercise on the brain is modulated by the overall impact of physical exertion on the body. Among the manifestations of physical fitness, aerobic capacity best explains the association between physical exercise and cognitive development in children and adolescents, as several authors have highlighted Pontifex et al.

Studies using neuroimaging techniques to explore these relationships have linked structural changes in the brain to exercise and the physical condition of children and adolescents.

Authors such as Chaddock et al. Furthermore, Chaddock-Heyman et al. Likewise, in a group of obese children, Esteban-Cornejo et al.

The relationship between physical exercise and brain functioning has also been analyzed with great intensity in elderly people. There is a decline in certain physical and cognitive capacities that compromise normal functioning and autonomy during this stage of life Schiebener and Brand, In addition, events such as retirement, the appearance of age-related illnesses, or the reduction in social relationships due to the loss of loved ones may occur, leading to greater isolation.

In recent years, a number of studies have suggested that physical exercise in elderly people has benefits for aspects of brain functioning, such as attention, memory, or executive functioning Bherer et al.

Regular moderate to vigorous physical exercise has been described as being protective against cognitive impairment and effective in maintaining adequate functioning in later life Zhu et al. It has been observed that improvements in aspects such as aerobic capacity, balance, strength, or body composition would reduce the impact of aging on the deterioration of the brain, cushioning its effects and maintaining mental skills for longer periods of time Chang et al.

As with other populations, cognitive functioning in elderly people is associated with their physical condition and changes in the structure of the brain support their functional development Reiter et al.

For example, Erickson et al. Boyle et al. In recent years, analyses of the impact of physical activity on neurodegenerative processes have received great attention. Authors such as Lautenschlager et al. For this reason, it is considered that combined pharmacological treatments and more active lifestyles may be effective ways to counter this type of illness and other forms of dementia Mortimer and Stern, Although many studies in recent years confirm the relationship between physical activity and cognitive functioning, there remains much to be understood.

In addition, not all observed findings are supported by other studies, or they are based on small sample sizes with low statistical power. Thus, continued research is needed Frederiksen et al.

For greater precision in understanding the observed relationship between physical exercise and cognitive functioning and the possibilities for practical application, integration of knowledge from a range of scientific fields is recommended; these fields include sports science, neurobiology, neurophysiology, or neuropsychology as well as data from clinical and epidemiological studies.

Furthermore, the transfer of findings from animal research to humans is required Tari et al. According to recent research, there is some agreement on accepting the positive links observed between exercise and the brain, but the biological mechanisms underlying them require further examination Fernández-del-Olmo et al.

Among the limitations of research to date is the heterogeneity of the studies and interventions, the lack of controls for strange variables, and small sample sizes. This has generated a collection of studies supporting the benefits of exercise on cognitive functioning, despite their moderate clinical value Brasure et al.

In addition, the exact amount and intensity of physical activity to meet individual needs has not yet been determined Paillard et al. As an example, Frederiksen et al.

However, disease symptoms improved and there were positive correlations in the intervention group between frontal cortical volume, exercise load, measures of attention, and cognitive processing speed. Thus, the authors suggested that longer interventions and a larger sample could generate more convincing results.

The challenge therefore remains to find the most appropriate formulas for each case and thereby determine the optimal exercise program. An attempt has been made to explain the benefits of physical activity for the brain and its functioning in multiple populations, both healthy and with some pathology.

However, presumably the requirements for each age or disease are specific, in addition to the differential impact on each person Phillips et al. For example, correlational or intervention studies in childhood and adolescence are conditioned by the natural development of these age groups and subject to various confounding factors, both intrapersonal and environmental, which impede the interpretation of the observed results Chen et al.

Thus, one of the greatest challenges in coming years is to identify the appropriate load, intensity, volume, frequency, duration, and type of physical activity so that the effects on the development of the brain of the relevant population group will achieve the desired objectives.

Therefore, extensive control of confounding variables is necessary to minimize their bias. This goal achieved, not only can physical exercise for health be recommended in general terms, but it can also be implemented in multiple specific educational and clinical programs to complement the actions recommended by other disciplines.

In the field of high-performance sports, the study of cognitive functioning has caught the attention of researchers. Vestberg et al.

In general, it is assumed that this cognitive functioning may be more relevant in open sports requiring constant attention, management of multiple variables, or adaption to changing situations Williams et al.

Furthermore, good cognitive functioning may be a competitive advantage in disciplines with less variability but requiring high levels of concentration or attentional control Memmert, Studies have observed that better scores in executive functioning are related to greater expertise and success in football players Verburgh et al.

In turn, Roca et al. In addition, Voss et al. Similarly, Wagner et al. Moreover, Hänggi et al. For cognitive assessment and training in sports, multiple strategies have been used, both classical paper and pencil or computerized tests Memmert, ; Hernández-Mendo et al.

Additionally, other products are based on technologies such as augmented or virtual reality. Overall, this new technology enabled notable progress in the assessment and cognitive preparation of athletes Schack et al.

Therefore, the technology development opens up a very promising path for this line of research by offering possibilities that were previously unexplored. Studies of the relationship between brain functioning and sports performance have evolved rapidly in recent decades following technological advances that have enabled the development of increasingly powerful instruments Appelbaum and Erickson, This has created a series of opportunities for professionals as well as researchers to advance our understanding of the relationship between brain functioning and sports performance.

Similarly, current limitations are likely to be reduced by the coming technologies. Among them are many laboratory-based procedures used to study how the brain works in sport contexts Verburgh et al. Although possibly quite accurate inferences may be drawn, there are variables inherent in the competitive context that are currently difficult to reproduce.

Therefore, to increase the usefulness of cognitive assessments and training in performance sports, it will be necessary to improve the transference of laboratory knowledge to real-life contexts.

The available technology allows experiences to approach reality, but such strategies are limited by technologies that are still very invasive and difficult to use on the playing field Romeas et al.

As technical evolution makes it possible to evaluate and train brain function in sports environments, it will help to determine more precisely the most appropriate way to stimulate the brain to optimize sports performance.

Similarly, cognitive assessments of athletes must be adjusted to the requirements of their specific tasks. In other words, the needs of a defender in football are not the same as those of a striker, nor are the needs of a basketball player the same as those of a tennis player.

In this way, the usefulness of this type of training, as well as the demand from athletes and technical coaches, will be increased. Much progress has been made in recent decades in areas such as physical or technical—tactical training.

Nevertheless, a core question remains: how should the brain be trained to optimize sports performance so that it benefits physical and psychological health?

Hopefully this question will be clearly answered in the future. AH-M, RR, JL-W, SS, OS, VM-S, RJ-R, JT-R, and CF participated in the design of the work and the bibliographic review, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted.

All authors made substantial contributions to the final manuscript. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Sport 19, — Chaddock, L. A neuroimaging investigation of the association between aerobic fitness, hippocampal volume, and memory performance in preadolescent children. Brain Res. Aerobic fitness and executive control of relational memory in preadolescent children.

Sports Exerc. Chaddock-Heyman, L. I, Kienzler, C. Physical activity increases white matter microstructure in children. The effects of physical activity on functional MRI activation associated with cognitive control in children: a randomized controlled intervention. Chang, Y. The effects of acute exercise on cognitive performance: a meta-analysis.

Effect of resistance-exercise training on cognitive function in healthy older adults: a review. Aging Phys.

Chen, A. Neural basis of working memory enhancement after acute aerobic exercise: fMRI study of preadolescent children. Cheron, G. Brain oscillations in sport: toward EEG biomarkers of performance. Costigan, S. High-intensity interval training for cognitive and mental health in adolescents.

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Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Physical activity, brain, and cognition. Esteban-Cornejo, I. The Active Brains project.

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Visual-Motor Integration: The ability to use the eyes and hands together efficiently, as in catching or hitting a ball, aiming at a target or coordinating actions with team members. Timing and Rhythm: The ability to perform rhythmically and in split-second timing is inhere in sports like crew, any sport performed to music, and even a golf swing.

Hesitation gives the opponent a chance to attack or regroup, whereas quicker decisions can provide a small but often important advantage.

Just as an athlete trains for physical endurance, speed, flexibility and the specifics of his or her sport, athletes and coaches are realizing the benefits of cognitive training.

There is a growing consensus that cognitive skills, including those described above, can be trained and transferred to athletic performance as well as academic achievement. BrainWare Learning Company offers programs and tools that further the application of sound neuroscience research to learning and teaching.

Search for:. About Solutions Knowledge Center Open menu Book: Your Child Learns Differently Now, What? Mark Williams, Research Institute for Sports and Exercises Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University The Role of Cognitive Skills in Athletic Performance Everything we do, including sports, relies on a foundation of cognitive skills.

Attention Sustained Attention: Virtually all sports require sustained attention and focus. Memory Long-Term Memory: This is the type of memory we are most familiar with.

Sensory Integration Visual-Motor Integration: The ability to use the eyes and hands together efficiently, as in catching or hitting a ball, aiming at a target or coordinating actions with team members.

Webinar: The Science of Performance in Sports: Training the Mind. Schedule Your Free Consultation Parent - Home Use School Clinician — Learning Center — Tutor Workforce. Other Links Cognitive Skills and Reading Cognitive Skills and Math Cognitive Skills and Special Education Cognitive Skills and Athletics Cognitive Skills and Social and Emotional Learning Cognitive Skills and ADHD Cogntiive Skills and Autism.

Frode received his Ph. in coaching and performance psychology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

His research focuses mainly on coaching in business, coaching in sport, communication, performance psychology and relationship issues. The results show that the NT baseline scores and subjective performance improved significantly during the experiment. However, subjective performance improved only when learning rate and number of targets were controlled for.

The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible future research. Several studies in sport psychology point out the importance of highly developed attentional resources, especially in dynamic sports such as basketball, soccer and ice hockey 2, 16, 17, Dynamic sports are particularly demanding because of the constant, rapid changes in the environment during execution.

In dynamic sports, athletes are confronted with multiple choices and must correctly and efficiently extract the most salient visual information from the environment to respond appropriately to the situation.

Making the wrong decision might have costly consequences on performance. Therefore, attention is necessary to put the most important and specific aspects of the sport environment into focus, and for rapidly shifting focus when necessary such as when there are rapidly changes in the sport specific environment , while ignoring potential distractions 12, 24, Interestingly, several studies show that athletic experts athletes with high levels of skills are both faster and more accurate in their decision-making than lesser skilled athletes Interestingly, improvement of the attentional resources that are so crucial in dynamic sports may be achieved with perceptual-cognitive training 3.

Given the importance of perceptual-cognitive skills, it is not surprising that training programs aimed at improving abilities needed for enhanced performance have a relatively long history of use 21, 30, 35, 37 , and that such programs continue to be developed today 1.

Research on perceptual-cognitive training programs Research shows that practice leads to substantial gains from perceptual learning and that this effect can last for months or years 3. Given the technological development of the last decade, there has been a tremendous growth in new digital technologies that are used in perceptual-cognitive training programs.

Faubert 11 shows in one study that not only are elite athletes improving, but they also have a faster learning rate. Findings also show that perceptual-cognitive training is correlated with actual game performance in professional basket players 19 and game performance in soccer players Therefore, perceptual-cognitive training seems to achieve the desired outcome: improved performance.

However, studies of both Mangine and colleagues 19 and Romeas and colleagues 37 only confirm a transfer effect from perceptual-cognitive training on parts of the athlete performance.

The challenge in research assessing the effects of perceptual-cognitive training on athlete performance remains that none of the previous studies measured the impact of training on performance as a whole. The current study Perceptual-cognitive training programs are thought to improve the mechanisms that regulate the dynamics of human perception, cognition and action Therefore, in dynamic sports where these skills are important, perceptual-cognitive training should have the potential to improve performance.

Two specific hypotheses were tested in the current study:. METHOD Sixty elite athletes practicing a variety of sports were invited by the authors to participate in the investigation. Athletes were randomly chosen from a cohort of athletes who compete in dynamic sports and are involved in projects with the Norwegian Olympic center in mid-Norway.

The invited athletes were from martial arts 9. The sample had a mean age of 22 years ranging from 17 to 35 years. Data from the current study is a part of a bigger data set that is used in different theoretical approaches. Procedure The Norwegian Social Science Data Services NSD , which is the research ethic board for social sciences in Norway, approved this study.

Thereafter, athletes received an invitation to participate in a survey by e-mail, which included questions covering demographics such as age, gender and type of sport. Further, a questionnaire measuring performance satisfaction was included. This measurement was based on a previously developed scale, proven to hold satisfactory validity and reliability.

Athletes were given one week to complete the questionnaire. Pre-test, post-test quasi experiment After completing the questionnaire, athletes received a license to use the perceptual-cognitive tool used in the current study. At the beginning of the study, athletes were completely unfamiliar with the tool to avoid possible training effects confounds Instructions were given to perform at least 4 sessions per week for a period over 5 weeks.

After completion of the period dedicated to perceptual-cognitive training, a post-test was administered to measure performance satisfaction.

Instruments Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire. In this scale, athletes are asked to evaluate four items related to their satisfaction with their own sport specific task performance over the last month. Task performance includes absolute performance, improvements in performance, and goal achievement.

Athletes gave their answers on a 7-point Likert-scale, which ranged from 1 not at all satisfied to 7 extremely satisfied. Previous research has supported the criterion validity and the internal consistency of ASQ Perceptual-cognitive tool.

The perceptual-cognitive tool used in the current study was the Neurotracker NT 3-dimensional 3D multiple object tracking MOT device An online version of NT 3D MOT was used, and athletes were instructed to sit upright on a stool in front of their computer with a pair of 3D glasses for each trial.

The NT 3D MOT device uses a 3D transparent cube containing eight identical yellow balls that are presented on the screen. In the first stage of each trial, two of these balls were randomly illuminated for 2 seconds while marked with a red color, before returning to the baseline yellow color again.

Athletes were instructed to track the two balls while all the eight balls were moving simultaneously and randomly in all areas of the cube for 8 seconds. The movement speed was adjusted according to the current level.

After 8 seconds, the balls were frozen in their individual space and assigned a number from 1 to 8 by the computer. Athletes were instructed to identify the two balls they were originally asked to track by clicking on them in the cube with their mouse or keyboard. The movement speed of the balls depended on the score the athletes received on their previous session.

If the athletes correctly selected both two balls, the speed was increased, if not, the speed was reduced. All athletes started their sessions with tracking two balls and increased up to maximum tracking of four balls. Relevant variables were detected as baseline scores in the beginning of the training and at the end of the 5th week of training.

The 3 first sessions were used to compute the geometric mean defined as the initial baseline and the 3 last sessions they completed in the experiment period were used to compute the geometric mean defined as current baseline.

The scores from the last 3 sessions the athletes completed were computed as if the user had been using 2 targets and defined the variable baseline at 2 targets. The number of balls they were tracking was defined as number of targets.

The variable improvement rate was calculated to measure if and how much the athletes had improved from when they started using NT 3D MOT.

Data analysis procedures Firstly, data was analyzed by examining the correlations between the variables by using the Pearson correlational coefficient. A paired-samples T-test was then conducted to analyze possible differences between pre-test and post-test values in baseline scores and subjective performance.

Furthermore, analysis of covariance ANCOVA was conducted to control for variables that might explain potential effects on the dependent variable.

ANCOVA is an extension of analysis of variance ANOVA and allows exploration of differences between the dependent variable at different times, while statistically controlling for an additional continuous variable.

Thus, ANCOVA increases the likelihood that differences between the pre- and post-test when controlling for potential covariates are detected.

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations Table 1 shows correlations between the study variables as well as the statistical means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores from the variables.

The correlation analysis shows that there are moderate to strong positive relations between initial baseline and learning rate, and current baseline and learning rate, and that there is a strong negative relation between initial baseline and improvement rate 4.

Other variables share zero order correlations. The descriptive statistics also show that there are large variances among the elite athletes regarding the number of completed training sessions. At the post treatment test there was significant differences in the NT scores, but no significant differences in the subjective performance scores.

ANCOVA Analyses Finally, the authors ran ANCOVA analyses to control for possible covariance that were interacting and affecting the dependent variable. The first variable controlled for was the numbers of training sessions, followed by the different sports variable, with no significant results.

Then learning rate and number of targets were entered as covariates, and significant results were obtained see Table 3. Fifty-four athletes from different dynamic sports participated in the pre-post test quasi experiment.

However, subjective performance only improved if learning rate and number of targets in training were controlled for. The current study confirms the findings from earlier studies that NT 3D MOT training improves the NT specific baseline scores 11, 29, 33, This approach to learning claims that specific experience will influence the specific neurons in the brain that are needed for that particular skill, and organize these neurons into groups and networks that together connect the different areas of the brain to execute that particular skill 7, 8.

Neurons, and potential groups of neurons and networks that are not used in this process will eventually disappear Thus, the development of the brain is claimed to be epigenetic, which means that the development is not entirely based on genes alone, but that the brain also needs specific restrictions from specific task behavior to develop 6.

Thus, the current study confirms that specific training improves the specific skill or capacity that is trained 35, The results of the current study showed that in itself, training with NT 3D MOT does not have an effect on subjective performance. Interestingly, the number of training sessions had zero correlations with the other variables in this current study.

As noticed, there was a large range when it came to training sessions from 16 — 76 , were almost all the participants were above the recommended 4 sessions x 5weeks dose, indicating a high compliance to the training. However, we do not know whether the sessions were evenly distributed over time.

Although the amount of training sessions did seem to be decisive, the findings in the current study indicate that the variables learning rate and number of targets can potentially make the difference if there is a transfer effect or not from NT 3D MOT training on subjective performance.

The variable learning rate is a score that defines how much the elite athletes have improved during their training with the NT tool had they been training with two targets. Thus, this variable might say something about how motivated the athletes were during training since motivation is a necessity to improve in training This is however only speculations based on earlier research and theories and should be further explored in future studies.

Earlier studies also claim that genes are predictive of both learning rate and baseline scores on perceptual-cognitive training The analysis in this current study did not find any effects when baseline scores were entered as covariates in our ANCOVA analysis.

On the other hand, the correlation analysis shows a medium to large correlation between initial baseline, current baseline and learning rate. The variable number of targets defines the quality of the NT 3D MOT training. Paying attention to several targets moving with a faster speed is more demanding than with fewer targets moving slower.

Thus, the results indicate that the higher the difficulty of NT 3D MOT training, the greater development of sport specific subjective performance. The results in the current study also show that there is a significant negative correlation between baseline scores and improvement rate.

This result shows that athletes who have high scores on current baseline have low scores on improvement rate, and the other way around, athletes who have low scores on current baseline have high scores on improvement rate.

However, the athletes learning rate correlates positively with current baseline, meaning that athletes with high scores on current baseline which lead to a higher difficult level during their training sessions in the experiment leads to a higher learning rate score.

On the opposite, athletes with low scores on current baseline, which give them a lower difficulty level in their training sessions, leads to a lower learning rate. Thus, the argument that quality in training makes a difference also applies to the specific learning regarding the NT baseline variable.

The athletes who are managing the high load of quality training also see the best results. This finding supports research within the positive psychology approach, which claims that developing skills and capacities in order to achieve personal growth is a demanding endeavor that is facilitated by an eudaimonic approach to learning Eudaimonia is characterized by emotions such as interest and engagement, which typically occur when athletes struggle to overcome a challenge or to realize their own potentials.

Hedonia on the other hand is characterized by the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain 13, How can these findings be interpreted?

This should be investigated in future research, where possible effects on executive brain functions, such as attention, should be included. However, the correlation results in the current study do not support such a claim. The number of targets and the speed of their movements naturally influence how concentrated the athletes need to be to perform during NT 3D MOT training.

When these variables are entered together they show that learning rate increases also with several targets, which further strengthen the argument that both motivation and concentration make the difference if there is a transfer effect from NT 3D MOT training on sport specific subjective performance.

This should also be investigated in future studies. An interesting question in this regard is if this is a general transfer effect related to motivation, concentration and coping with stress, explained by a discovery during non-contextual training, which makes the athletes more aware of the potential motivation, concentration and stress have in their learning?

Or is it a specific transfer effect, explained by the NT 3D MOT tool. These questions should be investigated in future studies. However, although the results in the current study are interesting, the potential effect of perceptual-cognitive tools, such as the NT 3D MOT, will benefit from further research.

In this study, only the CORE program was used, while there are a wide variety of different training protocols that can be utilized depending on what type of training one wants to emphasize. A variable that measures motivation and concentration should be included in future research to control for possible transfer effects from perceptual-cognitive tools.

Experiments with a control group design and a larger number of participants are also called for in future research. Moreover, it should be noted that the collected data is partly based on self-reporting measures, such as the subjective performance measure, and it is not known to which extent these self-reports accurately reflect the variables under study.

However, it seems to be crucial that the athletes are motivated to concentrate through such training to keep the difficulty level high.

The question if this is a real transfer effect or an awareness effect as a result from the non-contextual training tool is of secondary importance for the practical field.

Thus, elite sports search for ways to enhance important capacities relevant for sport performance and the current study indicates that the NT 3D MOT tool has such a potential. The researchers are grateful for the elite athletes who participated in the current study and their coaches who let them participate.

Appelbaum, L. Sports vision training: A review of the state-of-the-art in digital training techniques.

An example is a rugby defender starting to change direction to one side before the attacker plants the foot in a side step.

Research shows that higher standard netballers [2] and soccer players [3] achieve faster reactions through anticipation than lower standard players. Higher level defenders are especially superior when deceptive actions are involved, whereas novices are more susceptible to fake steps or passes [4].

How do top athletes achieve this superior anticipatory skill? An important point is that the use of generic or non-sport specific stimuli such as a flashing light or arrow that indicate the new direction of travel do not discriminate higher standard athletes from lower performing ones [5,6].

Therefore, using sport-specific stimuli in agility training activities is critical to facilitate learning how to anticipate in order to react faster and more accurately [8].

The use of generic or non-sport specific stimuli such as a flashing light or arrow that indicate the new direction of travel do not discriminate higher standard athletes from lower performing ones.

In soccer, the attacker has the option to pass or move in any direction, so ideally he should scan the environment and be aware of the locations of all players that could influence the contest [7]. All of this highlights how the cognitive demands of agility can be quite complex in competitive matches.

The split step is an agility technique that can be broken down as a small jump, landing on both feet simultaneously, followed immediately by a cut to the left or right Figure 2, top.

Figure 2 shows both attacking techniques at a similar stage, just before the athlete plants the feet to apply a lateral force to the ground. The side step reveals a postural cue that clearly signals to the observer i. This allows the defender the opportunity to anticipate and commence the defensive movement to the same side, a decision he can make with confidence.

Therefore, although the side step can be a powerful technique to generate lateral speed, it can be relatively easy to defend. In contrast, the body position adopted in the split step provides the opponent no indication of which direction the performer with move Figure 2, top.

A short time later, there will be a subtle shift in body position that may provide a cue, but this is delayed. This leaves the defending player with two options.

The first is to wait for the attacker to reveal their intentions; and the second is to guess early, which has an increased risk of going the wrong way. Therefore, the split step clearly seems to provide an advantage to the attacker in this 1v1 scenario. Ryan Bradshaw and I conducted a study into this with a professional Australian Rules football team [9] , and the results quantified the advantage of the split step.

Based on the advantages of the split step technique from a decision-making perspective, this technique should be coached to athletes in sports where it can be performed, such as all codes of rugby, American football, Australian Rules and Gaelic football. Be aware that the split step cannot be executed effectively in all situations, such as when sprinting at very high speed.

However, it is worth athletes spending some time learning the technique to have it as an option. Since player movements in invasion sports can be chaotic and unpredictable, it is not always possible to train for all the possible agility scenarios that emerge in match play. Think of an attacking soccer player who is surrounded by defenders but desperately wants to find enough time or space to have a shot on goal.

The player may have to be inventive or creative to find a successful solution to evade the multiple opponents. To solve this problem, the player may need to spontaneously execute movements that he has never knowingly rehearsed in training.

The example from professional Australian Rules football below shows the flair associated with exceptional attacking agility that excites the spectators. The player evaded multiple opponents and almost seemed to surprise himself with his creative footwork and decision-making.

A socio-cultural study of professional indigenous Australian football players provided insights into the development of this agility expertise [10]. The researchers found that these athletes were not taught how to play by coaches in their formative years, but learned implicitly through informal games where they were required to adapt to limited resources, e.

It is clear that problem-solving and creativity can only be developed through exposure to game play, and not by regimented structured drills involving running around obstacles such as poles, cones or ladders. In my most recent Sportsmith article , I suggested how isolated change of directions drills can be used in an agility program, but keep in mind that these drills cannot develop the decision-making element of agility.

My preference is to allow this process to occur organically by discovery, which is an unconscious process, rather than instructing athletes where to focus their attention. Another reason for avoiding the use of instructions relating to where an athlete should focus their attention is that there is no evidence for particular cues being more effective for agility.

Attackers should be encouraged to experiment with the use of deceptive actions fake steps during evasion to discover what strategies are most successful.

Likewise, defenders need to experience various deceptive actions to learn how to detect them and, therefore, avoid being deceived. A limitation of 1v1 training is that the attacker cannot use fake passes as a deceptive strategy because there are no teammates!

However, coaches can overcome this by modifying the activity to a 2v2 scenario. Small-sided games SSG can facilitate learning of agility techniques as they are required on the field or court.

The added benefit of SSG compared to 1v1 or 2v2 training is that, with more players on the field or court e. Only SSG can foster creativity, due to the variability, complexity and chaotic nature of the games.

My own research with elite youth Australian Rules football players [12] showed that SSG improved defensive agility performance. In addition, we found that this improvement was solely due to faster decision-making, rather than greater movement speed.

In this study, each of the 10 SSG sessions lasted 15 minutes, and provided an average of 25 agility manoeuvres per player.

Although this is not a huge amount of agility exposure, it is more than what you could expect from just playing a full field or court game. We found that small sided games improved defensive agility performance and this improvement was solely due to faster decision-making, rather than greater movement speed.

We concluded that carefully designed SSGs can induce a powerful training stimulus to enhance agility decision making. Given the contribution of the cognitive component to agility performance, can it be trained in isolation?

In addition, injured players that have a limited capacity to perform physical work could really benefit from isolated cognitive training. Although this training approach seems to be effective for enhancing agility performance, the study required considerable time and equipment to develop the video-based training, which is not readily available to coaches.

Virtual reality is another emerging technology that has the potential to enhance agility decision-making, but needs to be much more accessible to coaches before it is of practical value.

Coaches should use the content in Table 1 to determine what methods are most suited to your sport and requirements. Overall, coaches should aim to address all three major components: the technical and physical, as I covered earlier, as well as the cognitive to optimise agility development.

Search for:. Access Get Premium. In-the-moment decisions underlie the cognition of agility A unique way to understand the role of perception and decision-making in agility is to imagine you are an athlete in a contest.

Figure 1. A typical game scenario where the attacker wants to evade opponents to maintain possession, and the defender wants to shadow the attacker to apply pressure. Imagine a defender approaches you, and the following thoughts — which all influence the speed and accuracy of your decision about how to react and move — go through your head: Should I pass or attempt to evade the defender who is closing in on me?

Where are the other defenders and where are my teammates? Is there enough space to evade the defenders? How much time do I have? Am I too close to the side-line to cut to that direction? Should I attempt a fake step or pass?

Do I have enough skill and power to evade and get clear, or is he better than me? Now imagine you are a defender: Should I get closer to tackle or try to corral him to the side line, where he has fewer options?

Is he going to change direction, and which way? Does he usually prefer to cut to the left or right? Therefore, extensive control of confounding variables is necessary to minimize their bias.

This goal achieved, not only can physical exercise for health be recommended in general terms, but it can also be implemented in multiple specific educational and clinical programs to complement the actions recommended by other disciplines.

In the field of high-performance sports, the study of cognitive functioning has caught the attention of researchers. Vestberg et al. In general, it is assumed that this cognitive functioning may be more relevant in open sports requiring constant attention, management of multiple variables, or adaption to changing situations Williams et al.

Furthermore, good cognitive functioning may be a competitive advantage in disciplines with less variability but requiring high levels of concentration or attentional control Memmert, Studies have observed that better scores in executive functioning are related to greater expertise and success in football players Verburgh et al.

In turn, Roca et al. In addition, Voss et al. Similarly, Wagner et al. Moreover, Hänggi et al. For cognitive assessment and training in sports, multiple strategies have been used, both classical paper and pencil or computerized tests Memmert, ; Hernández-Mendo et al.

Additionally, other products are based on technologies such as augmented or virtual reality. Overall, this new technology enabled notable progress in the assessment and cognitive preparation of athletes Schack et al. Therefore, the technology development opens up a very promising path for this line of research by offering possibilities that were previously unexplored.

Studies of the relationship between brain functioning and sports performance have evolved rapidly in recent decades following technological advances that have enabled the development of increasingly powerful instruments Appelbaum and Erickson, This has created a series of opportunities for professionals as well as researchers to advance our understanding of the relationship between brain functioning and sports performance.

Similarly, current limitations are likely to be reduced by the coming technologies. Among them are many laboratory-based procedures used to study how the brain works in sport contexts Verburgh et al.

Although possibly quite accurate inferences may be drawn, there are variables inherent in the competitive context that are currently difficult to reproduce.

Therefore, to increase the usefulness of cognitive assessments and training in performance sports, it will be necessary to improve the transference of laboratory knowledge to real-life contexts.

The available technology allows experiences to approach reality, but such strategies are limited by technologies that are still very invasive and difficult to use on the playing field Romeas et al.

As technical evolution makes it possible to evaluate and train brain function in sports environments, it will help to determine more precisely the most appropriate way to stimulate the brain to optimize sports performance.

Similarly, cognitive assessments of athletes must be adjusted to the requirements of their specific tasks.

In other words, the needs of a defender in football are not the same as those of a striker, nor are the needs of a basketball player the same as those of a tennis player. In this way, the usefulness of this type of training, as well as the demand from athletes and technical coaches, will be increased.

Much progress has been made in recent decades in areas such as physical or technical—tactical training. Nevertheless, a core question remains: how should the brain be trained to optimize sports performance so that it benefits physical and psychological health?

Hopefully this question will be clearly answered in the future. AH-M, RR, JL-W, SS, OS, VM-S, RJ-R, JT-R, and CF participated in the design of the work and the bibliographic review, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted.

All authors made substantial contributions to the final manuscript. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Ahlskog, J.

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