Should Tactical Populations Train Their Brain Like Elite Athletes?

{Sponsored} Police, Fire, & Military personnel are required to make quick decisions in stressful, often physically challenging situations. So are elite athletes. 

Acquiring skills, recalling training, maintaining a high degree of readiness and keeping your composure are requirements for success in both tactical & athletic performance.

To ensure peak performance, athletes consistently train to improve their reaction time, peripheral awareness, eye/hand coordination and focus.  The end result being improved information processing speed and the ability to make accurate decisions under pressure.

Why is Neuro-Training is the Next Sports Frontier?

QUICK AND ACCURATE DECISIONS

Barbara Schwartz wrote an excellent piece on this exact topic, paralleling the decisions you make everyday and decisions Indycar racers make.

…“in a car traveling 220 miles per hour while moving hands and feet, trying to read and comprehend displays, making steering wheel inputs, and dealing with an elevated heart rate, an activated fight or flight nervous system, and extreme environmental conditions like heat and humidity”. 

Aside from the fact this all takes place in a car at 220mph, it sounds like a scenario you are familiar with.

READ MORE on that article from Calibre Press.

READINESS

Human factors, like fatigue, stress, diet and sleep affect everyone’s cognitive abilities. 

Utilizing technology, like Reflexion, is one way to track scores over time in order to both show progress, as well as determine readiness. 

Let’s say an athlete tests 22% below their average. A quick conversation can determine if that athlete needs to have a longer warmup, or if they need to be held out of practice.

Monitoring readiness can prevent you from sending someone into a situation where they could harm themself or others. 

IMPROVED LEARNING AND RETENTION

The brain has a natural ability to change, adapt, and even reorganize itself to function differently as a result of learning and experience. 

Neuro training can strengthen these new neural pathways to accelerate learning & retain information as it’s being learned.

Air Force pilots use neuro training to master a new flight simulator quickly, while West Point athletes utilize neuro training to “become comfortable” performing when fatigued & distracted.

Soccer players use neuro training to improve peripheral vision to assess the ENTIRE situation and make decisions while in pursuit.

See How Reflexion Increases Shooting Accuracy

REDUCED RISK THROUGH IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

Baseball hitters with high reaction time scores swing at fewer pitches and have a higher batting average, while also making fewer errors. They take fewer actions, and when they do act, it is correct.

In the words of MLB Opthalmalogist, Dr. Dan Laby (sportsvision.nyc), “an athlete with faster reaction time has the ability to wait longer before taking an action, thus having more visual information to make the correct decision”. 

The brain processing information rapidly “slows the game down”, allowing athletes to stay calm, recall training, and reduce both rate & severity of errors.

Click Here To See Reflexion Can Help You

TECHNOLOGY NOT REQUIRED

Reflexion is in the business of “bringing neuro training to the masses” and believes everyone should include neuro training in their program. 

In addition to the no-tech training suggestions offered in Barbara Schwartz’s article, Reflexion created a video series showcasing strategies to incorporate neuro training with everyday items.

If you would like to reach out to me directly to discuss further, please feel free to contact me at bryan@reflexion.co.

Click Here if you’re interested in videos showing low-tech solutions for neuro training using just a few simple items.