Training World Cup Champions, Surgeons, and the Boston Celtics–the Mind as a Secret Weapon in Peak Performance
We all know people with reputations for thriving under pressure. As the stakes rise, so does their performance. Sports offer some of the most vivid examples of this tendency, with athletes like Kobe Bryant always seeming to make the big play and others…not.
These stone-cold superstars are genetic anomalies. While most of us mere mortals tense up in the spotlight, they crave it. You’re either born that way or you aren’t, and there’s nothing to be done about it. At least, that’s what most people think.
The truth is something different. Increasingly, everyone from athletes to surgeons has turned to science for help in overcoming the jitters and reaching peak performance at the most important times.
The formula looks something like this: the athlete watches video of a pressurized scene or is instructed to visualize one. Machines that measure heart rate, skin conductance, muscle tension, and electrical activity in the brain give the player feedback on how his body is responding. The supervisor of the training then teaches meditation and other mind-calming techniques to inhibit the body’s fight-or-flight response. Athletes repeatedly watch a past mistake–like blowing a penalty kick–until they can do so without any dramatic elevation in these stress indicators.
During the 2006 World Cup, several stories profiled the Italian team’s similar use of psychophysiology, biofeedback and neurofeedback in training. This article was published right before Italy’s final match against France. As most of the world knows, Italy went on to win that game and is the current World Cup Champion, aided in part by French superstar Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt and ejection. Clearly, Zidane took the advice that your head can be your most powerful weapon in competition a bit too literally.
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Posted: Brain exercise, Exercise, Neuroscience, Physical exercise
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July 7th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Can this help those with elevated thyroid levels
it ussually increases heart rate which is a sign of stress and can hijack the brain.