Developing Performance Brain Training for Elite Athletes

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By Leslie Sherlin, PhD, Co-Founder of SenseLabs, Co-Creator of Versus

In athlete development, it’s easy to obsess with the physical. Run further, jump higher, move faster — we’ve developed thousands of techniques to push the body harder, longer. Post Activation Potentiation; increased acceleration. Nervous System Training; improved power from the same muscle mass. We see the tangible payoff. So much of our progress in sports science has resulted from training the physical system simply because we’ve had the tools measure it.

But if so much of an athlete’s performance is mental, how are we training them to be better mentally? And how are we doing it empirically?

Mental toughness gets a lot of lip service, but telling someone to “shake it off,” is the mental equivalent of saying “be faster.” It’s easy to say, but without proper training is nearly impossible to achieve. The tools to objectively train the physiology behind mental performance haven’t been there, until now.

Thanks to the boom of empirical analysis and affordability of sensor technology, we live in an era of unprecedented data collection. These data sets are being mined for remarkable insights, like predicting injuries and fine tuning nutritional requirements. This influx of information clearly lends itself to a smarter approach for building athletes. It also presents the opportunity to empirically train the mental system (analyze existing strengths and weaknesses, identify foci for development, and apply a training plan) just as we do with the body. With Versus, we’ve taken this data driven approach to enhancing performance and used it to train the brains of some of the world’s premier athletes.

Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) we have collected the neurological patterns of elite athletes—brainwaves during states of focus, stress and high-speed decision-making—and built Versus, the performance brain training system that helps athletes reach their optimal mental state.

The Foundation of Performance Brain Training

To understand performance brain training, we first have to step back into Neurology 101. Every time your brain reacts to a stimulus, it fires off an electrical signal, or a wave. These brain waves trigger our every response. Pick up a ball, look at a lamp, brain waves are a reflection of our feeling texture, controlling muscles, or focusing on light. Much like the computer you’re reading on, we operate thanks to a series of electric bursts.

In 1924, German neurologist Dr. Hans Berger discovered that by attaching electrodes to a subject’s head and running them to a galvanometer, those electrical impulses could be read and recorded in real time, thus inventing the EEG. In the late 60’s, Dr. Joe Kamiya of the University of Chicago took Berger’s discovery a step further when his research proved subjects could control, alter, and train those impulses using a simple reward system (1). This marked the birth of neurofeedback and the first step towards performance brain training.

Since it’s discovery, neurofeedback has been primarily used in clinical populations. The decades following Kamiya’s findings saw research demonstrating the practice’s effect on treating seizures (2), ADHD (3), stroke victims (4), PTSD (5), and dozens of other mental disorders. The EEG identifies where individuals’ neurological activity is suffering, and neurofeedback conditions it back to a healthy state.

But what if we used those same methods to make someone perform even better—to make them something more, to push them into the ranks of the elite? For athletes, that means identifying the electrical patterns that correlate with focus, processing speed, and stress management, and training them to replicate those patterns. In the late 70’s and early 80’s, researchers began using EEG to analyze the performance of athletes’ brains, but it wasn’t until the past ten or fifteen years neurofeedback became a training tool for athletes.

Why Me?

Years ago I pursued music as a career. As a kid I had this natural knack for melody. I played piano, guitar, and even attended the University of Tennessee on a trumpet scholarship — sure, I had some great instruction and spent a lot of time practicing, but at the end of the day I just had a feel for sound. Then, at Tennessee my pond grew. I went from being the big fish to, well, just another fish. I was surrounded by musicians that could master pieces quickly while I would spend hours in the practice room piecing things together. Their inherent understanding of rhythm and dynamics made my skills look elementary.

Those people became friends of mine, and over time I learned we each had similar backgrounds—similar training, education, practice time, socioeconomic backgrounds—by all measurable variables, we were the same. Yet still, with an instrument in their hands they just had it in a way I could never emulate.

This sparked the question I’ve since spent my career answering: why does one person excel at a task over another, despite every measurable variable looking the same? What drives that natural talent?

Eventually, I put down my sheet music and turned to psychology. There I learned more about our neurological functions, about alpha and beta waves, and discovered that despite all similarities, those musicians operated on a neurological level that was far more active than I did while playing—the same way an elite athlete’s brain lights up during competition while an average competitor’s may settle for a dim glow. EEG allows us to document those differences while neurofeedback nurtures improvement.

Building a Mobile Prototype

In 2010, my SenseLabs co-founder, and ten-year Apple alum, Austin Miller and I started to mobilize this powerful training opportunity. Our goal was to develop a repeatable, accessible, and objective way to train mental performance—to train the brain. This process led us to partnerships with Red Bull’s High Performance division, US military special operations groups, P3, and others dedicated to high-performance as we charted a “brain map” of some of the world’s most elite athletes. This became the BrainBank — a database of neuroperformance measurement on the highest performing populations. Mining this repository has allowed us to identify the electrical patterns that correlate with the highest levels of performance and develop training protocols that condition athletes to create those patterns when it matters most.

During the development of Versus we took clinically validated training protocols (6, 7, 8) and used this research to enhance them. At the time, we trained these athletes through an expensive clinical operation, but Austin and I wanted a process that could be utilized by anyone, anywhere, at any time. This commitment to accessibility lead to our first mobile prototype, BrainSport, and four years later, to the launch of Versus.

How Versus Works

Versus is a wearable EEG headset and app that together create a tool for training the brain. The process begins with a basic NeuroPerformance Assessment (NPA) across six key performance indicators.

Based on the assessment, Versus prescribes a custom training protocol to match your unique needs. If you struggle with Stress Regulation and Impulse Control, then you receive a specific regimen for Stress Regulation and Impulse Control. The training process is a series of games that you control with your brain waves. If your focused (aka, if you produce the desired brain waves) a car moves or a plane flies, the car moves, you earn points. At the end of a full training plan (450 minutes, or about 8 weeks of regular use) you’re given a reassessment to measure your progress and compare it with various populations of elite athletes around the world. Want to see how you stack up to Olympic sprinters? It’s all right at your fingertips.

Video 1: Versus is a brain sensing headset and app.

The Efficacy of Performance Brain Training

In the early stages of Versus we worked with San Diego Padre’s outfielder Carlos Quentin (9). Over his career, the two time All Star has earned a reputation as a gutsy competitor, despite his emotional struggles. At our first meeting in 2011, Quentin’s NPA results, and Ritalin prescription, suggested he struggled with Focus Endurance and Focus Capacity. After sixty-two training sessions from August of 2011 to February of 2012, Quentin reported an improved ability to focus, manage anxiety, and recover from the demands of competition (including higher quality sleep). Quentin was even able to drop his Ritalin prescription, along with the detrimental side effects. Our follow up NPA confirmed positive growth in brain activity associated with focus. Despite a reoccurring right knee injury, Quentin’s 2012 season saw his strike out rate drop nearly 4% under his career average and his walk rate increase 1.4%. He was seeing the ball; he was showing greater plate discipline; he was focused.

Our case study with UCLA Golf was recently peer reviewed and accepted into the Biofeedback Journal (10). This was an early step into an organization-wide Versus initiative. At UCLA we took sixteen Division I collegiate athletes and introduced them to the Versus performance brain training program. The course of our study saw the team’s average number of putts per round decrease by 9.7%, while their number of greens in regulation jumped 12%. Eight weeks later our follow up analysis suggested those results were sustained across the team, with one athlete in particular improving from the number six spot (on a traveling roster of five) to securing the best individual score at the NCAA Championship.

In our research with a professional boxer, the athlete self reported a narrowed focus and calmer state of mind, both before and during competitive rounds. This report was supported by trackable changes in his brain physiology that indicated increased focus, reaction speed variability, and impulse control (11). Similarly, our study with 6 high level prospects from a AAA MLB team mirrored earlier reports of improved sleep patterns and a decrease in distracting thoughts (12).

By all means, we are not the only group investigating the benefits of neurofeedback. The validity of performance brain training has been repeatedly demonstrated by the academic community. Neurofeedback has been linked to optimizing mood, memory, and attention (13) and Versus-style training programs have been used to increase IQ, attention span, recognition memory, orienting, and executive functions in healthy elderly populations (14) while similar programs focused on artists, actors, dancers, and musicians saw significant impact on creativity, communication and presentation skills, and technique (15).

Performance brain training has also been found to improve golfer’s learning speed (16) and, interestingly, predict the outcome of putts (17). In case your wondering, 10-12 Hz alpha waves in high amplitudes suggest you’ll miss, so regularly minimize that amplitude level and hit the greens. The performance of pre-elite archers is also show to significantly improve with neurofeedback (18).

The Versus Community Response

Everyday more and more people rely on Versus to improve their mental game. From Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and NBA 3-point machine Kyle Korver, to X Games Gold Medalist Levi LaVallee, we work with a wide variety of athletes. Since the launch of our Versus Genesis Program we’ve seen a landslide of positive responses ranging from forth graders to CEOs, and fortunately, what we’re hearing echoes the findings in our research. Versus users are more engaged, focused, well rested, more in control and better able to react under stress than their competitors. The platform’s simple mobility and user-friendly interface makes Versus a fun, easy, and accessible training tool. Plus, there’s just something inherently awesome about controlling a race car with your mind.

Thanks For Reading

If you’d like to learn more about neurofeedback and EEG’s or just want to talk marathons, aviation, or motorcycles feel free to follow me on Twitter @LeslieSherlin or my Facebook page. For more information about Versus be sure to check out our Twitter (@getversus), like our Facebook page, or visit our website getversus.com.

Please share this article so others may benefit.

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References

 

1. Kamiya, J. (1971). Operant Control of the EEG Alpha Rhythm and Some of its Reported Effects on Consciousness. Biofeedback and Self-Control: an Aldine Reader on the Regulation of Bodily Processes and Consciousness.
2. Sterman, M. Barry. Basic concepts and clinical findings in the treatment of seizure disorders with EEG operant conditioning. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience 31.1 (2000): 45-55.
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9. Sherlin, L. et all. (2011). SenseLabs Carlos Quentin Case Study. San Francisco: Unpublished Manuscript.
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18. D.M. Landers, S.J. Petruzzello, W. Salazar, D.J. Crews, K.A. Kubitz, T.L. Gannon, M. Han. (1991). The influence of electrocortical biofeedback on performance in pre-elite archers. Medicine of Science Sports Exercise, 23, 123–129.