Page 4 - TierOne Performance Catalog 2018

4

The Rising Bar of
Performance in Colligate Sport

Staying Com petitive is Harder than Ever Before

The cost of maintaining a competitive athletic program is sky-
rocketing. The large, well funded, colligate programs are able
to afford the costs associated with attracting and training the
top talent needed to be successful. Smaller programs struggle
to keep pace in the race for talent and elite training, losing
ground to the competition each year. Despite this difference in
elite-level training, small programs are expected to field
competitive teams across all sports.

How do you provide your athletes with the elite training
needed to be successful on a limited budget?

The Cognitive Revolution in Performance Psychology

Recent advances in cognitive and neuroscience are changing the way we understand elite perfor-
mance in sport. Performance traits thought to be unchangeable have been found to be malleable
and trainable. Now we know that traits like reaction time, situational awareness, decision making,
poise, and emotional stability under duress can be developed to optimize the performance of elite
athletes.

Research shows that cognitive processing, like reaction time and decision making, can be improved
through specialized training. For instance, reaction time can be improved by one to three-tenths of a
second, while increasing decision accuracy. This increased processing speed translates into one to
three yards of gained ground on the field or court. Think of all the plays during a game that are
decided by less than a yard. Why wouldn’t you deliberately train this performance skill in your
athletes?

If sport is mostly mental, how are you deliberately building
the mental strength and capacity of your
athletes?