Athlete Partnership Program - December Update
As we approach 2 months into the Athlete Partnership Program (APP) for 2022/23 and I start to look at performance data with he athletes involved, I thought it would be useful to share some of the data and feedback to everyone.
The key thing about improving Visual, Mental and Cognitive Skills in athletes is being able to rely on tangible and non-tangible data. Not everything an athlete ‘feels’ or ‘thinks’ can be measured, and sometimes that’s absolutely fine. To be able to say “I’m definitely feeling more confident” or “I am 100% more in the moment now, not worrying about what’s been or what’s coming” are equally as important as seeing numbers go up (or down where needed!) on trackers.
The APP has been in process since November 2022. After an initial assessment session via zoom, plans were put in place for each athlete based around their needs and wants from the program. Location plays a part in this - some athletes are relying on being trained solely via zoom, where as others have been able to benefit from regular visits to the MG1 Brain Gym in Nottingham.
All athletes have completed a course of Neurotracker sessions to help improve concentration, focus, multi-object tracking and more. As you can see from the graph below, all athletes have improved and all have said that they have felt improvements in their in-game performance based on the session. Perfect!
Additionally, those athletes who have attended the MG1 Brain Gym have been working on various areas from mental self-regulation, to hand/eye co-ordination, reaction speed, scanning work and so much more. Again, feedback from these sessions has been really positive.
As a side note, it was great to see earlier this week that 3 of the top 5 goaltenders in the NIHL are currently working with me as part of the APP. Now I am not in anyway claiming anything with that, but I know if you asked each of these guys they would definitely say that the MG1 work (tangible or not) is having a benefit on their on-ice performance.
As we head into 2023, we’ll be tweaking and amending each athletes plan in line with where they currently are and where we want to get to in the next cycle. I will of course keep you posted on progress throughout the year.
Have a great Christmas and New Year break - thank you to everyone who I have had the pleasure of working with in 2022. I look forward to working with even more athletes in 2023 and beyond.
Merry Christmas, Colin
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