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Athletic Brain
Sport changes your brain. The minds of elite athletes can pull off feats of anticipation and co-ordination that amateurs would find impossible. The athletic brain has been trained through hours and hours of practice - years of sweat and toil. But what if there were a shortcut to training your brain?Cognitive training tools offer the tantalising possibility of breaking the '10,000-hour rule'. Top-level athletes and teams are increasingly tapping into new knowledge of the brain to develop tools and techniques that can offer a shortcut to sporting success, or push the boundaries of performance beyond its current limits. Increasingly, these tools are becoming available to the ordinary amateur, revolutionising the ways in which anyone can improve their skills.Based on interviews with top athletes and the scientists working at the cutting edge of our knowledge, Amit Katwala provides a fascinating insight into the possibilities that are becoming open to us all. He takes us to see how Borussia Dortmund's 'Footbonaut' and touchscreen-based games in the NFL have been achieving excellent results. As with bestsellers such as The Chimp Paradoxand Bounce, by the end of this book, readers will look at sporting performance in a new light, and be able to apply these insights to their own lives.
368 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 2, 2020
I’ve learned a bit from the book regarding the psychological aspects of the game.
Particularly,
1. Paralysis by analysis - where players over analyse too many aspects and fail to focus, causing them to perform poorly.
2. Placebo styled deception - how Athletes can be trained to go beyond what they think is their limit by “lying” to them.
My favourite chapter of the book was probably “death by industrial disease” where the author discussed the implications sportsmen faced through head injuries. Most recently the English FA have decided to ban heading for the under 12, which I think after so many researches, it’s about time we protect sportsmen, especially younger ones.
As a whole, I have mixed feelings about this book. On one end I’m really impressed with how neuroscience is being adapted to different aspects of sports to help athletes better themselves.
A lot of the technology like the Footbonaut used by Borussia Dortmund for more efficient training for players is definitely a plus point for the use of science in sports.
Also I’m intrigued with how we have moved from statistics (Moneyball) to now deeper science in sports. But where do we draw the line? Because the last thing I’d want is for sports to become a battle of science. Imagine recruiting of players being done on the basis of D&A tests or some sort of psychometric tests. I’d dread to see sports I love doing that in the future but I wouldn’t be surprised if we moved that way.
Particularly,
1. Paralysis by analysis - where players over analyse too many aspects and fail to focus, causing them to perform poorly.
2. Placebo styled deception - how Athletes can be trained to go beyond what they think is their limit by “lying” to them.
My favourite chapter of the book was probably “death by industrial disease” where the author discussed the implications sportsmen faced through head injuries. Most recently the English FA have decided to ban heading for the under 12, which I think after so many researches, it’s about time we protect sportsmen, especially younger ones.
As a whole, I have mixed feelings about this book. On one end I’m really impressed with how neuroscience is being adapted to different aspects of sports to help athletes better themselves.
A lot of the technology like the Footbonaut used by Borussia Dortmund for more efficient training for players is definitely a plus point for the use of science in sports.
Also I’m intrigued with how we have moved from statistics (Moneyball) to now deeper science in sports. But where do we draw the line? Because the last thing I’d want is for sports to become a battle of science. Imagine recruiting of players being done on the basis of D&A tests or some sort of psychometric tests. I’d dread to see sports I love doing that in the future but I wouldn’t be surprised if we moved that way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2020
I thought that this book was going to be a lot better than it turned out to be. Don't get me wrong. If you have not read much about the psychology of sporting excellence then this will rock your world. Unfortunately, I had read a few of the books that Amit takes the crux of his points from so while i was looking forward to hearing lots of new insights it seems as though he was repeating a lot of the myelination / 10,000 / fail fast fail often rhetoric that seems to be doing the rounds at the moment so there was not that much that was new here for me unfortunately. There was a section near the end of concussions which was pretty interesting but other than that i didn’t find a lot of new stuff in there.
Anyway .. here are some of my best bits:
Deliberate self-critical practise keeps you on the edge of your abilities, in the sweet spot when your neural connections can be made and strengthened and the right path ways can be streamlined. Experiences where you’re forced to slow down make errors and correct them as you would if you are walking up an ice covered Hill slipping and stumbling as you go end up making your swift and graceful without you realising it.
Legendary coach Bill Shankly 13 first division titles with Liverpool in the 1960s and 1970s used similar training techniques. We brought out the training boards Shankli said they would be set up 15 yards apart and would keep the ball in play and keep the players on the move all the time. If the ball beat the goalkeeper it would hit a board and be back in play again. We also had a sweatbox using boats like the walls of the house and the players playing the ball off the wall on to the next. The ball was played against the board, you controlled it, turned around, And took it again.
A few years ago Nike developed vapour strobe glasses which work in a similar way to the glasses used by researchers in some of the inclusion studies of anticipation that we looked in at the first part of the book. The glasses rapidly alternate between clear and opaque up to 6 times per second which in theory helps train the visual System to see the path of the ball more clearly by forcing it to learn to fill in the gaps.
Earlier on we looked at the limited capacity of working memory. The theory is that under stress or emotional pressure working memory can become overloaded with negative thoughts so when athletes have to make high-level decisions about what club to use for example or how to play a particular point in tennis they don’t Have the mental resources available to properly reason through the options as they would normally. Writing in wired science journalist David dobbs calls this kind of choke a cogni-choke a disruption of high-level decision-making.
A team of German researchers were able to improve performance under pressure by asking athletes to squeeze a ball in their left hand as they perform the skill. Because the left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain and vice versa doing this draws neural resources like glucose and oxygen away from the interfering left hemisphere and reduces its negative influence on automatic processes and decision-making.
As modern technology has made it easier than ever to multitask we’ve forfeited some of the ability to lose ourselves in a task for hours at a time. Looking at my desk at the moment I’ve got my laptop open plus a smart phone a candle and a couple of reference books all full of distractions. I have 32 tabs open in my web browser I just counted them and going through them is like a geologist digging through various strata of rock. I can see where I got distracted and by what. There is a tab open on a two hour broadcast of a star craft tournament of which I watched the first 30 seconds before opening a new tab to look up what time the nearest supermarket closes.
Whether you subscribe to the central model or believe it’s our perception of effort that limits us it’s becoming clear that our heads quit before our bodies. Yes our muscles have incredible on tap strength. In a TEDTalk journalist David Epstein uses the example of the way people are flung across the room when they get electric shocks-that’s the full power of all our muscle fibres contracting at once.
Anyway .. here are some of my best bits:
Deliberate self-critical practise keeps you on the edge of your abilities, in the sweet spot when your neural connections can be made and strengthened and the right path ways can be streamlined. Experiences where you’re forced to slow down make errors and correct them as you would if you are walking up an ice covered Hill slipping and stumbling as you go end up making your swift and graceful without you realising it.
Legendary coach Bill Shankly 13 first division titles with Liverpool in the 1960s and 1970s used similar training techniques. We brought out the training boards Shankli said they would be set up 15 yards apart and would keep the ball in play and keep the players on the move all the time. If the ball beat the goalkeeper it would hit a board and be back in play again. We also had a sweatbox using boats like the walls of the house and the players playing the ball off the wall on to the next. The ball was played against the board, you controlled it, turned around, And took it again.
A few years ago Nike developed vapour strobe glasses which work in a similar way to the glasses used by researchers in some of the inclusion studies of anticipation that we looked in at the first part of the book. The glasses rapidly alternate between clear and opaque up to 6 times per second which in theory helps train the visual System to see the path of the ball more clearly by forcing it to learn to fill in the gaps.
Earlier on we looked at the limited capacity of working memory. The theory is that under stress or emotional pressure working memory can become overloaded with negative thoughts so when athletes have to make high-level decisions about what club to use for example or how to play a particular point in tennis they don’t Have the mental resources available to properly reason through the options as they would normally. Writing in wired science journalist David dobbs calls this kind of choke a cogni-choke a disruption of high-level decision-making.
A team of German researchers were able to improve performance under pressure by asking athletes to squeeze a ball in their left hand as they perform the skill. Because the left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain and vice versa doing this draws neural resources like glucose and oxygen away from the interfering left hemisphere and reduces its negative influence on automatic processes and decision-making.
As modern technology has made it easier than ever to multitask we’ve forfeited some of the ability to lose ourselves in a task for hours at a time. Looking at my desk at the moment I’ve got my laptop open plus a smart phone a candle and a couple of reference books all full of distractions. I have 32 tabs open in my web browser I just counted them and going through them is like a geologist digging through various strata of rock. I can see where I got distracted and by what. There is a tab open on a two hour broadcast of a star craft tournament of which I watched the first 30 seconds before opening a new tab to look up what time the nearest supermarket closes.
Whether you subscribe to the central model or believe it’s our perception of effort that limits us it’s becoming clear that our heads quit before our bodies. Yes our muscles have incredible on tap strength. In a TEDTalk journalist David Epstein uses the example of the way people are flung across the room when they get electric shocks-that’s the full power of all our muscle fibres contracting at once.
September 14, 2019
I was interested in this book purely because I was curious about how the athletics think during competitive games. I didn't read the subtitle properly - 'How Neuroscience is Resolutionising Sport'. It was a serendipity. The book is very flavourful, much to my liking. For a person who regularly watches the English Premier League, there are many references to famous English soccer players like Rooney and Vincent Kompany. It was definitely enjoyable to read about how these players think during the games.
Through sports, I now have a better understanding of how our brain works. I particularly liked the explanation of our hand-eye coordination helps to reduce the amount of mental workload done by our brain in order to maximise our performance. Take the example of a person trying to catch a falling soccer ball. A soccer veteran would move according to the speed of the ball falling and make sure that the angle from his/her eye to the ball remains constant throughout the whole process. This in turn results in less computational work done by the brain to catch the ball and hence improves the effectiveness of one catching the ball. The author explained this better with a diagram. I was quite fascinated by this fact and amazed that our brain does so many things subtlely to make our lives better.
Another reason why I liked about this book is that at the end of each chapter, the author would throw in some helpful tips or pointers for ordinary people like us e.g controlling your breathing to regulate your mental faculties to perform under stress. Many tips were expressed in a cogent and logical manner. Many myths like heading a soccer ball regularly lowers one's mental acuity were 'busted' and explained with proper research and study done by neuroscientists. Read more to find out! I might be biased but I truly find this book pleasant to read.
Through sports, I now have a better understanding of how our brain works. I particularly liked the explanation of our hand-eye coordination helps to reduce the amount of mental workload done by our brain in order to maximise our performance. Take the example of a person trying to catch a falling soccer ball. A soccer veteran would move according to the speed of the ball falling and make sure that the angle from his/her eye to the ball remains constant throughout the whole process. This in turn results in less computational work done by the brain to catch the ball and hence improves the effectiveness of one catching the ball. The author explained this better with a diagram. I was quite fascinated by this fact and amazed that our brain does so many things subtlely to make our lives better.
Another reason why I liked about this book is that at the end of each chapter, the author would throw in some helpful tips or pointers for ordinary people like us e.g controlling your breathing to regulate your mental faculties to perform under stress. Many tips were expressed in a cogent and logical manner. Many myths like heading a soccer ball regularly lowers one's mental acuity were 'busted' and explained with proper research and study done by neuroscientists. Read more to find out! I might be biased but I truly find this book pleasant to read.
September 22, 2018
Accessible writing with some interesting anecdotes.
I tended to dip in and out of it rather than read in one go, but I did finish cover to cover. I also read large chunks at a time, so don't think it is too dry to just read - it is more engaging than that.
Interesting to read, and there are some tips to help in real life, but most of the strategies are used by big clubs/rich sport (for instance Formula 1), so not really translatable into real life. However, I found it interesting and will probably read again, so I remember more.
A bibliography at the end gives ideas for further reading.
Another book I found of interest in this genre is a book called Spark! by John J. Ratey, which was possibly slightly easier to read - in that it was more "pop" psychology.
I would definitely recommend The Athletic Brain to read.
I tended to dip in and out of it rather than read in one go, but I did finish cover to cover. I also read large chunks at a time, so don't think it is too dry to just read - it is more engaging than that.
Interesting to read, and there are some tips to help in real life, but most of the strategies are used by big clubs/rich sport (for instance Formula 1), so not really translatable into real life. However, I found it interesting and will probably read again, so I remember more.
A bibliography at the end gives ideas for further reading.
Another book I found of interest in this genre is a book called Spark! by John J. Ratey, which was possibly slightly easier to read - in that it was more "pop" psychology.
I would definitely recommend The Athletic Brain to read.
July 28, 2024
This was quite an excellent read, glad I persevered after finding the beginning a little “bitchy” and off putting when speaking about athletes.
Examples: “If researchers could have scanned Rooney’s brain activity…they would have seen a whir of specialised activity just below those expensive hair implants.” Mentions the hair implants more than once.
“Mika Hakkinen… the two-time Formula 1 world champion steps out of the car in black leathers, which are bulging slightly more than they did at the peak of his career…”
When it came to the research and writing about brains however, top notch book.
Examples: “If researchers could have scanned Rooney’s brain activity…they would have seen a whir of specialised activity just below those expensive hair implants.” Mentions the hair implants more than once.
“Mika Hakkinen… the two-time Formula 1 world champion steps out of the car in black leathers, which are bulging slightly more than they did at the peak of his career…”
When it came to the research and writing about brains however, top notch book.
September 25, 2019
One of the few books that combine new sports science study with stories in the field and make this accessible.
Early on, in my own work with race car drivers and the performance metrics tied to their brain waves, I came across this book and was encouraged, excited even that the direction we would follow was proven ground.
My only gripe is with the short title that is hard to remember and to keep in mind how it related to specific content.
Early on, in my own work with race car drivers and the performance metrics tied to their brain waves, I came across this book and was encouraged, excited even that the direction we would follow was proven ground.
My only gripe is with the short title that is hard to remember and to keep in mind how it related to specific content.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews