Across amateur and pro sports, Cognitive-Perceptual/Vision training is fast-becoming the latest way to get an edge over the competition. Most athletes are not aware that there are a lot of drills and exercises that they can do at home and at the competition site to develop and prepare their brain, eyes and body to effectively and efficiently “read” and process the play at faster rates. The visual system plays a vital role in athletic performance.
“A top-level player must be able to track the flow of a game in order to make important in-game decisions and react effectively to the changing situation. This involves being able to identify multiple moving objects (players) and then track them in order to follow and predict the game as it evolves. It has been shown that the difference between elite and sub-elite players of team sports is minimal in terms of strength and fitness levels, but large in their ability to effectively read a game, process the information, and make effective decisions. For example, it is widely noted that in NHL, Wayne Gretzky was neither the biggest nor fastest player on the ice, but that he excelled at being at the right place at the right time through reading play with supreme effectiveness”.
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Friday – 9 AM – 5 PM
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Zone Health & Performance Psychology offers direct billing. Your therapeutic treatments may be covered by your health insurance plan or employee health benefits. Contact us or your health insurance provider about coverage.
Numerous studies have tracked the benefit of Cognitive-Perceptual Training for athletes from many different sports. Some of the sports that have shown improvement in performance are Hockey, Table Tennis, Golf, Rugby, Soccer, and Tennis. For sports with rapid movements, the athletes who have undergone this type of training have a significant advantage over their competition.
Zone Health & Performance has partnered up with Neurotracker, Fitlight, Senaptec, Vizual Edge, and Reflexion to provide a variety of cutting-edge technologies that not only train the eyes but the brain as well. The biggest discovery in the history of neuroscience is neuroplasticity; the brain’s innate ability to adapt to environmental demands through functional reorganization, increasing pathway efficiency and growing new neural networks. In terms of the extreme cognitive demands of the sport, neuroplasticity is a major factor in any athlete’s performance potential. In principle, the process is similar to how muscles improve to meet performance demands when put under physical stress.
Zone Health & Performance Psychology improves an athlete’s performance by training visual skills such as:
Vision is the primary sense used by athletes and may account for 85% to 90% of the sensory processing demands during sports activity. Many sports science studies show that visual function is directly related to athletic performance and our clients often report the following benefits:
We start by using advanced qEEG (Quantitative Electroencephalography) technology that precisely measures your unique brainwave activity. It is performed to investigate brain wave patterns associated with concentration and attention.
The assessment usually takes between 3-4 hours and consists of:
Zone Health & Performance Psychology is proud to partner with Cambridge Brain Sciences. They are a leading provider of cognitive assessment tools for clinicians and medical practices, providing scientifically-validated cognitive tasks that produce objective measures across multiple cognitive domains.
A series of Cognitive Performance tests that provide objective and quantifiable measures of:
John Stevenson is one of the most passionate and dedicated professionals I’ve ever met. He provided me with a new perspective and insight with regards to chronic pain and anxiety. He has a genuine desire to help others realize their maximum potential. I would highly recommend John and his team of professional staff to anyone.
I would highly recommend everyone at Zone. They are absolutely amazing and caring. They customize a plan to fit you individually, follow up on progress and keep you posted consistently. This is hands down the best place for neurofeedback ! Very happy with the results and I appreciate every single employee at Zone, including John who provides excellent patient care.
I want to share my experiences at Zone Health & Performance wIth John Stevenson. I had a stroke and my speech was irreversible damaged so I had to remap my brain for my speech again. I worked with John and his staff diligently 3X a week for over a year! It was hard work but it also was fun.My speech has improved so much that when I meet someone that don’t know that after my stroke I couldn’t even put a sentence together! I would highly recommend Zone Health & Performance it…improved my life!
Here at Zone, we use many different types of cutting-edge equipment that enable our client to see, decide, and act faster and more efficiently.
Reactive Agility training is a specific type of cognitive-perceptual training that we frequently use with our athletic clients. The use of reactive agility training allows for athletes to perform whole-body movements while adding a mental component. This training adds an unpredictable nature to better simulate gameplay. This will allow you to think faster, react quicker, and focus longer.
To avoid issues stemming from cognitive decline (memory, sharpness, etc) the cognitive training focuses on enhancing the neuroplasticity of your brain and sharpening your mind. With the use of cognitive training, it helps to put your brain in a position to fight mental decline.
An example of cognitive rehabilitation training is Zone Performance Psychology’s concussion rehabilitation and baseline testing protocol. This consists of a series of tests examining memory, concentration, visual tracking speed, processing abilities, balance, and reaction timing. These tests are used to assess the overall current functioning of the brain. If a concussion is later suspected, the results established from the baseline can be measured against a post-test and used to determine impairment in brain functioning. In addition, they are used as an effective measure to determine when the brain has fully recovered, and the athlete is safe to return to play or the client is ready to return to work. For most accurate measures, a baseline test for athletes should be done prior to the start of each season. Following a concussion, the “sitting in a dark room” approach is only effective for so long. Concussions, like other injuries, should be properly managed and rehabilitated. At Zone Health & Performance Psychology we understand that each client is affected differently and therefore a customized rehabilitation program will be designed to meet the specific needs of each client. Management strategies are used to limit the amount of impairment as well as expedite recovery as much as possible. As everyone’s rehabilitation process is different, all our drills are customizable for your needs. Cognitive training can rehab the brain, while the body is also recovering.
The answer is yes. Research has been done showing that cognitive function can in fact be improved. At Zone Performance Psychology we utilize many different types of advanced technology. One device in particular train our clients with the use of Three-dimensional multiple object tracking (3D-MOT). 3D-MOT is a perceptual-cognitive training system based on a 3D virtual environment. A study done by Parsons, et al. (2014) is the first study to examine the effects of 3D-MOT training on attention, working memory, and visual information processing speed as well as using functional brain imaging on a normative population. Twenty university-aged students were recruited and divided into a training (NT) and nonactive control (CON) group. Cognitive functions were assessed using neuropsychological tests, and correlates of brain functions were assessed using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). Results indicate that just 10 sessions of 3D-MOT training can enhance attention, visual information processing speed, working memory, and leads to quantifiable changes in resting-state neuroelectric brain function.
Cognitive brain training works for everyone. Gain a competitive edge in whatever field you are in whether it is school, work, general health, clinical or athletics. With the use of our equipment and trainers we can train an individual’s peripheral awareness, dynamic visual acuity, depth perception, eye-hand coordination, color vision, and contrast sensitivity. At Zone Performance Psychology our clients often report the following benefits after the use of Cognitive training:
Improved:
There has been well documented peer-reviewed, evidence-based, scientific research over the past 2 decades that have demonstrated how this type of training can improve memory, executive functioning, situational awareness, cognitive stamina, attention, balance, anticipatory timing, eye-hand coordination, brain processing speed, reaction time, visuo-motor performance, information encoding, visual acuity, visual processing, etc.
Science based research studies can be found and reviewed at our partner’s websites:
Every individual’s brain evaluates sensory stimuli differently, with the ability to assess an individual’s visual, cognitive and visuomotor skills we can establish an overview of how their brain is able to receive, interpret and respond to external information.
The initial baseline evaluation conducted at Zone Performance Psychology measures visual, cognitive, and visuomotor skills. The assessment tools utilized at Zone establish a broad and comprehensive overview of the brain’s ability to receive, interpret, and respond to the world around it. The ability to baseline visual skills before therapy begins, provides our clinic with a critical benchmark to which brain functioning over time can be compared. The sensory exercises conducted by our staff address functions such as visual neglect, visual motor integration, visual field skills, eye-movements, and the coordination of peripheral / central vision.
Visual, cognitive and visuomotor skill can also be impacted by many various brain health conditions. Brain diseases may present differently in every person. This makes it critical to have a benchmark to which brain healing can be compared over time based on individual measures.
With each client being unique, our program begins with an initial baseline assessment to determine specific strengths and areas of development regarding their cognitive and visual skills. This allows our team at Zone Performance Psychology to systematically configure a program to meet their needs. Our Cognitive-Perceptual Training staff customizes a program for each athlete based on their initial assessment and utilizes a variety of sensory tools and exercises over time to track and accurately monitor their progress to effectively strengthen and address any concerns. In turn, this allows the athlete to be more composed and confident on the playing surface because they can now see more, process it faster, react faster and do this for longer periods of time. It’s critical to evaluate and monitor a client’s 1) Visual Information; 2) Processing information; and 3) Motor movement abilities to maximize the transference of these skills to the playing field.
Cognitive-Perceptual training forces athletes to engage different parts of the brain and visual systems to process the game more efficiently, such as better noticing the competitions’ tendencies and habits, which in turn, allows the athlete to anticipate and react faster. At Zone Performance, we utilize a variety of sensory tools in combination with each other to improve balance, coordination, awareness, reaction time, and anticipation. This protects and prevents athletes from unnecessary collisions which can cause injuries. These tools can also assist in athletes returning to play safely and more efficiently after injury as our programs are customizable to our clients needs. Also, by providing a baseline assessment, if an injury does occur, we can ensure that our athletes are able to return to their baseline, if not better, before they get back out on the playing surface.
Many sports science studies show that visual function is directly related to athletic performance and our clients often report the following benefits: