The British Olympic Coaching Programme

“I passionately believe that you cannot win a gold medal unless you have a world-class athlete and a world-class coach,” Sir Clive Woodward says. “This country is developing bucket-loads of talent. But are we developing enough world-class coaches? I don’t think we are.”

Here is an excellent article written by Owen Slot of The Times, in which Sir Clive Woodward discusses the state of athletic coaching in the UK.  Woodward is the Performance Director of the British Olympic Association.

Whilst knowledge is important, Woodward is focusing on helping coaches teach more effectively.  With this in mind, Slot’s article in The Times exclusively reveals “The British Olympic Coaching Programme [BOCP]“

“Dreams can help with learning” – The importance of Theta…

Research has shown that people who dream about a task perform it better on waking compared to those who do not dream about the task. (BBC News)

This reinforces the knowledge shared in our brain training courses, where the importance of theta brainwave activity in learning is discussed.  For optimal functioning, new information is received in a high-alpha state.  That is then memorised or integrated in a theta state.  The theta brainwave is an important brainwave for a healthy sleep cycle, as well as delta.

During our training courses, like the Mind Maximiser,  you learn how to access this state by increasing the amplitude of the theta brainwave at will. For anyone wishing to learn information at an accelerated rate, it is essential to be able to control the levels of high-alpha and theta brainwaves.  Some people talk about the “super-learning state”.   Read more

“Brain Training” games don’t work

At last there is the evidence that brain training games don’t boost brain power. (BBC report)

When doing radio interviews, the most common question I am asked is how good are these electronic games recently promoted to improve brain function.  My reply is always the same…doing lots of sudoku puzzles simply makes you good at doing sudoku.  There is no wider neurological benefit which can be applied to other tasks.

If you want to train your brain, you need to Read more

Funding boost for Australia’s Olympians

Australia is always serious about winning medals at the Olympics.  Recent news shows that they are putting their money where their mouth is as they prepare for the London Olympics.  Today I heard that athletes in Australia’s elite performance programme will receive a funding boost of AUD$120 million in the run up to London 2012 Olympics.

The view as reported in the media is that winning Olympic gold medals give an important boost to National moral.  The cost of $120 million shared by 20 million tax paying people in Australia is seen as a fair price to pay for success. $6 / person is surely a great value price to contribute to bringing home more medals.

I would agree, but then perhaps I am biased being so involved in the Olympics. I see that any support given to athletes is a good thing. As long as the funding gets to the coaches and athletes; not sloshed around management.

In contrast, it was reported that last year Team GB was struggling to reach a £15 million ($20 million) funding target for Elite Performance training.  But this was in the depths of the recession and the funding is now in place. However this funding is in contrast to Australia with a cost per person in the UK of only £0.25 ($0.40).

It is not just about the money, but the quality of the coaching is a key factor in my opinion.  Team GB has made huge advances in this area since Beijing 2008.  As this all plays out in the years ahead, it is going to see what the balance of results are in the end.

If you are interested in reading more about the number of Olympic medals won at Beijing 2008, versus population size and GDP of countries, then this post will interest you.

P.S. many in Australia are disappointed with the announcement of this funding.  They had hoped for $100 million per year, in the run-up to London 2012!

Theta brainwaves essential for memory

From Reuters:

“Scientists find how relaxed minds remember better.

Stronger and more lasting memories are likely to be formed when a person is relaxed and the memory-related neurons in the brain fire in sync with certain brain waves, scientists said on Wednesday….

…Synchronization in the brain is influenced by “theta waves” which are associated with relaxation, daydreaming and drowsiness, but also with learning and memory formation, the scientists explained in the study in the journal Nature.”

Accessing the theta brainwave is an integral part of the memory training I provide.  Memory techniques on their own are not enough. During both the memorisation and recall process, you need to increase theta brainwave activity and get both hemispheres balanced.

This research reinforces that The Brain Training Company is teaching cutting edge techniques.

You can only develop a really powerful memory with integrated brainwave training.  See the popular Mind Maximiser training course for more information on this subject.  Here you learn the techniques of memory and how to control your brainwave activity.

Have you tried a memory  training system or attended a course?  Did you learn how to access the theta state on demand and have this shown to you on an EEG system?

On a separate yet related matter, did you know that you need to be able to access a high-alpha state for speed reading?  So for effective learning skills, it is critical to be able to shift between the high-alpha and theta brainwave states (as well as other elements taught in the training course).

Brain Training Gold at Winter Olympics

Canada’s first gold medallist at Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics used brain training.

The first few reports are starting to come out of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, about those athletes who have utilised brain training technologies.  Various brain training systems are used by an increasing number of National teams.  However for many it is a closely guarded secret to gaining that competitive edge.

Sports Psychology has been applied for many years and is now seen is essential for any top athlete, whatever their sport.  The brain training I refer to is the Sports Neurology – a new field of peak performance giving athletes an extra edge.  This encompasses the maturing field of neurofeedback as well as more cutting edge systems as used by The Brain Training Company.

Read more

NSCA 2010 All American Teams

It is interesting to see that 4 of the top 10 members of the USA “NSCA 2010 All American Team” in sporting clays have learnt mental training skills with The Brain Training Company.

What are your goals in 2010 for your sporting clays, trap or skeet shooting?  Do you need to gain that mental edge?  Perhaps you should also be thinking about attending the same training course as these top level shooters?

Mental Training for Sporting Clays

What happens in an actor’s brain?

This is a fascinating article from the BBC.  It looks at what an actor’s brain is doing during a performance.

——

By Nick Higham
Today programme

Original article here with additional video and images.

For an actor, the performance conditions weren’t exactly ideal: flat on her back in a large machine, under strict instructions to lie as still as possible, speaking in short bursts interspersed with the shrill sound of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

But last week Fiona Shaw, one of Britain’s leading actresses – who has in her time played everything from the tragic heroine Medea to Shakespeare’s Richard II – volunteered in the cause of science to spend an hour having her brain scanned while “acting”.

Professor Sophie Scott of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London wanted to know what happens physically in an actor’s head when they pretend to be someone else.

She hoped that scanning Fiona’s brain in action would be able to tell us.

Read more

2009 World Memory Championships – TV coverage

Channel 4 News:

CBS Network:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Interview with World Memory Champion

The current World Memory Champion, Ben Pridmore, is interviewed as he attempts to retain his title at the 2009 World Memory Championships.

http://www.vimeo.com/7573065

To follow all of the posts related to the 2009 World Memory Championships, please click on this tag link link I have created to group all the posts together:

http://www.thebraintrainingcompany.com/tag/wmc2009/

If you would like to train your memory, then the Mind Maximizer course is for you.

Next Page »