Brain training: Nature and Nurture

College-level hockey players can now improve their game performance by using technology originally developed for fighter pilots:

March 18, 2012. NHL.com -- "We were asking coaches how they train athletes to make the right decisions," said Danny Dankner, ACE's chief operating officer. "For many of them, they thought being a smart player was a born trait. Either you were born that way or not. But, just like training your muscles, everyone can train their brain fundamentals. The percentage of improvement for pilots in on-air performance was tens of percent on average. If you want to train situational alertness and read-and-react skills and pattern recognition, these are skills that are harder to train."

While other schools, including the United States Air Force Academy, have adopted IntelliGym in their hockey programs, the greatest results so far have been with the United States' National Development Team Program. In perhaps the greatest testament to the merits of the program, last summer's draft boasted an impressive 16 selections who had trained with the IntelliGym.

 tags: creativity, education, control