Brain Training can be the difference between good, and better sports performance.
The limits of endurance are set not by the body but the brain.
AT THE 2014 Berlin marathon, Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto beat everyone who has ever run the 42.2-kilometre race, blazing his way to a new world record time of 2:02.57. Shaving 26 seconds off the previous best was an extraordinary achievement, particularly for a man who only began training seriously in 2010. And yet Kimetto was 3 minutes off the 2-hour mark – the fabled barrier considered by many as the greatest challenge left in sport.
Sports scientists will give you a familiar list of what is required to break that barrier: as high an oxygen capacity as has ever been recorded, impeccable running economy, a pancake-flat course, perfect temperatures and top-notch pacemakers. But perhaps that is not the whole story.
Until recently, scientists concerned with the limits of human endurance performance tended to focus on the physiological – how the body functions, in other words – and the environmental. Over the past decade, however, they have come to understand that, to a greater extent than ever previously imagined, those limits are determined by the grey lump between your ears. The brain makes the call to slow up or break down long before the lungs and limbs are finished. Understand how, and not just elite athletes, but all of us could be on our way to cheating fatigue.
Mind training is as an important part of preparing for physical endurance events as toning and strengthening muscles and circulation.
Taken from New Scientist ………read more.