40-yard dash. Vertical leap. Bench press. These tools certainly measure certain aspects of an athlete’s physical fitness, but a much less obvious performance solution could lie in neuroscience and cognitive training.
That’s the approach the NY Sports Science Lab is taking. The lab, which uses advanced sports technology to help train athletes across almost every sport, employs a staff of sports scientists and specialists in a number of areas — exercise science, sports physiotherapy, performance enhancement, biomechanics, and strength and conditioning. Its proprietary technology has been adopted by professional sports teams.
The lab’s mission is simple: “We look to objectively identify what makes the athlete up in terms of their strengths, weaknesses and propensity for injury based on the athlete’s individual sport and position within that sport,” said Michael Greene, the lab’s head sports performance specialist.
Recently, the lab developed a specific training regimen for lacrosse players that taps into the brain’s power. Greene has been specifically training Parker Fairey, a goalie prospect in Major League Lacrosse, under this new program.
When Fairey first started with the lab, Greene says, he was instructed to complete the full suite of the lab’s biotech, based on which an individualized report could be made for him going forward. But even that “global assessment” is tailored to an athlete’s specific sport and position, so Greene was able to analyze Fairey’s results across the global assessment and create a training program for him from baseline info. Fairey could follow a regimen that specifically targeted his needs.
“He’s standing in front of the net, and there’s multiple objects on the field, and some of those objects are being thrown — shooting a ball at him at 100 miles an hour or more,” Greene said. “So he needs to have reaction time, visual acuity, depth perception, contrast sensitivity, and most importantly, multiple object tracking.”
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That program, which Fairey completed just recently, included work on his reaction time and general physical fitness through sensory training. While he tracks objects with one hand, the other hand is working on timing and rhythm, forcing him to use both parts of his brain simultaneously.
If that type of training sounds extremely hard, that’s because it is. The lab’s program is intense by design. The result is that when an athlete gets on the field, everything seems easier.
“Sports science is really revolutionizing how athletes train, allowing these athletes to train harder but also a lot smarter opposed to just your traditional athletic training,” Greene said.
“I’ve seen it firsthand that sports science has allowed these athletes to change the trajectory of their careers.”