Physical training provides athletes with increased strength, muscle memory, increased flexibility, and faster reaction times. However, the physical part of athletics is just one component.

For peak performance, you need three parts of your brain fired up. The frontal lobe (conscious brain), your left hemisphere (analytical brain) and your right hemisphere (creative brain) are all needed in order to produce optimal results. When your left and right hemisphere are in sync, you have heightened awareness, on point reaction timing and increased creativity with instant decision making capabilities. In short, you are firing on all cylinders.

When you are in an anxious state, frustrated or angry, your heart rate will reflect this. Your heart rhythm will move from a smooth, coherent pattern, becoming more erratic as in the above picture in which it looks like a earthquake graph. This incoherent pattern causes a release of stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which dampen the activity of the higher centers of you brain, including your frontal lobe. Your frontal lobe is responsible for your conscious deliberate decisions making skills.

It is well known that when you fly into anger or frustration, your ability to solve problems or make wise decisions is diminished. This is because when you perceive a situation as stressful, your body sends blood to where it is needed most. Which in this case, it is to your lower part of your brain that is responsible for the flight or fight response. This leaves your frontal lobe with less blood flow and stimulation for deliberate decision making skills to help get you out of that flight or fight scenario.

Here is an example of how HearthMath techniques can be used to improve your game.

Ice hockey is an aggressive and fast sport that normally triggers a lot of emotions, including anger, fear and happiness. Our partners at HeartMath Sweden have been using HeartMath techniques and technology to improve the performance of one of VIK, Sweden’s elite, professional hockey teams. Players find themselves in two positions during a game: Sometimes they are on ice playing, but often they are off in what’s called “the box” waiting for their next play on the ice. The players often feel anxious and frustrated and can have a hard time trying to change their emotional state, especially when they are in the game. In some cases this can be devastating to the team’s overall performance.

Ander Nilsson, CEO of HeartMath Sweden says, “We started to look at the possibilities of using HeartMath off ice, to transform the players’ emotional states from chaotic to coherent. We first used one-on-one coaching with a group of the players while having them on the emWave PC system. We asked them to experience the negative emotions they experience during games. This helped them to see how these feelings created incoherence, which affects their play.

Then we trained them in the Quick Coherence technique and used the emWave PC system to demonstrate the profound difference in their coherence levels. Next we instructed them to use the time in the box to apply what they had learned to trigger a coherent emotional state. In some cases many players are now using the portable emWave® Personal Stress Reliever® during the game to assist them. Now, every time one of these players sits in the box they will immediately make a sincere effort to switch to a coherent emotional state. By practicing HeartMath techniques and using coherence-building technology, the trained players have reported noticing a significant difference in being able to see what’s happening in the game. They also have reported that they have more physical stamina, their legs are fresher, when they have been maintaining a good level of coherence instead of expending a lot of negative emotional energy. Overall the team unity has improved and they are performing at a much higher level than in their previous season.”

Mental and emotional training is a component that some athletes dismiss, but is crucial in maintaining composure under stress and to improving athletic performance.

I provide simple and effective technology that gives athletes training for the ability to increase emotional resilience, reaction time and accurate decision making.