User:Fisher-speed/Sport-Beat

Sport-Beat is a speed-training tool for athletes in opponent-based sports, such as boxing and basketball. It employs audio pulses to simulate human reaction time. By synchronizing their physical movements to Sport-Beat, athletes learn to move quickly enough to overtake an opponent's ability to adapt to sudden changes in the visual environment.

Introduction
Cognitive psychology, Cognitive neuroscience, and Mental chronometry, have described the range of cognitive processing times among humans (reaction time). Over a century of empirical data has shown that healthy young adults require 200ms ± 10ms to react to a visual stimulus, while highly trained individuals can react in as little as 100ms.

In Sport-Beat, human reaction time is represented by short, regular pulses of acoustic energy or beats. To simulate the typical reaction time of 200ms, beats are delivered at a rate of 5Hz, since 1s/.200s = 5Hz. The interval between beats signifies how long the typical opponent’s brain requires to process a sudden change in the environment, and, accordingly, the optimal pace for the athlete to be training sequences of physical actions and maneuvers. The lower extreme of 100ms is simulated by beats delivered at 10Hz.

To allow for progressive training, the range of human reaction time is graded as follows :

The audio files for Sport-Beat (3-minute rounds) and Sport-Beat MMA (5-minute rounds) are currently available on iTunes.

Applications
Sport-Beat can be used to prepare for any contest where there is a direct, physical struggle between athletes or for control of a game object, such as a ball or puck. When an athlete performs an action in less time than the opponent requires to cognitively process it, the action retains all of its intended tactical value, whether offensive or defensive, and paves the way for further advantage to be had.


 * Basketball
 * Boxing
 * Fencing
 * American football
 * Hockey
 * Lacrosse
 * Martial arts and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
 * Rugby
 * Soccer
 * Wrestling or grappling