Modes are the fourth load lever. Before modes existed, coaches had two ways to increase challenge: raise the intensity or extend the duration. Both have a short shelf life. Athletes adapt. Give them the same task at the same difficulty long enough and it stops producing a training effect. The stimulus becomes familiar. Progress stalls.

Modes solve this. They sit on top of any cognitive task and change how the brain has to handle it, without changing the task itself. You keep the same task. The demand goes up. Adaptation continues.

Every mode in Soma was developed alongside leading universities to target a specific aspect of cognitive performance. Each one has a clear purpose, clear metrics to track, and a clear coach tip for when something is not working as expected.

For your first block, use one mode and stick with it for the full four weeks. Stacking modes makes it harder to identify what is driving adaptation. Change one variable at a time.

Use the mode selector to find the right mode for your training goal instantly.

→ Find the right mode. In seconds.

These modes train the brain to maintain concentration, reduce errors, and stop lapses. Use them when the athlete drifts mid-session, loses rhythm, or shows rising lapse counts.

DPM monitors reaction time and variation every 15 seconds. When focus drifts, a pink bar appears on the athlete's screen in real time. The athlete uses that signal to self-correct without any instruction from you. Your data is in Analytics after the session. Look at MoM variation and mean RT across sessions to confirm focus is extending and lapses are becoming less frequent.

Delivers instant visual or audio feedback after every response. Positive feedback activates the brain's reward pathway. Negative feedback highlights errors so the brain corrects them immediately, not in a debrief. You choose whether to target errors, correct responses, or both, and whether the feedback is visual or audio.

Use this mode when the athlete needs to respond more quickly and accurately under pressure. The goal is to shorten the gap between perceiving something and acting on it.

A time window opens for each response. Hit it consistently and the window shortens. Slow down and it extends. The pressure always sits just at the edge of current ability with no ceiling to manually adjust. The challenge scales with the athlete automatically.

Use this when the athlete performs well early in sessions but fades under sustained cognitive load. The goal is to extend how long the brain can maintain peak performance before fatigue sets in.

The task runs until the brain actually fails. A 3-minute baseline phase sets the athlete's personal RT. Then the main task runs until RT crosses that baseline by 20% consistently. The session ends when genuine cognitive fatigue arrives, not at a fixed time. How long the athlete holds is the TTE score.

Use this when the athlete makes mistakes and then hesitates or loses rhythm. The goal is to make error recovery faster and more automatic.

After every error, Soma measures the time from that error to the next correct response. This is EDM RT. Compare it to Task RT, the mean speed across the whole session. The gap between them is the training signal. A narrowing gap across sessions means recovery after mistakes is getting faster and more automatic.

Use these modes when the sport requires managing two things at once. The goal is to reduce the processing cost of splitting attention between competing demands.

A secondary red signal appears at random while the athlete performs the main task. The athlete taps any button when they see it without stopping the main task. Soma measures both: primary task RT and DRT RT. The gap between them reveals how much attentional capacity is left over. A narrowing gap means divided attention is improving.

A second cognitive task runs alongside the primary. The athlete manages two rule sets at once. Soma measures both RTs. The gap between them is the switching cost. As the athlete adapts, the gap narrows. Use DRT first before moving to TSM.

Use these modes when the sport requires cognitive performance during or after intense physical work. The goal is to train the brain to function clearly while the body is under physiological stress. All three modes require a Polar H10 heart strap connected to Soma NPT.

The cognitive task only runs while the athlete stays inside a chosen heart rate zone. Step outside it and the task pauses. Return to the zone and it resumes. Over weeks RT and accuracy stabilise within the chosen zone. Start at Zone 2 before progressing to higher intensity.

Unlike HRZ which holds one zone, AHR moves through multiple zones unpredictably within a single session. The athlete must continuously adjust physical effort while maintaining cognitive output. This mirrors real sport where intensity never stays fixed. Only use after establishing stable HRZ performance.

The athlete must raise their heart rate to a required BPM and hold it for 3 seconds before a response registers. The threshold keeps rising throughout the session. The brain learns to make accurate decisions while physically exhausted, treating cardiovascular stress as a normal operating condition.

Use these modes to tighten reaction time variation and build rhythm. The goal is reliable, repeatable performance rather than fast but scattered.

After every correct response, the athlete sees a percentile showing how their RT compared to their previous correct response. Every response becomes a pacing decision. Over sessions, athletes learn to feel drift before it appears in the data and correct it themselves without waiting for a debrief.

Every error adds 15 seconds to the session. Consecutive errors add even more. The only way to finish faster is to stay accurate. Rushing or guessing is immediately punished with extra time. The brain raises its attention level automatically when errors carry a real, visible cost.

Use these modes when you want the system to adjust load automatically. Ideal for reducing manual adjustment across large athlete groups or when athlete readiness varies significantly week to week. Both require a Polar H10 heart strap.

Task difficulty adjusts automatically in real time based on RT, accuracy, and variation. If all three are strong, difficulty increases. If performance drops, it backs off just enough to let the athlete stabilise. The athlete is never coasting and never drowning.

HRV measures the variation between heartbeats and reflects how ready the nervous system actually is. AHV reads HRV continuously and adjusts cognitive difficulty to match. High readiness days push harder automatically. Fatigued days reduce load without any manual adjustment. This is the only mode that adapts to physiological input rather than cognitive output.

Every cognitive error triggers a 5-second Zone 4 sprint. Consecutive errors stack up to 20 seconds. After the sprint the athlete must immediately re-engage cognitively at full speed while still under physical stress. PCM trains three things simultaneously: raising the cost of errors, training the brain to re-engage after exertion, and maintaining focus under compounding fatigue. Requires a Polar H10 heart strap.

For your first block, use one mode. Do not stack yet.

For your second block, if the first block produced clear adaptation and the athlete is consistent, you can layer a second mode into one or two sessions per week. Keep the rest of the sessions running with a single mode.

Beyond that, experienced coaches may layer up to three modes in a single session. But stacking makes it harder to tell what is driving adaptation and harder to diagnose when something stops working.

The rule is simple. Change one variable at a time. If the data does not tell a clear story, you have added too much.