The full modes list

Task difficulty adjusts automatically in real time based on how the athlete is performing. Always at the right level of challenge.

What it does

Soma monitors RT, accuracy, and variation continuously. If all three are strong, difficulty increases. If performance degrades, difficulty backs off just enough for the athlete to stabilise before load rises again. The athlete is never coasting inside a task they have mastered, and never drowning in one beyond them.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Do not compare absolute RT across sessions. Difficulty adjusts daily so a faster RT may just mean the session was easier. Real adaptation is all three metrics moving in the right direction simultaneously: RT falling, accuracy stable or rising, variation trending down.

Multiple heart rate zones change randomly within one session. The task pauses if the athlete steps outside the current zone.

What it does

Unlike HRZ which holds one zone, AHR moves through multiple zones unpredictably within a single session. The athlete cannot settle into one intensity. They must adjust their physical effort continuously while maintaining cognitive performance. This mirrors real sport where intensity never stays fixed.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Do not use AHR before the athlete has solid, stable performance within HRZ at individual zones. Build one zone before mixing zones. The adaptation target is the transition point. Performance should stop dipping when the zone changes.

Cognitive difficulty adjusts automatically based on the athlete's heart rate variability. High HRV means more load. Low HRV means the system backs off.

What it does

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. On high-readiness days the session pushes harder automatically. On fatigued days it reduces load without any manual adjustment. This is the only mode that adapts to physiological input rather than cognitive output.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip If HRV drops sharply during sessions consistently, the cognitive demand is exceeding current recovery capacity. Use AHV data to inform the broader training programme. These signals matter beyond just the cognitive session.

Delivers instant visual or audio feedback after every response on errors, correct answers, or both.

What they do

After each response, the athlete receives an immediate signal. Positive feedback reinforces correct responses and activates the brain's reward pathway. Negative feedback highlights errors so the brain can correct them instantly, not in a debrief. You choose whether feedback targets errors, correct responses, or both, and whether it is visual or audio.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Two neurological systems determine which feedback type works best for each athlete. Athletes driven by reward motivation sharpen up when correct responses are acknowledged. Start them on positive feedback. Athletes who are sensitive to errors and heighten effort to avoid mistakes sharpen up when incorrect responses are highlighted. Start them on negative feedback. If error rate is not moving after 3 sessions, you likely have the direction wrong. Switch it and monitor for 2 more sessions before drawing conclusions.

The athlete must raise their heart rate to a required BPM and hold it for 3 seconds before a response registers. Heart rate is the gate.

What it does

Every decision requires the body to be working hard first. The athlete elevates HR to the required threshold, holds it for 3 seconds, then the response registers. The threshold keeps rising throughout the session. Over time the brain learns to make accurate decisions while physically exhausted, treating cardiovascular stress as a normal operating condition rather than an impairment.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip In CEM, the athlete has two strategies. They can maintain elevated heart rate throughout the session and respond from a held position. Or they can spike HR to hit each threshold, then recover as fast as possible before the next stimulus. Both create different physical-cognitive demands. Watch mean RT across the session and the minute-on-minute line. A stable or falling RT line as BPM climbs means the two systems are integrating well. A rising or erratic RT line means the cardiovascular load is destabilising cognitive control rather than just slowing it. High variation in RT alongside climbing BPM is the signal to reduce the threshold and build the physical-cognitive connection at lower intensity first.

Every error adds 15 seconds to the session. Consecutive errors add even more. The only way to finish faster is to stay accurate.

What it does

Rushing or guessing is immediately punished with extra session time. This reintroduces real consequences to cognitive errors, something standard training lacks. Athletes who rush, guess, or lose focus quickly learn that mistakes are expensive. The brain raises its attention level automatically when errors carry cost.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip CSQ needs a foundation of competence to work. If errors are constant and total added time is rising rather than falling, the base task is too hard. The athlete is not learning between sessions because the error rate has nowhere productive to land. Step back, build accuracy in standard mode until errors are in a manageable range, then reintroduce CSQ. When CSQ is working, errors that remain after several sessions are genuine cognitive limits rather than carelessness. That distinction tells you what to work on next.

Gives the athlete a real-time signal on screen when their focus drifts. As a coach, you track MoM variation and mean RT trends in Soma Analytics to see whether concentration is improving across sessions.

What it does

DPM monitors reaction time and variation every 15 seconds and compares each reading to the previous one. When performance drops, 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. As a coach, you cannot see the pink bar during the session. Your data is in Soma Analytics after the session. Look at MoM variation and mean RT across sessions to confirm that focus is extending and lapses are becoming less frequent.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Monitor RT, variation, and accuracy improving over time in Soma Analytics. You should see greater consistency of responses across the session as the block progresses. If all three are not moving in the right direction within 9 sessions, reduce task difficulty before progressing. The most common reason DPM stops producing adaptation is that the base task is too hard and the athlete has no stable performance level to protect.

A secondary red signal appears at random. The athlete must tap it while continuing the main task. The gap between both reaction times shows how much attention is left over.

What it does

While doing the main task, a small red signal appears in the corner of the screen at random intervals. The athlete taps any button when they see it, without stopping the main task. Soma measures both: primary task RT and DRT RT (secondary signal speed). The gap between them reveals attentional capacity. A wide gap means the main task is consuming almost everything. A narrowing gap means divided attention is improving.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Start with DRT to measure attentional capacity before jumping to TSM training. If the gap widens significantly mid-session, that is a fatigue signal. The athlete started with capacity but degraded. If the gap is very wide from the first minute, the task difficulty is too high. Reduce it before continuing.

Measures how fast the brain produces the next correct response after a mistake. The gap between error and recovery is the training signal.

What it does

After every error, Soma measures the time to the next correct response. This is EDM RT. Compare it to Task RT (average speed across the whole session). The gap between these two is your key number. A wide gap means the brain is hesitating, losing focus, or slowing down after mistakes. A narrowing gap across sessions means recovery is getting faster and more automatic.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip If EDM RT spikes while Task RT stays stable, this is a fatigue signal, not a training failure. The recovery mechanism is being disrupted by tiredness or pressure. Cross-reference against physical load that week. If the spike matches a heavy training block, you have found a cognitive fatigue signature.

The cognitive task only runs while the athlete stays inside a chosen heart rate zone. Step outside it and the task pauses.

What it does

You select a heart rate zone before the session. Soma monitors HR in real time and the task only runs while the athlete stays inside that zone. This trains the brain to maintain performance at a specific level of physical intensity. Over weeks, RT and accuracy stabilise within the chosen zone.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Start at a lower zone before moving to higher intensity. Zone 2 is a practical starting point for most athletes. The adaptation signal is RT and accuracy staying stable within the target zone across sessions. If cognitive performance declines from the very first minute in zone, the physical load is outpacing the athlete's current capacity to maintain cognitive function at that intensity. Step down one zone and build stability there before progressing. If performance holds early but degrades as time in zone accumulates, that degradation point is your training target.

Every cognitive error triggers a 5-second Zone 4 sprint. Consecutive errors stack up to 20 seconds. Mistakes carry a physical price.

What it does

Every error means an immediate sprint to Zone 4. Then the athlete must re-engage cognitively at full speed while still under physical stress. This trains three things simultaneously: raising the cost of errors above zero, training the brain to re-engage after physical exertion, and maintaining focus and accuracy under compounding fatigue.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip If PCM count falls but RT rises and variation increases, the athlete is deliberately slowing down to avoid penalties, not genuinely adapting. The target is fast, accurate responses with a falling PCM count together.

A time window opens for each response. Get faster and the window shortens. Slow down and it extends. The challenge always matches the athlete.

What it does

Every response must happen before the window closes. When the athlete is hitting responses consistently within the time, the window shortens. When they slow down or error, it extends slightly so they can reset. This creates a dynamic environment where the pressure always sits just at the edge of current ability. There is no ceiling to manually adjust.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip If accuracy falls as RT improves, the athlete is rushing, not adapting. Expand the window slightly and let precision catch up before pushing speed again. Speed and accuracy both moving in the right direction simultaneously is the only real adaptation signal.

A second cognitive task runs alongside the primary. The athlete manages two rule sets at once. The switching cost between them is the training signal.

What it does

The athlete performs their primary task while simultaneously managing a classification task: tap left for white numbers 1-5 and red odd numbers, tap right for white numbers 6-9 and red even numbers. Two RTs are measured: primary task RT and TSM RT. The gap between them is the switching cost, how much processing speed is lost when attention is split. As the athlete adapts, the gap narrows.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Do not adjust anything for the first 3 weeks. Data will look messy and that is normal and expected. After week 3: if accuracy is dropping and the gap is widening, reduce primary task intensity. If accuracy is dropping but the gap is stable, the switching is being managed but the primary task is suffering, reduce duration.

The task runs until the brain fails. Reaction time crossing 20% above baseline ends the session. How long the athlete holds is the score.

What it does

TTE runs in two phases. First, a 3-minute test sets the athlete's personal baseline RT. Then the main task runs until their reaction time consistently crosses baseline plus 20%. The session ends when the brain actually fatigues, not at a fixed time. The duration before that happens is the TTE score. It is a direct, objective measure of cognitive endurance.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip Most athletes start at around 10 seconds. That is completely normal. If TTE duration rises but accuracy falls, the athlete is extending time by degrading quality, not genuine endurance. Both must move in the right direction together.

After every correct response, the athlete sees a percentile showing how their reaction time compared to their previous correct response.

What it does

Every response becomes a pacing decision. The feedback loop is immediate. Athletes see in real time whether they speeded up, slowed down, or stayed consistent. Over sessions, they learn to feel the drift before it appears in the data and correct it themselves without waiting for a debrief.

Metrics to track

💡 Coach tip VPF trains pacing control through a continuous percentile feedback loop. After every correct response the athlete sees whether they were faster or slower than their previous correct attempt. Variation should tighten progressively as sessions accumulate. If you see very slow but highly consistent reaction times, the athlete is pacing down deliberately to stay near the top of their own percentile band. They are optimising the feedback metric rather than the actual performance. Add TPM alongside VPF to reintroduce speed pressure alongside the consistency work.

For your first block, use one mode. Don't stack modes yet.

For your second block, if the first block produced adaptation and the athlete is consistent, you can layer a second mode into one or two sessions per week. Keep the others simple.

Beyond that, experienced coaches might layer up to three modes in a single session, but this is advanced territory. Stacking modes makes it harder to tell what is driving adaptation, which makes it harder to diagnose when something isn't working.

The guidance is simple: change one variable at a time. If the data doesn't tell a clear story, you've added too much.