As a coach or trainer, it's essential to identify the cognitive demands for your athlete's sport and select tasks to meet those demands. However, simply selecting tasks is not enough to create significant changes in performance. Athletes need a cognitive training plan that not only focuses on the cognitive demands, but also provides sufficient cognitive load to drive mental adaptions that enhance their performance. This is where layering cognitive tasks comes in.
When done correctly, layering cognitive tasks can increase or decrease the overall cognitive load on the athlete's brain. This article explores the key elements of layering cognitive tasks and how they can help you create a dynamic, challenging, and engaging cognitive training plan.
Training Placement
The first layer of cognitive task layering is training placement. To keep athletes engaged, cognitive training must be easily integrated into their existing training regime. There are three main ways to place cognitive training: pre-physical training, combined with physical training, and post-physical training.
Pre Physical Training: The athlete completes the entire cognitive training session before physical training. This fatigues the brain, making physical exercise feel harder, and increases their tolerance for high-intensity demands.
Combined with Physical Training: Cognitive training is performed during rest periods after short exercise bouts during physical training or concurrently with cardiovascular training. This helps keep athletes mentally alert and taxes their limited mental capacity for both mental and physical fatigue.
Post Physical Training: Cognitive training is performed directly after physical training when the athlete is already physically and mentally fatigued. This stretches their mental abilities, preparing them for competition when they may have to perform cognitively no matter how physically exhausted they are.
Task Duration
The second layer of cognitive task layering is task duration. Changing the duration of a task will alter the overall cognitive load on the athlete's brain. By extending the task duration, even by a few minutes, the load of the session increases, and the extra minutes add up over the course of the cognitive training plan.
Task Intensity
The third layer of cognitive task layering is task intensity. The intensity of a task refers to how difficult the task is to complete. The cognitive load on the brain can be increased by using more difficult tasks or increased task difficulty, such as completing the task faster or under more challenging conditions.
Specialized Training Modes
The final layer of cognitive task layering is specialized training modes. Specialized training modes can push an athlete's brain to its limits and ensure that the cognitive training plan is dynamic, challenging, and engaging.
In summary, the inclusion of layered cognitive tasks is essential in creating a dynamic and captivating cognitive training regimen for athletes. By leveraging the four layers of specialized training modes, task duration, task intensity, and task placement, you can elevate your athlete's physical and cognitive performance.
To Summarise
🏋️♀️ Coaches and trainers must identify cognitive demands for athletes' sports and select tasks to meet those demands.
🧠 Layering cognitive tasks can increase or decrease the overall cognitive load on the athlete's brain, and can help create a dynamic, challenging, and engaging cognitive training plan.
💪 Training placement can be done in three ways: pre-physical training, combined with physical training, and post-physical training.
⏰ Task duration can be extended to increase the cognitive load on the athlete's brain over the course of the cognitive training plan.
🔥 Task intensity refers to how difficult the task is to complete and can be increased to add to the cognitive load on the brain.
🌟 Specialized training modes can push an athlete's brain to its limits and ensure that the cognitive training plan is dynamic, challenging, and engaging.
💡 Inclusion of layered cognitive tasks is essential in creating a dynamic and captivating cognitive training regimen for athletes.