A recent study conducted on Elite Volleyball players found athletes had increased cognitive abilities compared to non-athletes. The findings revealed athletes had increased speed identifying things in their peripheral vision, enhanced memory recall, and were better able to ignore irrelevant information from distracting them from the task at hand. One particular finding showed a significant advantage women athletes had over non-athlete women at being able to detect changes in background scenes.
This study sheds light that athletes may have a distinct benefit of being able to manipulate their cognitive abilities to either aid or deter their behavior based on what is advantageous in the moment. Identifying your skill set and applying how to take advantage of it as an athlete is key to reaching peak performance. Contact Premier Sport Psychology to let us assist you in doing just that!