Improving sport performance through visual training
Research fellow Thorben Hülsdünker leads the Sport and Exercise Science Programme at LUNEX University. For the past 6 years, he has been researching neural diagnostics and visual and visuomotor training methods for top-level athletes. His last project has recently been published in Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, one of the highest ranked journals in the field.
Stroboscopic training
What is Stroboscopic Training?
Stroboscopic training uses so-called shutter glasses that change between clear and opaque states. During the training task, this reduces the amount of visual information and enforces the brain to use the remaining input more efficiently.
In a video of the Luxembourg Science Center, T. Hülsdünker explains the science behind stroboscopic eyewear.
Stroboscopic research
How do elite athletes benefit from stroboscopic training?
Hülsdünker conducted two experiments with top-level youth and adult badminton players. Both studies indicate that stroboscopic training improves visuomotor performance and reaction speed by accelerating visual perception in the brain. Since the visual system is often not specifically trained, stroboscopic training provides a promising training approach for elite sports.
The latest study with elite youth badminton players was conducted in collaboration with the German Sport University Cologne and is introduced in the video below.
Future projects
Elite athletes perform in multisensory environments not only including visual but also auditory information. A recent project is thus investigating how the brain’s visual and auditory systems work together when initiating reactions under critical time pressure. Another line of research will further evaluate the short-term performance enhancing effects of stroboscopic eyewear on visual and visuomotor function. These projects follow the objective to unravel neural processes determining sport performance and making neuroscientific technology available for diagnostics and training in elite sports.
Learn more about the research of Thorben Hülsdünker, Research Fellow at LUNEX University, on stroboscopic training.
Featured image : Research fellow Thorben Hülsdünsker © LUNEX University