Protecting an athlete’s head has been a growing concern, especially over the last few years with new information from studies conducted on brain impacts. Nothing will change the fact that a contact sport like football is a place where accidents do happen and players get hurt.
However, having the proper equipment and technology behind assessing those injuries is key in the prevention and gradual decrease of head injuries across the sport, but the development of someone’s cognitive potential could be just as important as protecting these athletes. That is, making the correct decisions, visualizing your next move and training your brain to anticipate and calculate. The mind is the driving force for all successful athletes. And it needs to be trained like any other muscle. It is a lot like hitting the gym and athletes are about to get a huge push in the cognitive training direction.
Yesterday, a partnership between XOS Digital, Inc., a coaching technology provider for sports organizations and Axon Sports, a company specializing in athletic cognitive training, was launched. The power of the XOS Thunder Platform and Axon’s training applications will offer insight into the cognitive abilities and training of these athletes.
“We are excited to be working with Axon Sports,” said Matt Bairos, CEO of XOSDigital. “We believe this integration offers a unique advantage to teams that are looking to improve the accuracy and speed of their players’ decision making.”
Axon Sports designs these programs and applications to train cognitive skills in sport. In order to unlock and understand the power of the athletic brain, multiple elite athletes across sports such as baseball, football, rugby, soccer and many others have been involved with the company. In order to better understand the player’s decisions, XOS Digital plays the role of the “instant replay” in the sense that the coaching platform will be able to provide video footage of the decisions made by the athlete.
Once the key training content is identified using the XOS Thunder Platform, it will be automatically integrated into Axon’s cognitive training system. The footage will also include virtual reality content which is the first of its kind in terms of VR cognitive training for elite football. The targeted training sessions used by Axon Sports will include real game and practice situations that the player will be able to practice hundreds of times.
“This partnership will provide organizations an all-in-one virtual reality and cognitive training module,” said Jason Sada, President of Axon Sports, “Together, we are dedicated to help programs get their athletes better prepared off the field.”
With the partnership between Axon Sports and XOS Digital the two will specifically be targeting collegiate and NFL football teams to start. This is also the next move in a string of strategic partnerships by Axon. Whether it’s a deal with entrepreneur Mark Cuban, a partnership with Football Focus, an entrance into the baseball training world, or pushing its own version of a sports oriented mobile application, Axon Sports has been nothing short of active in the athlete cognitive training space.
The pillar of athlete training that will never cease to be true is that training the mind is just as important as training the body. Making the correct decisions quickly and efficiently is key in being a successful athlete both on and off the field. The partnership between Axon Sports and XOS Digital is only the beginning as it begins to branch off to other sports. But for now, the companies will aim to provide the necessary tools for athletes to lead with their mind and win through cognitive strength.