Prime Your Brain to Be a Step Ahead

A few hundred years ago, things like water pumps driven by steam engines did a lot of the work that powered society. A concept that came from that era is still with us today as a metaphor. It is the concept of “priming a pump”. Usually, we are hoping to use a pump to get water from one place to another. But, in order to do it with some of these pumps you had to sacrifice a little water up front to get the process started. Water that had been in a key area of the pump may have evaporated since the last time the pump was used. This allowed air in and the air would ruin the suction effect that the pump needed to do its job. A little bit of water was poured into the pump to solve this problem and to create the suction needed to start drawing the water out effectively.

With that concept, we have a metaphor we can use in many situations where we take some action in order to be ready to later do some other things more efficiently.

An extreme example of this can be seen in a story often told about Abraham Lincoln. He is said to have stated “give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Current scholars believe this quote is apocryphal. Yet, it is often repeated today because it reflects the wisdom of properly preparing in advance of executing a task. One could call it getting “primed” for the task. Per this quote, the fastest way to get a tree chopped down is to prepare your axe for the first two thirds of the allotted time.

Luckily, priming one’s brain for a task doesn’t take very long at all. In a laboratory, scientists can measure the influence of providing the brain content related to some concept. For example, if one exposes a research subject to water-related words such as “stream” and “fish”, then they are more likely to interpret the word “bank” as a riverbank than they would be in the absence of the prior exposure of those water-related words. Without that exposure to water-related words immediately beforehand, the idea that tends to come to mind when one hears the word bank is that of a financial institution. Likewise, exposing yourself to the very movement skill details that you are about to practice primes you to produce high quality technique during practice.

We have many rituals in sports that are intended to assist in getting individuals ready to perform. They help to get the mind into a state that supports performing closer to the best that our skills are capable of. But, are we doing all that we can to help athletes to be in a good state to get the most out of practice sessions? VISYN created a product to solve this problem and it is our Physical Practice Priming Technique NeuroStreams (Practice Primers)!

In order to understand how Practice Primers fit in, let’s understand what VISYN provides in general.

VISYN allows you to practice in your head before you physically practice your sport biomechanics. It’s mental practice delivered through NeuroStreams, first of a kind neuroscience driven experiences that feature Visual Reps. By design, Visual Reps provide a repetition training effect like physical practice, and there are no limitations so you can practice anywhere, anytime, any condition. We call it NeuroStream Training and it delivers a higher quality and more efficient way to train. Practice in your head with NeuroStream Training means watching neuroscience engineered videos along with guided and controlled advanced mental imagery. It will make your physical practice more effective by establishing and strengthening neural pathways and developing a superior cognitive model.

NeuroStream Training includes as mentioned Practice Primers and also Unlimited Practice Technique NeuroStreams (Unlimited Practices). Unlimited Practices are for sequenced learning through a skills and subskills hierarchy that deeply ingrains technique with intensive repetitions.

Practice Primers are a short format design for use just before and during physical practice to prime your brain. You get quick visuals that give you just enough training to optimize your physical practice. Simply put, your physical practice will be more effective when you have primed your brain. This priming puts you in a learning state of mind and activates your neuropathways so they are revved up and ready to go. You will be in the groove before you hit the golf course, rink, field, gym, etc. You are ready for effective practice; each rep will be of a higher quality.