Can your brain help prevent an ACL tear on the field?

Mar 22

ACL, Brain help prevention, field, Visual Spatial Processing

To read the original article, click here

In addition to impacting sports performance at all levels, dynamic cognitive abilities like Visual Spatial Processing have also been found to correlate with injury risk for elite athletes. This ability includes analyzing visual information and understanding spatial relationships. Visual spatial skills help people find their orientation in space by taking in information from the world around them. It also helps athletes remain aware of their body mechanics during game play.

This interesting article builds upon research indicating that weaknesses in specific cognitive abilities make athletes more prone to certain injuries, like a non-contact ACL tear. This particular study found that weaker visual memory, in particular, was correlated with soccer players having a larger knee valgus angle during side-cuts, thereby placing the athlete at greater risk of an ACL injury.

It makes sense that players who have poor visual spatial skills would be more likely to struggle with their body mechanics/neuromuscular control. In many sports (e.g., football, basketball, soccer), athletes must use their visual-spatial skills to properly track and plan movement while coordinating motor tasks to evade opponents. If their awareness of the location, angle, or acceleration of their opponents is poor, it can lead them to display higher-risk lower extremity mechanics, creating an increased likelihood of ACL (or other) injury.

Given that quick side-cut motions are ubiquitous in many sports, it is important that visual spatial skill levels are properly identified, so that coaches can tailor strategies to minimize injury risk and optimize performance.

To learn more about how the AIQ measures Visual Spatial Processing and other dynamic cognitive abilities with deeper precision, check out aiq.team.

#NFL #NBA #EPL #MLS #USWNT #USMNT #AIQ

Dr. James Bowman, Psy.D.

Dr. Bowman earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from James Madison University, and a Master’s degree and Psy.D. in School Psychology from St. John’s University. He has been a NYS Licensed Psychologist since 2007. For the past 12+ years, he has worked extensively with children and adolescents as a NYS Certified School Psychologist for the Great Neck Public Schools. This has involved performing comprehensive, individually-administered psychological evaluations, interpreting academic, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral profiles, and writing psychological reports to guide instructional planning. In his role as a school psychologist, he has also been responsible for providing individual and group counseling to students, as well as consulting with parents, teachers, and other professionals. Dr. Bowman has provided therapy and counseling in a variety of settings for children, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Bowman received training in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) at the Albert Ellis Institute, where he served as a fellow and staff therapist for 4 years. In addition to providing individual and group therapy and co-leading workshops with Dr. Ellis, Dr. Bowman received advanced training and certification in child and adolescent therapy and drug addiction treatment.

Dr. Bowman also received supervisory certification enabling him to train other professionals in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. He has also provided individual and family therapy to children, adolescents, and adults in private practice for over 10 years. Dr. Bowman is the creator of the Athletic Intelligence Quotient (AIQ), an intelligence test that assesses the innate cognitive abilities that are most utilized in attaining, developing, and applying athletic skills, strategies, and tactics. The test is being used by Olympic, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, and MLB teams, as well as multiple Power 5 Universities and E-Sport teams. In addition to his school and clinical work, Dr. Bowman has also taught undergraduate and graduate students at Long Island University in the College of Education and Information Sciences. This has involved preparing future special education teachers in matters such as differentiated instruction, assessment and intervention planning, and special education law. While a graduate student at St. John’s, Dr. Bowman worked closely with Dr. Dawn Flanagan, a leader in the field of intellectual ability assessment. This included serving as her graduate teaching assistant, responsible for teaching future school psychologists about the use of intellectual ability (IQ) tests. It also involved participating in an expert consensus study of intellectual abilities and contributing to the text, The Achievement Test Desk Reference (ATDR; Flanagan, Ortiz, Alfonso, & Mascolo, 2002). Later, he participated in a co-norming project of two of the most widely used measures of intellectual ability. He also gained valuable experience in neuropsychological assessment, conducting evaluations of children and adults with traumatic brain injuries, learning disabilities, and other neurological disorders. Due to his strong knowledge and interest in theories of intelligence, he chose to investigate the role of emotional intelligence as a predictor of school psychologists’ clinical competence for his doctoral dissertation research. His specialties include: Intellectual Ability Assessment; Psychological Assessment; Anxiety Disorders; Depressive Disorders; Children and Adolescents; Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

Can your brain help prevent an ACL tear on the field?

Think you could learn an NFL Playbook? Maybe.