Sports

Tuesday, July 10 2012

Sport mentality.- Elite sport people, especially those considered as «cracks», usually have a champion’s mentality that drives them towards major sport successes.

These are the conclusions reached by a team of researchers from the University of Kassel in Germany led by Dr. Norbert Hagemann. Dr. Hagemann, an specialist in Sport Psychology, and his colleagues analysed the brain mechanism of elite sport men and women showing that their decision-making skills are faster than everybody else’s.

Researchers have analysed the decision making process and vision of the game of a number of elite footballers to understand that they are trained to react in a fast manner and to have a global vision of the game since they are children. Therefore, footballers are able to place the position of other players on the pitch, analyse several options to pass or receive the ball and take decisions in question of seconds.

On the other hand, a tennis player has to bear in mind different factors like trajectories, spatial vision and the speed of the wind, which also force them to analyse different aspects making the most of their brain.

After a few years developing sport, this analysis is conducted in an instinctive manner while the brain of the sport people reached a level of analysis and global vision superior to most of people.