همه ما لحظه هایی را شاهد بوده ایم که در یک مسابقه شانه به شانه و در آخرین ثانیه ها ورزشکاران به خود فشاری به ظاهر ناممکن می آورند تا بتوانند مسابقه را برنده شوند. اکنون یک براورد علمی جدید چنین القا می کند که این قابلیت ورزشکاران نتیجه نیاز مغز آنها به برنده شدن است.

دکتر جو کوربت از دانشگاه پورتسموث [انگلستان]، دریافت که رمز آن فوران انرژی در بدن بی رمق ورزشکاران در لحظه های تعیین کننده در این است که مغز به انبارهای ذخیره انرژی اناروبیک [ناهوازی – زنده و فعال بدون دسترسی به غذا و هوا] بدن دست می برد.

یافته ها نشان داد حتی هنگامی که ورزشکاران به مرحله خستگی مفرط جسمی رسیده بودند، آنها هنوز قادر بودند تا به منابع ذخیره شده انرژی اناروبیک دسترسی بیابند. سامانه انرژی اناروبیک تامین کننده انرژی در هنگام عدم وجود اکسیژن بوده و برای تامین سریع و توانمند انفجارهایی از انرژی به کار می رود.

دکتر کوربت، یک مدرس ارشد فیزیولوژی کاربردی ورزش در دانشکده ورزش و علم تمرین، این مطالعه را با این هدف انجام داد تا دریابد که دقیقا چه چیزی در یک دوچرخه سوار کلید می خورد تا او بتواند در یک سابقه شانه به شانه با کسی سریعتر برود.

در این مطالعه، چاپ شده در "جورنال اف مدیسین اند ساینس این اسپرتز اند اکسرسایز،" (مجله علمی پزشکی و علم ورزش و تمرین) ورزشکارانی که با کسی مسابقه می دادند قادر بودند فورانی از انرژی در خود بیابند تا عملکرد آنها را 7/1 درصد بهبود دهد. در رده های بالای ورزشی این [میزان بهبود عملکرد] می تواند تفاوت میان برد و باخت باشد.

دکتر کوربت گفت: "بیشتر ورزشکاران می دانند که آنها در هنگام رقابت می توانند بهتر عمل کنند، اما تا این هنگام ما نمی دانستیم که دقیقا چرا. ما [اکنون] دریافته ایم که ورزشکاران می توانند برای شکست دادن رقیب به منابع انرژی اناروبیک خود دسترسی بیابند." [ادامه در زیر ...]

[در زیرتر کتابی منتشر شده در سال 2010 توسط یک استاد دانشگاه گلف کانادا معرفی می شود که در آن وی توضیح می دهد ورزشکاران برای برنده شدن باید چگونه مغز خود را آموزش دهند...]

It's All in the Mind - How an Athlete Wins Head-To-Head Competition

University of Portsmouth News | Oct 7, 2011

We’ve all seen the moment an athlete pushes themselves at the last second to try and win a head-to-head race, and now a sports scientist has discovered how they do that.

Dr Jo Corbett from the University of Portsmouth has found the secret to that winning burst lies in the exhausted athlete’s brain tapping into the body’s anaerobic energy stores.

The results showed that even when an athlete had reached physical fatigue they were still able to dip into stored anaerobic energy. The anaerobic energy system provides energy in the absence of oxygen and is used for fast, powerful bursts of energy.

Dr Corbett, a senior lecturer in applied exercise physiology from the Department of Sport and Exercise Science, conducted a study to find out what exactly triggers a cyclist to go faster when they are competing against someone head-to-head.

In his study, published in the Journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, sportsmen racing against someone else managed to find an extra burst of energy that increased their performance by 1.7 percent. At top level sport this can be the difference between winning or being unplaced.

Dr Corbett said: “Most sportspeople know they perform harder and better when they are competing, but until now we didn’t know precisely why.

“We’ve found out that an athlete is able to dip further into their anaerobic energy reserves in order to beat their opponent.

“Whenever you do exercise you’re likely to think ‘how much am I willing to hurt myself?’ and there’s usually a point which holds you back because you don’t want to do yourself irreparable damage. But when racing someone head-to-head the athlete’s brain can manipulate this signal and keep on going.”

Participants were instructed to complete a 2000 metre cycle in the quickest time possible, in front of a computer screen showing an avatar of themselves doing the ride on a virtual race-course. They had to repeat this exercise on five different occasions.

On the final occasion the cyclists were told to race against another individual behind a partition whose avatar was also being projected onto the same virtual race course in front of them. Despite thinking they were racing someone else – participants were in fact competing against their own previous best time.

Out of 14 cyclists participating 12 of them performed significantly faster in the final race - when they believed they were competing against an opponent. They finished with a burst of speed to ensure their victory and the average speed of most increased from 38.4km/h per hour to 39km/h. Dr Corbett said: “In each race the participants cycled vigorously until they were completely exhausted but it was only in the last race, when they were unknowingly competing against themselves, they were able to race even harder.

“When an athlete finishes exercising they are almost always left with a physiological energy reserve but our results show that head-to-head competition provides the motivation to tell the brain to eat into a greater part of this reserve.”

Prof Tells How to Train Your Brain in New Book

April 13, 2010 – University of Guelph News Release

Never mind age, social status or IQ. Anyone can fine-tune their brain to perform at a higher level, according to a new book by a University of Guelph neuroscientist.

It's not unlike training muscles in the body: for optimal results, you focus on strengthening the parts that enhance performance the most, said Mark Fenske, a professor in Guelph’s Department of Psychology who co-authored The Winner’s Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success with fellow Harvard-trained brain expert Jeff Brown.

The Guelph launch of the book will be May 12 at 7 p.m. at The Bookshelf in downtown Guelph.

In the brain, boosting function means learning how to flex the parts involved in operations that are critical for success, such as those related to focus, memory, adaptability, emotional control and self-awareness. And the more you learn about the brain and how to best exercise it, the more you can improve its condition.

“In the past, it was believed that the brain was relatively ‘hard-wired,’ that the capacity of the brain to change and develop was severely limited past adolescence,” Fenske said.

“We now know that is not true. Each of our brains retains the characteristic of neuroplasticity — the capacity for changes to its physical structure and function — well into adulthood.”

The Winner’s Brain includes strategies for reshaping the brain and improving function in areas associated with success, such as motivation, optimal risk-taking and resilience. It also explores the brain science behind such factors and includes interviews with famous and not-so-famous people who have developed “winning brains.” Subjects include blues legend B.B. King, actor Laura Linney, Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug, FBI agents and even cab drivers on the streets of London.

“Across the board, what these people have in common is that they have trained their minds to reach their maximum potential,” said Fenske. This involves teaching the brain to do everything from focusing to shut out crowds of thousands to bouncing back from rejection with passion and determination.

His role in the book involved identifying the latest science behind “the winning brain.” A U of G professor since 2007, he uses neuroimaging and studies human behaviour to examine how the brain’s attention and emotion systems can enhance performance. Brains that perform successfully really do “light up” differently in brain scans and perform more efficiently, he said.

In the book, Fenske discusses how the structure and function of the brain is altered as a result of how it’s used. For example, it’s known that cab drivers in London have more developed hippocampuses — the area of the brain involved in memory and spatial navigation — than other people. And musicians who are able to improvise can shut down the portions of the brain correlated with self-consciousness in the process of composing on the fly.

The book’s message is simple: anyone can transform their thinking, feelings and behaviour and even the physical structure of their brain. “We all have a brain, and how it functions depends in part on what you choose to do with it,” he said.