Whether it’s for coaches, trainers, clinicians, medical practitioners or even just someone introducing NeuroTracker to friend, here are some key tips to help get the most out of every training session. We’ll take a look at how to get new users introduced to their first session, some pointers on feedback.

Understanding Performance Needs

Particularly for performance trainers getting new users going, it’s a good idea to ask a few basic questions such as these.

• What are your short term and long-term goals?
• Are you aware of any specific strengths or weakness?
• How much time would you like to commit to training each week?
• Are there any specific skills or tasks you would like to improve at?

These types of questions can help you get a handle on your user’s perspective and their goals. This will aid you in figuring out what type of training program will lead to the quickest path to improvement.

Giving Some Perspective

Remember that NeuroTracker will probably seem like a pretty strange and abstract way to train. Rather than just diving into balls bouncing around a 3D screen, properly introducing a new user to some general concepts about NeuroTracker will capture their engagement. So before starting a session, you should always introduce some high-level concepts. These can include things like,

• Why NeuroTracker is a cutting-edge neuroscience tool
• Why the world’s best sports teams use it
• Why 3D is important
• What the key benefits will be for their performance
• What a training program involves
• How vision is so important in sports
• How even small amounts of training over time can have big impacts.

Spending a few minutes covering these points will help your user understand the potential of the training, from their own perspective.

Getting Started

Just before getting the first session going, it’s a good idea to run a few practice trials or a quick demo before a starting proper training. This is important because if they’re not quite understanding what to do, this could influence the baseline result, which is something needed to help customize training around their development trajectory.

A few highlight instructions while going through the demo should make the task crystal clear, and only take a minute or two to run through.

1. Keep your eyes focused on the center dot
2. Spread and maintain your mental attention on the highlighted targets
3. Identify those same targets when they stop moving - if you’re not sure just give your best guess
4. Be ready for speeds to change each trial, the session will adapt to your performance level.

Using the spacebar to pause the session will make it easy to explain these points in small chunks, one step at a time, as well as answer any questions. In no time your user will be well and ready to take on their first session.

Go ahead and set them off. Be sure to talk as little as possible, and try to minimize any other potential distractions around them. The very first session is an important step, and no matter how slow the speeds are, NeuroTracker will quickly starting taxing your user’s attention at threshold levels.

Going Over the Result

From a perspective of on-going feedback, the end of the first session is the probably most critical point of feedback you will ever give to your users. And because they’ve never done anything like it before, for some people it’s a scary moment where they will be worried about what it actually says about them. The frequent questions are: Did I do good? What should I expect or do? It’s important to specify that even though there is normative data, the goal is to compare your own results, nothing more.

The score is a direct representation of the threshold speed at which someone can perform NeuroTracking. If a user feels or knows that their score is low then it’s really important to put things into perspective. There are three key things to take explain here.

• Firstly, 3 sessions are needed to establish an initial NeuroTracker measure, or a baseline. So whether the first session is a high or low score, just take it with a pinch of salt.
• Secondly, the main goal is to see improvement over time, and even an initial baseline will not predict their actual potential to learn. Training over time will bring quick improvements, and with NeuroTracker, the sky is the limit!
• Thirdly, even for users with a very low baseline, there’s no bad news. It this simply means there is a lot more to gain from the benefits of NeuroTracker – imagine what it will be like to have massive gains in mental focus and awareness.

This is a good time to come back to your user’s performance goals, for example with a soccer player, improvements from NeuroTracker training could be translated to being able to more easily spot the best passing options when on the ball. Hopefully things will click with your user and they will be motivated to reap the benefits of the training program you will line up for them.

Look out for next upcoming blog in this 3 part series, where we will move onto managing sessions, setting training programs, and how to give great on-going feedback. For now, if you want to learn more about NeuroTracker speed thresholds, then you can check out the link below or you can reach me for more details here.

Your Guide to NeuroTracker Scores‍