An intriguing blend of science and sports that explores how some of the worlds greatest athletes are utilizing the last frontier of performance-enhancing technologyāthe mental mapping and engineering of their own brainsāfor peak performance, and what it means for the future of athleticism, sports, and the rest of us.
Moneyball showed how statistics were revolutionizing baseball. The Sports Gene revealed the role genetics play in sports. Now, Head in the Game examines the next evolution: how mental engineeringāthe manipulation of the cognitive processes of the brainācan make gifted athletes even better.
For years, technologyāfrom EEG (electroencephalogram) to fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging) to video games, tablets, and personal data collection devicesāhave been used with soldiers to understand their physical and mental functioning. Touching on brain functionality vital to sportsāboth the ""hard"" (coordination, stimuli processing, functional memory, decision-making, load-processing) and the ""soft"" (emotion regulation, visualization, psychology, mindfulness)āthis tech is now being adopted by scores of championship franchises and top athletesāincluding scrappy underdogs forced to innovate and elite players looking for an advantage.
Star NFL quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Tom Brady, the NBAās Kyle Korver, and Olympic volleyball champion Kerri Walsh are using mental engineering to up their game. Itās not luck that has transformed the San Antonio Spurs into a formidable forceāitās science, Sneed demonstrates. As mental engineering becomes widespreadātaking athletes who are already freaks of nature and making them betterāthe impact on the multi-billion dollar sports industry will be dramatic on players, managers, trainers, owners, and even fans. Interviewing athletes and coaches, visiting training camps and sports science firms, Brandon Sneed offers a firsthand, on-the-ground look at this exciting breakthrough that has the potential to transform to transform the gameāand all our lives.