“Challenge your mind as much as you challenge your body.”
Today we are excited to introduce a whole new category of drills on HomeCourt: Mental Agility Drills. 6 new drills that combine our patented HomeCourt AI and augmented reality experience with math and spelling exercises that help the athletes practice both their cognitive skills and physical skills at the same time.
We also know that during this crazy time parents, in particular, are looking for creative ways to keep their kids stay entertained, healthy, and sharp. We hope that these activities can help with all 3 during this summer.
What is Mental Agility?
In sports, particularly team sports, new stimulus and information is constantly being presented to an athlete for them to respond in real-time. Players need to always be on their toes and be ready to quickly adapt and change as new information is presented to them.
Whether that’s a new defender, a back-door cut, or a teammate sneaking into an open space, these constant shifts in the game require athletes to have the cognitive flexibility to make the right decisions, much like they need physical agility to respond to different physical inputs.
You can find more in-depth research on Cognitive Flexibility here from the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.
Mental agility is a term we use to represent the work that goes into improving cognitive flexibility which is described in research as the “mental ability to switch between thinking about two different concepts and to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.”
Our new mental agility drills challenge users to exercise their cognitive functions and physical functions at the same time. The ability to maintain sharp focus while being physically tired is key to being successful when it matters the most in many crunch-time game situations.
Why did we start with math and spelling?
Don’t worry. We’re just getting started. Physics next!
J/K.
But honestly, we have a lot of parents involved in building our technology at HomeCourt and the COVID-19 crisis has made many of us here acutely aware that not only are the usual summer sporting activities not available, but many of the academic activities will be on hiatus as well.
We felt that if we could help players try an activity that gets them moving (with or without a ball), work on their mental agility (a key skill to start developing in any sport), while also helping them practice some math and spelling in a super fun and engaging way; well, that's a win-win-win across the board.
However, it's not just for kids! Anyone from competitive athletes to fitness gurus can benefit.
We can’t wait to hear your feedback. Go update or download the HomeCourt app now to give it a try.
