Case Study: United States Ski & Snowboard Association

For Olympic ski jumpers, every inch — every fraction of an inch — can mean the difference between a gold medal or going home empty handed. The United States Ski & Snowboard Association tapped Halo Neuroscience to design a Neuropriming program focused on the unique demands of these athletes.

The Challenge: Time Constraints & Injury Risk

Training ski jumpers presents unique challenges. Between chair rides, setup times, and unpredictable weather conditions, training runs can be limited.

When athletes are traveling 100+ meters through the air at high speeds, each additional rep comes with added injury risk.

The Partnership

“Our interest in Halo Sport is driven by the potential of Neuropriming to increase the rate of skill acquisition, allowing for greater gains during valuable on-snow sessions and perhaps even fewer total sessions, reducing our exposure to injury,” says Luke Bondensteiner, Executive Vice President of Athletics.

Halo Neuropriming technology was paired with a vertical jump program, focusing on improving the smoothness of athletes’ jumps. As an athlete learns to maximize efficient energy transfer, the results are greater net impulse (i.e. change in momentum) during the jumping motion and increased propulsive force. In addition, jump entropy decreases, meaning jumps become more even and coordinated.

The Results

Ski jumpers training with Halo Sport saw a 31% improvement in their propulsion force (1.7x improvement over sham control group) and a 25% decrease in jump entropy (1.8x improvement over sham control group). “Seeing these results is extremely exciting for everyone. We definitely see Halo Sport becoming an important tool in how we train our athletes,” says Bodensteiner.

About the United States Ski & Snowboard Association

The US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) is the national governing body of Olympic skiing and snowboarding. It is the parent organization of the US Ski Team and US Snowboarding Team.