Neuro athletic training: The secret to sporting success?

Mario Götze runs into the penalty area in the 113th minute, takes Andre Schürrle's perfect cross with his chest and skillfully slots the ball with his left foot into the back of the net. It is the winning goal for Germany at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and secures a long-awaited title — a goal for the history books.

On the sidelines of the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the bench players and coaching staff can hardly believe their luck. The celebrations are boundless.

"When Mario was substituted on, I knew: 'Now we've done it!'" recalls Lars Lienhard in an interview with DW. "It was a very exciting and incredibly emotional experience."

Lienhard is an expert in neuro athletics and was an integral part of Germany's delegation at the 2014 World Cup. He works with athletes on motion-controlling components of the central nervous system. The sports scientist trains the brain and as a result optimizes combinations of movements in people. He trained players like Götze or defenders Per Mertesacker and Benedikt Höwedes.

"With Mario, it was all about perceptual processes, i.e. the visual system, the balance system and the orientation in and perception of space," Lienhard explains.

Whether the neuro-centered training, which Götze had already integrated into his daily routine before the World Cup, had any influence on his perfect movement sequences in Argentina's penalty area is not certain, but it probably didn't hurt.

The brain controls every movement

At first glance, neuro athletics seems to be a highly complex type of training, but it is actually quite simple. All movements a person makes are controlled by the brain. To ensure that these instructions function as smoothly and perfectly as possible, neuro athletic trainers train the brain.

"Athletic training prepares the physical components of an athlete for a competitive situation," Lienhard explains. "What does the body need to do to place a good shot? How many changes of direction does a right back need to master?"

But every sport and every discipline also has neural requirements, Lienhard says. "So what does the brain need to do to optimally execute a certain movement?"

That is what neuro athletics is all about, he says, "because the brain determines how a muscle is used." And not just to optimize performance, but also to prevent injury or accelerate healing.

"For example, if a person has shoulder problems, we don't look at what's structurally broken in the shoulder, we look at: What systems in the brain are regulating the tension around the shoulder?"

That could be the opposite midbrain, or the balancing mechanism in the middle ear, Lienhard says. "We activate those areas of the brain via sensory information. Then we look at whether anything changes in the shoulder. We address the switching system that has an impact on the symptoms."

The tools needed for mental training are quite often simple and can be found in any household. A string, a ruler or a a simple pencil are often all that is required to stimulate and train certain areas of the brain. For example, athletes can track a pencil with their eyes, activating certain areas of the brain. This is a way information is transmitted to the brain through the eyes.

"But what then happens in the brain is a bit more complex," Lienhard explains. "Still, sometimes it's very simple exercises where you think: 'no, really?'"

Growing popularity among German athletes

Many athletes use mental training not only to improve their own performance, but also to prevent injuries.

Rebekka Haase is one of the fastest sprinters in Germany and is currently partaking in a training camp in Gran Canaria with the national sprinting team. For the last seven years, Haase has integrated mental training into her life as an athlete. Especially after long trips, she does certain exercises to keep her mind and body sharp.

"After air travel, it's often about restoring my balance system. As a result, I can train much better and more precisely," she tells DW.

The German sprinter also does exercises before her competitions, even if it may look strange.

"If you twist your head, push your jaw in a different direction or have your tongue hanging out somewhere, I'm sure the cameramen are very happy," says Haase. "But I just do it now no matter how silly it looks."

People aren't always sold on this new training method from the start. Lienhard often meets skeptical people — like German sprinting coach Jörg Möckel.

Möckel is well acquainted with David Storl, an Olympic silver medalist and a two-time world champion in shot put who, in 2014, called him to tell him about a new training method.

"He said: 'There is someone who does strange exercises with me, and after I did certain things better,'" Möckel recalls of his phone conversation with Storl.

The coach wanted to see it for himself and got in his car to see Storls training with Lienhard for himself.

"I tried two hours to prevent Lars [Lienhard] from doing anything stupid with [Storl]," the sprinting coach tells DW. "What he was doing did not make sense to me but in the end was successful."

Once Möckel started doing the exercises, he understood the sense and use behind mental training. Neuro-centered training has been an integral part of Germany's sprinting team.

Lienhard: 'We are just beginning'

The list of athletes that trust in mental training is long and not dependent on the type of sport. Whether it's German tennis star Alexander Zverev, footballers like Jamal Musiala or the best track and field athletes in the country, they all use neuro-centric training.

"It's not where it should be yet," Lienhard thinks. "Neuro athletics belongs not only in elite sports, but also in recreational and rehabilitation sports and sports therapy."

In these areas, he says, people have particularly motion disorders, and neuro athletics can help. That's why Lienhard is certain: "We are just beginning."

 

This article was adapted from German