Young basketball players are getting their brains checked at a Surrey clinic as part of an “elite sports optimization program.”
Players with North Shore Basketball Academy have gone through brain function assessments at Surrey Neuroplasticity Clinic, or SNPC, using neuroscience-based technologies to measure an athlete’s physical and cognitive abilities.
SNPC opened in 2019 as a neuro-rehabilitation clinic.
The clinic and academy have partnered to use the NeuroCatch brain-wave monitoring device as part of the Brain and Body Performance Optimization (BBPO) program.
The partnership concept came from Dr. Rick Celebrini, an internationally renowned sport and orthopedic physiotherapist.
“NeuroCatch, together with the BBPO program, can identify the most effective ways to optimize athletes to think faster and break through performance limits through deliberate practice with observable brain changes,” Celebrini says in a news release.
The BBPO program “measures several domains of cognitive and physical function in the context of the athlete’s sport,” according to the release, “and helps clinicians and coaches to develop training recommendations to enhance an athlete’s areas of challenge and leverage their areas of strength.”
The BBPO program was developed by Mathieu Gagnon, a kinesiologist at SNPC.
“These areas could be, but are not limited to, an athlete’s ability to understand balance and positioning in the game, power output, carry out pre-planned plays, plan where to put their hands or feet during sport, and keep their eyes focused on what is ahead despite passing distractions in their peripheral vision,” Gagnon said.
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