A Little Deception Helps Push Athletes to the Limit

Tom Boland/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

Kevin Thompson, head of sports and exercise science department in Northumbrian University, made an experiment with some peers. The purpose of the experiment was to challenge a kind of avatar that has been made the computer screen. In fact the avatar had a small increase in strength and speed every turn, so in this way they were forced to be faster than before. The results showed that they had gone faster than their expectations. So questions have arisen about the limits of the human body and psycho-logics effects in this process.

Professor Jo-covered University of Portsmouth in England, made a similar experiment, studying the influence of competition with other athletes, and had similar results to Dr. Thompson. Although, he said that the brain seams to save energy in some levels. To prevent the athlete from working so hard, only being released in a race ora competition that is really important. In another test this time offering money, Dr. Cobert concluded that this does not seem to improve individual performance.

Wondering what would be the ceiling for each athlete, Dr. Cobert, made another test, this time, increasing the limit of the athlete's challenge without warning, with maximum effort. They weren't able to achieve, he suggest that fool the athlete can be a good way to do it to increase your level to some extent.

Original post.