UCLA women’s golf has dabbled in psychology for years, regularly working with mental health coach Jeff Troesch to help its athletes improve their mental approach to the game.
On Tuesday, the team took its first foray into the field of neuroscience by incorporating SenseLabs’ Versus into its training — a product that aims to train and develop the brain with the aim of improving athletic performance. After SenseLabs, then known as Neurotopia, Inc., approached the team with a pilot program in 2011, the Bruins began experimenting with an earlier version of Versus in 2012, and now aims to put the product into regular use this season.
Versus — which costs about $750 per unit — is a headset resembling a pair of over-ear headphones that has rubber probes which track various types of brain activity, sending data to an iPad. After identifying their brains’ strengths and weaknesses, users play customized games on the iPad by altering their thought processes to stimulate certain regions of the brain; the headset records brain waves and translates them visually on-screen — in the form of cars moving, planes flying, etc.
“As an example, say I’m looking to elicit a certain type of brain wave in the prefrontal cortex because I have a tendency to overthink things and am too stressed,” Troesch said. “I want to elicit a different type of activity in that area … and if I do so, the game will give me real-time feedback in the form of points.”
Troesch said the goal of Versus is to be a sort of “strength-and-conditioning for the brain,” to improve athletes’ underlying brain physiology and teach them to replicate certain internal environments that help them succeed. For example, last spring the women’s golf team experienced a 60 percent reduction in putting errors which it attributed to its focus on mental training, according to coach Carrie Forsyth.
Athletes will couple their use of Versus with Troesch’s ongoing sports psychology work, which focuses specifically on influencing specific thought processes on the golf course.
With their acceptance of Versus this week, UCLA became the second collegiate team in the nation to begin using such a product. The men’s golf team will also begin using this product later this year.
Troesch said that he sees significant potential for such a product in both the professional and collegiate markets, and SenseLabs has received numerous inquiries from athletes and teams around the world about its product.
“We’ve had (Versus) out there in beta testing for a while with a few professional franchises and some individual athletes,” Troesch said. “But we’re only now beginning to truly roll this out and meet demand. This is the dawn of (this product) in sports in general.”
Compiled by Anay Dattawadkar, Bruin Sports reporter, with contributing reports by Claire Fahy, Bruin Sports senior staff.