Keeping Your Brain Healthy: Brain-FX

Brain Break: Necessary for Learning

Rats do it, why shouldn't we? Scientist are learning what goes on in the brain of rats while learning to successfully complete a maze. And, this explains why all those time outs in sports pay off.

The experiment: Put lab rats into unfamiliar mazes and monitored their behaviors upon completion of their exploration.

Findings: The rats routinely rested after each 'test.' But their short-term memory neurons were busy at work repeatedly reviewing the maze's path - in reverse - at speeds up to 10 times faster than the original experience.

Interpretation: "This implies that it's not just during an experience that learning occurs," says David Foster, head of the research team. "If we're right, the period after the experience is just as important, but maybe more important."

"Don't feel guilty about the breaks you've been sneaking at work - they could be helping you learn." So reports Elise Kleeman in her May 2006 article in Discover magazine, titled, "Relax and Think Like a Rat," based on the work of some neuroscientists at MIT.

Next time you look at Roger Federer during a changeover, you know what his brain is doing during those 90 seconds: learning what he needs to do next.

(This post was originally seen in Barry Zweibel's Gottagettablog! under the title "In favor of (yet another) coffee break" .)

Barry writes, "All of those late-morning or mid-afternoon Starbucks' run might not be such a bad thing. Not only do they provide that added caffeine kick, but they might also be providing us the opportunity to integrate the day's learning into our longer-term memories."

Makes sense to me. I didn't really need another excuse for taking a break, but this will do nicely.

Confessions of Pete Sampras

You'd never believe it today, but Tennis Champion Pete Sampras struggled with managing his anger on the courts as a youngster.

Reported in the book Mental Training for Peak Performance by Steven Ungerleider, here's what Pete Sampras shares about his early tennis performances:

"I would lose my composure and sometimes completely blow it on the court. My dad, who was coaching me then, was very strict and basically told me that my tennis career was history if I didn't pull myself together. I also learned early on that having a tantrum on the court was very embarrassing and looks pretty bad. The other part of the emotional control equation was that when I had a flare-up, it was very hard to rebound and get back in the game. My temper got in the way of being in a focused tennis mind; it became very destructive."

Sampras is one of those rare athletes who appears to stay in total conrol on the court, regardless of the situation. But he tells young players that unless they understand the dynamics of their emotions, especially anger, they won't move to the next level of competitive play.

Here are his top tips for emotional control on the courts:

1. Keep things uncomplicated.
2. Concentrate
3. Channel your emotions
4. Let yourself move on

Tennis is all about concentration and staying focused in the moment. "I get very upset when I miss a point that is important, but I keep that upset within me," he says. "When I get a bad call by a line judge, my upset goes ballistic, but again, I keep that well contained. In order to play well, you have to learn to channel the emotions, both the highs and the very lows."

But he doesn't reveal what sorts of things he tells himself to think, feel and do in order to contain those powerful angry emotions. Maybe he should share this with John McEnroe.

For sure, you can't separate the powerful interplay of mind and body during tennis, and the distractive power of anger upon control of movements. Sports psychologists everywhere have given up on understanding how McEnroe was able to use his anger to channel his energy and win points. He was unique in this regard.