The NEW Brain Science Helping Athletes to Get Ahead (Exclusive Interview)
In sports performance, we spend so much time talking about the tangible aspects size, speed, and strength, that we often overlook the colossal impact that the brain and the motor control system have on skill. Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Schonbrun. Zach wrote the book, the performance cortex, which is a deep study into the often misunderstood ways that the brain impacts sports performance. In this episode we talk about how athlete brains differ from non-athletes, what is the real meaning of genius in athletes, and why promising new technology often doesn’t get adopted by elite athletes. The Performance Cortex: https://amzn.to/4bRg1AK Zach on Twitter: https://x.com/zschonbrun Substack: https://zachschonbrun.substack.com/ Exponential Athlete Links Support the Pod on Patreon: https://patreon.com/ExponentialAthlete Twitter: https://twitter.com/athletexpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exponentialathlete/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-exponential-athlete-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4XmCCYsVVOVmRavFYT5b1C?si=4d5ed3e8abbb4ef3 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-exponential-athlete Website: https://exponentialathlete.co/ 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:28 What is the role of the brain in sports? 00:07:13 - What types of genius are there in athletes? 00:13:05 - Federer 00:18:12 - Deception with body language in sport 00:22:15 - Downside of Habits 00:24:52 - How do you measure the Brain for Sports? 00:30:41 - What is sports IQ? 00:37:11 - How to improve the brain for sport 00:39:58 - deliberate practice 00:44:17 - The problem of over coaching 00:47:20 - Training Feel 00:52:42 - The purpose of a warmup 00:59:54 - Origin Story 01:07:31 - Why are sports teams hesitant to adopt useful tech? 01:14:59 - Individual athlete vs team adoption 01:17:07 - who is open to experimentation 01:17:49 - What is the next innovation in sports performance? 01:21:53 - Sense of Touch Affiliates: Track your health data with Whoop. Get 1 month free - join.whoop.com/exponentialathlete