LENEXA, Kan. — The Will to Succeed Foundation is offering a brain test for student athletes in the metro. The new technology is called ‘Dynavision 2’ or ‘D-2’, and it could potentially benefit athletes when it comes to concussions.
12-year-old Ryan Linkletter boosted his batting average from .300 to .455 in three weeks, but instead of a batting cage, he used a test where his brain is trained by a series of flashing lights.
“In baseball it’s helped me hit better and allowing me to get to faster balls when I’m fielding. For football it helps me as a linebacker get to tackle at the line not passed it. In basketball its helping me see the court a lot better,” said Linkletter.
Sounds almost too good to be true, but Travis Worley says he’s tested hundreds of athletes and it works by improving peripheral vision.
“Ryan is going to do a test that Johnny Bench created. It’s for baseball players. We speed up reaction time so that on the field he performs better,” said Worley.
And when you improve reaction time you prevent injuries, mainly concussions.
Kate Linkletter plays softball, and she wears a face mask in the infield. She’s taken hits to the face and has seen even worse.
“A girl got a hard line drive to the head and her face was bloody and a mess,” said Kate.
When Kate started training on the D-2, she saw one skill improve drastically; her focus.
The first test only takes a couple minutes, and when you are finished, you have a baseline reading. So if you ever get a concussion, doctors will know by retesting when you are ready to go back in the game.
But if you keep training, even adding some elements that increase stress testers say you can improve concentration in all areas of your life. And coaches, who test their players under stressful situations, can even tell a bit about their personalities, and what coaching styles they respond best to.
“I would bring you to the sidelines and say, ‘I recruited you for a reason. You are getting beat out there. You can do this. Get back out on the field go.’ That would motivate you,” said Worley.
And with a little bit of training testers say your reactions are so good that your chance of ever getting a concussion drops by 80 percent.
“They want to do all these different things to help kids after they get a hit. What if we could keep them from getting hit?” Said Worley.