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Wed, Mar 16, 2016 6:53:41 PM

t
Brain
A
I
N
ByMatt Williams
Photos byDavid Le

Marbleheader
launches
business on the
cutting edge
of cognitive
performance
training

t first glance, the setup at Brain and Body Performance of Boston in downtown Marblehead
looks like something out of a science fiction film.
Sitting in front of a high-definition screen, clients
sport 3-D glasses and immerse themselves in a
program that looks like it came out of virtual reality.
Founder Josh Freedland knows his company on the cutting
edge of visual and cognitive training is not science fiction. This
is science fact.
At the age of 22, Freedland struck out on his own after graduating from Bates College. Hes been running Brain and Body
Performance for a little more than six months at the Marblehead
Fitness Center.
Using software he licenses from NeuroTracker (a Canadian
company at the forefront of the industry), Freedland helps athletes train their brains.
The athlete wears 3-D glasses and tracks balls as they zoom
about, in and around the screen. Each is the same color and they
move at various speeds depending on how many the athlete can
correctly identify once the balls stop moving. Some levels task
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Spring 2016

the trainee with tracking two balls and others use three.
The research shows that it can help with vision and with processing information, Freedland says of the program. The whole
idea of training the brain is picking up a lot of steam. People are
thinking, I train my body so why not my brain?
You could be the biggest, strongest and best athlete, but if
you dont have the mental part, its not going to matter, he adds.
A lifelong athlete, Freedland was a standout football player at

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Brittany Lydon, a senior at Marblehead High School, plays junior hockey for the
Boston Shamrocks and is a standout lacrosse player for the Magicians. Lydon tore
ligaments in her knee and hasnt been able to play hockey full speed for almost six
months. But shes been training with Freedland to keep her mind sharp.

Marblehead High and later at Bates. During his junior season of

collegiate football, however, he suffered a concussion. The injury
led him to alter his path of research while majoring in psychology
and also focusing on biology and health.
With his own symptoms and experiences still fresh in his mind,
he directed his attention (and his thesis research) toward the
brain. He wound up presenting his thesis at a regional sports
psychology conference at Springfield College, and it was there

that he learned about the NeuroTracker company.

After considering working directly with the company, Freedland decided to instead license it and strike out on his own. Hes
essentially a personal trainer with a focus on the mind instead
of the muscles.
I saw a study that the brain consumes something like 60 percent of our calories for energy, Freedland says. If you had a
muscle that used that much energy, it would be the No. 1 thing
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When I came back after my concussion, it felt like

everything was going 100 miles an hour. When you get
your body back, physically, its after training and rehabbing.
That whole time youre out, youre not training your brain
the way you were before. Its just like going to the gym
if you stop going, you lose what youve built up.
Josh Freedland

A lifelong
athlete,
Freedland was
a standout
football
player at both
Marblehead
High and Bates
College.
INSET: Lydon
has been
training with
Freedland to
keep her mind
sharp.

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Spring 2016

you would train.

One of Freedlands focuses is helping
athletes recover from injuries.
Client Brittany Lydon tore ligaments
in her knee and hasnt been able to play
hockey full speed for almost six months.
Shes been training her mind with Freedland to try to keep herself sharp; the
idea is that 3-D object tracking can help
simulate the quick decision-making and
fast-twitch reactions that the brain makes
while playing games at full speed.
Its interesting, says Lydon, a senior
at Marblehead High who hopes to play
in college. Ive skated a little, but I really
havent gone too fast so its hard to say
how it might work. I think doing this will
definitely help.
Not all the object tracking is done sitting down. There are several layers that
make things more difficult by asking the
body to do multiple things at once. The
trainee might stand on a balance-ball
while tracking the objects; there are sportspecific exercises, such as Lydon tracking
while handling a street hockey stick.
Another one of Freedlands clients is
a professional basketball player who can
dribble one or two basketballs at once
while tracking the objects on the screen.
When youre in a game, thats what
your mind is doing, Freedland says.
Youre basically trying to overload as
much information as possible in a training situation so when you get in a game,
its second nature.
Especially when recovering from injury,
the mental skills athletes develop over
hundreds of hours of practice and repetition wither. Preventing that is one of
Freedlands chief
focuses. He likens jumping onto
the field without
training the brain
to taking a test
without studying.
When I came
back after my
concussion, it felt
like everything
was going 100
miles an hour, he
says. When you
get your b o dy
back, physically,
its after training
and rehabbing.
That whole time
youre out, youre
not training your brain the way you were
before. Its just like going to the gym

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Marbleheads Josh Freedland is tackled by

Saugus Vinny Talluto during a game in 2008.
During his junior season in college, he suffered
a concussion. The injury led him to alter his path
of research while majoring in psychology and
also focusing on biology and health at Bates
College.

if you stop going, you lose what youve

built up.
Right now, most of Freedlands clients
are coming from word of mouth or from
his online presence. Hes looking into
adding more training methods, such as
a visor that uses strobe light technology
to train for baseball or golf. Theres also
research that shows cognitive training
could help prevent concussions and aid
in recovery; scores on the object tracking
workouts could also be used as a baseline for concussion testing (meaning, if
an athlete scores lower than he normally
does, he may be injured).
Its a pretty new area, but I feel like
in a few years this thing will be common
place. Its great for all sports; they have
teams that use it in the NHL, pro soccer,
golfers and the NBA, Freedland says.
I wish I had something like this when
I was playing.

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