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| Henry Boulton |
Ask a PGA Tour player how much he can bench-press, and you'll likely get a fast, specific answer. But how do you quantify "soft" skills like mental performance and emotional resilience—which are arguably more important to winning? A handful of players are doing this with the technology in the FocusBand—a wearable device that tracks emotional state and stress response through electroencephalography readings. It might sound like science fiction, but Jason Day used one of the devices to build his distinctive eye-fluttering pre-shot routine—which he credits for moving him into a calm, hyper-focused state.
Australian electronics engineer Henry Boulton developed the FocusBand with his father, Graham, in 2009. "We were coaching some guys on the Australian and Japanese tours, and they had all the technique, fitness and diet, but they'd get to a tournament and fall apart. We started looking for products that would address the mental side, and we couldn't find one. So we built our own."
Three sensors inside a bioprene headband measure brain activity and link the data to a smartphone app. By following the app's exercises and responding to visual cues and sounds, the user can learn to change the reading on the app's brain avatar from red (thinking) to green (creative). Boulton calls this green state mushin, Japanese for the "zone" or "no-mindedness."
The ability to measure brainwaves has been around since the 1920s, but interpreting these waves for the average consumer is a new frontier in performance training. The system a user gets with the FocusBand, while basic, offers analysis at the level you'd get with a body-tracking device like Fitbit.
"Once we defined the process, we were able to score the process," says Boulton, who splits his time between Brisbane, Australia, and Aliso Viejo, Calif. "If you can change your scores you can change your results. Once you get those results, you get belief. That's the edge the top players are looking for."
The device costs $600. Users can download apps specific to golf, yoga, baseball or general mental performance. Boulton is testing the newest FocusBand element, GPS Brain Tracka, which will allow users to review their brain state with each shot—showing the lift or hangover that comes with each outcome. Call it a real-time mental scorecard. "Usually, the starting point for training has been technique," Boulton says. "You start with technique, work on fitness and then finish with mind training. We're showing that you should be training the mind first. Get your mind right, and everything will get better together." —Matthew Rudy
