Tennis Ball Drills for Cognitive Training

I'm gonna give you this tennis ball.

Yeah.

And for the whole time, I want you to throw the ball with an

overhand grip.

Oh, like this?

Yep.

Okay.

So I want you to just throw it with the right arm and catch with the right arm.

Over... I mean, what's this one saying?

Left-handed arm.

I'm just checking the wall. Okay.

Okay, so catch it-

Yep

... like this?

So you might wanna move back where the chair is. Okay, no, you're good.

Cut that. Cut that

out.

Good. So now throw with the right and catch with the left and

alternate.

Yep.

Oh, okay.

You've got it. So what we're doing, we're engaging almost all the

executive functions now you've got.

Cut that out.

And you should be able to do this for a minute. Okay?

Okay.

Okay, so basically what you wanna do...

And if you do it with a black ball, it's actually, oh, even better.

So now we're gonna make it a bit hard and a bit neurally demanding.

We're gonna put an eye patch on you, which is really gonna block out like 50%

of

vision.

Okay.

Which eye?

Any eye.

Let's do the left one.

Uh, let's see how many you can do. You...

I think you- we counted around eight before.

A pirate.

Your eyes are gonna need to look good.

This feels significantly harder.

I know. Let's go.

This feels... No, this feels like really hard.

Let me just double-check.

Fucking hell. That's so hard.

This is-

There you go. You've got it.

Ha, joking.

Okay, let's alternate now.

It's easier.

Left hand, right hand.

Left hand, right hand, like this?

Yeah.

You're training your visual system to work- ...

under load and under stress.

You got it. You got it. You got it.

Good. Good. Good. And then to even make it even harder-

Mm-hmm

... okay,

stand on your right foot.

Yeah.

And put your other foot... There you go.

Standing on one leg is now engaging the cerebellum.

Okay.

We're getting spatial awareness. Let's go. Posture.

Do left, right, left, right?

Yep.

Oh my gosh.

You got it.

I wanna see you do it.

With the eye patch on?

Yeah.

Great. My eyelashes are gone now.

It's okay. We can AI that out.

This actually looks great.

Okay, are we ready?

Well, I blame my nails.

I blame my nails. Let's do it.

Okay.

It's hard.

It's so hard.

And so what is this doing? It's-

This is engaging executive functions, processing

speed, hand-eye coordination.

And you did this with NBA players?

I did this with NBA players to improve, uh, their executive

functions, decrease their reaction time.

This will change my brain if I do this frequently.

Not just that, but you're also improving cognitive

reserve.

You're building new connections between the brain cells.

You're strengthening neural networks, and you're doing something

incredible.