Tennis Ball and Eye Patch Exercise for Cognitive Training

I'm gonna show you what five minutes a day

can do for your cognitive

reserve and your brain performance

just using a tennis ball and

an eye patch. 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.

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 hand-

Oh, wow

... you should be able to do this for a

minute. Okay?

Okay.

Now, we're gonna make it even harder. It's

like placing weights on you.

Go on, you do it as well.

Well, I, I'm not gonna do the one with the eye

patch. I'll do the next one. 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 fifty

percent of the vision.

Okay. Which eye?

Any eye.

Let's do the left one.

Now let's see how many you can do. You...

I think you, we counted around eight before.

Okay, cool.

Let's go.

Oh, that's so different.

Yep.

Wow, this feels significantly harder.

I know. Let's go.

This feels... No, this feels, like,

really hard. Let me just double-check.

That's, that's really... That's so hard.

This is-

There you go. You've got it.

Ha, joking.

Okay, let's alternate now.

Geez.

Left hand, right hand.

Left hand, right hand. Like this?

Yeah.

You're training your visual

system to work under load and

under stress. So when you do this-

Sorry.

I'm interrupting you.

No, it's okay.

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.

What, on one leg?

Yep. Standing on one leg is now engaging the cerebellum.

Okay.

We're getting spatial awareness.

Let's go. Posture.

Left, right, left, right?

Yep.

Oh my gosh.

You got it.

I want to see you do it.

With the eye patch on?

Yeah.

Wow. Okay, 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.

And this will, 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.