Fmr. Vikings Coach's App Monitors Brain Health For Student Athletes
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In a world where everyone is looking for the next app, here's one that might help figure out how an athlete can function.
It's called Roberto 21, and it takes advantage of video games to unveil where a student athlete is at and where he or she needs to be.
As we shift our emphasis of what happens on the field to science, there are a number of products trying to become the cutting edge, including the Roberto app.
"It's objective data," Dean Daulton of Roberto App 21 said. "You get a score at the end in several categories, so parents can keep track of their children's brain health on a day-to-day basis."
The concept: Interactive videos and games designed to measure your brain function for the day.
"It's six minutes to play seven video games, so a 6-year-old or a 106-year-old can do this," Daulton said. "It really just gives you a quick snapshot of where your brain health is at that time."
In the coach's world, it's about figuring out your athletes, trying to understand if there is a mental pattern to their day, their diet and their routines.
"You're going to find that your brain health is great today, because you slept well, you ate well, you're hydrated," Daulton said. "Or you can look back and self-evaluate and say, 'Oh, I'm down a little bit today, what is it? Well, I was up late, I got up early, I drank too much coffee."
Daulton was a one-time assistant coach with the Vikings, so he is aware of what coaches are looking for. He's finding that knowing you're being monitored might be the greatest catalyst of all.
"On a performance standpoint, coaches love to be able to manage how their athletes are taking care of themselves, and from an elite athlete's standpoint, they're finding in studies that when you know you're monitoring yourself, your habits are better," Daulton said.
