Interactive Metronome Training

 

The United States Clay Target Academy (USCTA) is pleased to announce the addition of Interactive Metronome® (IM®) to its training regimen. IM® technology is designed to help athletes achieve peak performance through improved millisecond timing and synchronization of critical neural networks for integrated cognitive and motor function.  IM® improves the resolution and efficiency of the athlete's internal mental clock and ability to process temporal information in order to facilitate faster cognitive processing and reaction time, on-demand and sustained attentional control, and execution of more effortless, streamlined, and less variable motor sequences.  

 

"We are delighted to provide this technology to the United States Clay Target Academy. Everything is about timing, especially shot accuracy. We like to think of the Interactive Metronome (IM) as a “secret weapon” for training peak performance ahead of this year’s state and national competitions, and for many years to come."

Bricole Reincke, Vice President, Interactive Metronome.

 

"The USCTA strive to provide science-based training methods to the athletes in our program to give them the mental, physical and visual edge needed to obtain their goals.  With perfection becoming the norm in both national and international competition, it is imperative that a coach provide athletes the best possible training methodologies to be competitive. We are excited to add Interactive Metronome to our program. Thank you, Interactive Metronome, for seeing our vision and for offering this cutting-edge training to our athletes."  

Coach Bonnie Chamberlain and Coach Marvin Spinks  

 

To date, the impact of IM® training on athletic performance has been primarily studied in the sport of golf, where timing and rhythm are recognized as being of great importance.  In the most recent published study, Sommer et al (2013) found that four weeks of IM® training induced changes in the coordinative structure and synchronization between joint couplings of the arms as well as between individual joints and golf club motions during the golf swing, with decreased variance in joint couplings after IM® training. The improvements in motor timing that occurred as a result of IM® training transferred to an unrelated motor task; in this case, the intrinsic movement sequencing of the golf swing. Research has shown that a rhythmic cue can result in "complete specification of the dynamics of the movement over the entire movement cycle, reducing variability, enhancing temporal precision, and facilitating the selection of optimal movement trajectories, velocity, and the acceleration parameters.”5  Sommer and his colleagues determined that the IM® training effect on the kinematic properties of the golf swing (via more tightly coupled joint dynamics) were inherently reinforced, consolidated and then represented in motor memory.  In essence, IM® training produced neural adaptations (plasticity).  They proposed that the current findings are relevant to other motor skills and sports activities [such as shotgun sports].  "If IM® training improves temporal skills and movement performance by fine-tuning the timing components (and coordination dynamics) of multi-joint movements, then this type of training may also be used to improve performance in other activities that require precise (and/or increased) timing abilities.”3

 

Many amateur and elite athletes and teams currently use IM® to achieve peak athletic performance.  For example, IM® has been used by the Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat, Florida Panthers, Notre Dame football team, individual PGA players, and others.

 

ESPN archive video of an interview with Notre Dame’s coach & players:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRsv4KO39q0&feature=player_embedded

 

  1. Jacokes, Lee E. (2003). Interactive metronome performance training of St. Thomas Aquinas high school. Unpublished white paper. Interactive Metronome.
  2. Libkuman, T.M. & Otani, H. (2002).  Training in timing improves accuracy in golf. Journal of General Psychology, 129(1), 77-96.
  3. Sommer, M., Häger, C.& Rönnqvist, L. (2014). Synchronized metronome training induces changes in the kinematic properties of the golf swing. Sports Biomechanics, Published online: 07 Feb 2014.
  4. Sommer, M. & Rönnqvist, L. (2009).  Improved motor-timing: effects of synchronized metronome training on golf shot accuracy. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2009) 8, 648-656.
  5. Thaut, M. H., & Kenyon, G. P. (2003). Rapid motor adaptations to subliminal frequency shifts in syncopated rhythmic sensorimotor synchronization. Human Movement Science, 22, 321–338.