DoD Must Go Beyond PT to Support Cognitive Strength.

• Author: Johnson, Irik
• Position: COMMENTARY

* The Defense Department increasingly relies on emerging technologies like augmented and virtual reality, wearables and data science to optimize the training of warfighters.

For example, the Air Force recently enhanced its special warfare training program to incorporate wearables and mental training to improve special operators' mental strength and maximize their performance. This holistic training approach --called human performance--can benefit every military branch by ensuring personnel are better equipped physically and mentally, while also reducing training costs.

Human performance training requires a data-driven methodology that is rooted in three core areas: a focus on cognitive performance; data analytics to track performance and help instructors customize trainings; and immersive technology that provides trainees a more comprehensive training experience.

The military has long emphasized preparing warfighters' mental toughness and resilience. To achieve this, service members not only need a coach for strength training but cognitive training as well.

Cognitive training improves warfighters' psychological well-being, helping them think and learn faster and develop the mental acuity they need to stay focused on their missions and make better decisions under pressure. It also helps trainees identify stress indicators and teaches stress response techniques such as breathing exercises and meditation to help build personal awareness, which can create long-term healthy habits throughout a service member's activeduty tenure and beyond.

A key component of cognitive training is using wearables to track service members' sleep habits. Improving trainees' sleep quality greatly improves cognitive performance and reaction response times, which is an essential metric for mission readiness. While personnel can still perform their missions without cognitive training, it comes at a cost when one considers that warfighters face high-risk, high-stress situations every day.

The military already uses some of the same wearable technologies from companies such as WHOOP and OURA that professional athletes leverage to measure metrics such as sleep quality, respiration rate, heart rate and heart rate variability, and give insight into trainees' overall physical and mental state.

Before wearables, coaches relied on subjective feedback from trainees about their sleep quality and level of focus. Now, wearables give data-driven evidence that shows an individual's...