From playing fields to battlefields

  • Published
  • By Wayne Amann
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  Sports and the military share a common bond journalistically. It’s not unusual to read about a classic battle, how a player had plenty of fight left, how a team showed a warrior mentality or how they were outnumbered.

Sports have liberally borrowed clichés from the GI world for years. Now it’s the military’s turn to get into the game.

The academy's Human Performance Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory reached an agreement May 11, signing a memorandum of understanding to share ideas, equipment and research to solve human effectiveness challenges common to the playing field and the battlefield.

“This is an exciting time for the academy and both labs,” said Dr. Hans J. Mueh, academy director of athletics. “Academy athletes will benefit from the research lab’s help and our outstanding lab folks will benefit the Air Force with the things they’re doing.”

Since 85 to 90 percent of sensory input comes through the eyes, the performance lab focuses on vision.

“If we can improve visual system performance, we can improve athletic performance,” said Maj. Brandon Doan, who takes over as the performance lab director in June. “The same applies to aircraft pilots or special operations people who direct air traffic in an unfriendly environment, where a lot’s going on and information has to be processed quickly and accurately or people die.” 

The application of what the performance lab does to improve warfighter performance in battle sparked the research lab’s interest in finalizing the memorandum of understanding. Results from the field lend credence to the collaboration. 

“We’ve heard from cadets who’ve returned as fighter pilots who say the skills they learned in our lab carried over into the cockpit,” Major Doan said. “They have so much going on around them, in and out of the aircraft.” 

Before cadet student-athletes begin sports vision training, they undergo an eye exam at the cadet optometry clinic. After a performance lab pre-test, the athlete does sports vision training exercises on different equipment for four to six weeks, followed by a post-test. Typical improvements in visual skills range from 15 percent to more than 100 percent. 

“People say having eyes in the back of your head, reading defenses quickly and court awareness are a big part of the game,” said Air Force freshman guard Andrew Henke, who helped lead the Falcons this year to their fourth NCAA basketball tournament appearance in academy history. 

“Our team came to the lab to get better. It definitely helped our game," said senior Kat Bushey, a tennis player who recalled her first visit to the performance lab as a freshman. 

“It was a smorgasbord of lights and machines and crazy stuff. It was kind of esoteric,” Cadet Bushey said. “I had no idea what it was for. The results aren’t eye-popping in that you immediately got better. Instead, it gives you a mental edge knowing you’re working hard doing things other competitors aren’t doing.” 

Four years ago Cadet Bushey wanted to fly. Her initial eye exam classified her as potentially pilot-qualified, at risk. There was trouble correcting one eye to 20-20 because of some depth perception issues. At her graduation physical, other than waivers for near-sightedness, she passed the depth perception test. The lab was a factor in her improvement. 

Another performance lab success story is junior Denver Saunders, a water polo player. He wasn’t recruited for the team, but decided to compete as a walk-on.

“There was a reason I got cut my freshman year; I was horrible,” he said. “The balls flew at me so fast I couldn’t react in time. I wasn’t used to the speed of the college game. The vision lab helped me with me reaction speed. Now, I hold a few vision speed records and was the starting goalie this season.” 

The human performance lab is home to a current study examining the military problem of acclimatization. Because U.S. training bases are at or near sea-level, deployments to Afghanistan have been difficult due to that country’s academy-like altitude. 

“We were told it takes four to six weeks to acclimatize, but our study says most people take much, much longer,” said Maj. Michael Brothers, who will join the performance lab staff following completion of his doctorate degree at the University of Colorado. 

“Acclimatization affects how well people perform in every aspect of Air Force Special Operations Command missions. Until now, no one has tracked acclimatization for more than one month," Major Brothers said.

"The academy Class of 2009 has been tested since it arrived last fall. But, even at the December mark many were not close to acclimatizing to the local altitude," he said. "The VO2 max test, measuring how well they can use oxygen, showed they got winded more quickly.

“There’s a huge individual variability,” Major Brothers said. “We hope this study tells us why people are slower to respond to acclimatization than others, ways we can improve the process or ways to pre-screen people so we’re sending only those who can quickly adapt to high-altitude locations.” 

The academy's Human Performance Lab, coupled with the Air Force Research Lab, are drawing up a win-win game plan for athletes and warfighters alike.