Professional and aspiring athletes, trainers, coaches, and fitness enthusiasts alike all should familiarize themselves with the name and practices of Robosport Technologies, because the company is in the process of changing the games. Games: plural. Not just one sport-every single athletic endeavor you can possibly fathom.

Robosport Technologies is an athlete performance-enhancement company that focuses on neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections and allowing the neurons to adjust their activities to new situations or to changes in their environment.

The company's training products and programs combine contextual interference (CI) and contralateral training to minimize muscle memory so that an athlete can stay fluid, flexible, and reactive to the fast-paced nature of athletic competition. Traditional muscle memory isn't optimal for how human brains learn-repetition and unilateral training inhibit hand-eye coordination rather than foster it, the company preaches.

To put it simply: Robosport Technologies' mission revolves around the training and strengthening of non-dominant body parts in a randomized fashion to increase brain function and enhance athletic performance.

The company was born when its founder, Salvatore (Sal) LoDuca, was trying to help his 12-year-old son get back on the baseball field after a cancer diagnosis.  It sounds crazy to think that the adversity of a 12-year-old kid can help finely tuned athletes-or athletes of any experience level, for that matter-perform more efficiently. However, the root of Robosport Technologies' practices have helped deliver more than 40 PGA majors, thousands upon thousands of Major League hits, 12 NBA Finals titles, eight NBA MVPS, and mentions in the conversations for the greatest tennis and soccer player of all time-and that's just an incredibly small sampling of the legendary athletes who have implemented such exercises into their training.

Now, to put it in a more detailed fashion:

Most, if not all, professional athletes are incredibly talented with either side of their body-this ubiquitous ambidexterity is not a coincidence. Here's why.

Neuroplasticity begins with contralateral training, which is, pardon the oversimplification, training your non-dominant hand. It's been scientifically proven that training one side of the body increases muscle strength on the opposite side.

Opposite Side training can enhance one's awareness as well as overall performance, open new movement territory, build strength, help tap into and reach the body's potential, and limit the overuse of the dominant side, but, most important, contralateral training works the most imperative muscle in the body: the brain.

A terrific read on the subject, The Dominance Factor by Carla Hannaford, explains further: "The optimal learning state is one of whole-brain integration. In this state, both hemispheres are equally active all the time, thus accessing all sensory information and effectively communicating, moving, and acting on information."

Hence, the earlier an athlete starts training both sides of his or her body, the sooner the brain can start "getting swole" too. Going to both sides of the body (and, thus, brain) a few times while training can make all the difference between being a champ or a chump. Again, there's a reason why nearly all professional athletes can perform flawlessly with dominant and non-dominant limbs alike.

Be like future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, an incredible lefty hitter who's been known to take batting practice right-handed. Or Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and many other golfers who are ambidextrous. Rafael Nadal, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Larry Bird are all in the club, too. And it's not some new fad, either: MLB Hall of Famer Honus Wagner did it nearly 100 years ago to bust through slumps.

What do they all have in common (besides being household names in their craft)? They all meticulously practiced with their non-dominant side or they were born with a dominant side and were taught to use their non-dominant side for varying reason or they simply were born with a highly ambidextrous nature.

CI is the concept of practicing/training in a randomized fashion rather than a consistent manner. It's neurological in nature because every time an athlete in training makes a different movement, he or she must rethink that movement, so the subject is engaging its brain and body in an active manner, as opposed to a passive manner which repetition bores over time.

A study-"Contextual Interference Effects With Skilled Baseball Players"2 by Kellie Green Hall, Derek A. Domingues, and Richard Cavazos, from California Polytechnic State University-seems to back up these claims.

"Additional ('extra') batting practice is a viable means of enhancing ability to hit a pitched ball soundly, and improvement in this skill is facilitated when this practice is presented randomly," the study says. "It is assumed that a random presentation of tasks would be equally beneficial to skilled athletes in other sport settings.

"For example, the random practice of chipping a golf ball different distances, e.g., 20, 40, 60, or 80 yards, should facilitate golfers' short game, or the random practice of tennis forehands, backhands, and lobs should improve tennis players' skills more readily than blocked practice of the same skills."

There have been very few scientific studies on CI in sports, Sal says; most of the studies have focused on cognitive areas-yet another reason Robosport Technologies set out to do what it does. The company incorporates CI into its research and products and, although the theory isn't new, is the first to implement randomization into the practice and encourage athletes to combine it with non-dominant side training but sticking to one's dominant side in the game.

Its credo is that the traditional "muscle memory" approach to training isn't optimal for how human brains learn. Once the early stages of motor learning are complete, repetition and unilateral training inhibit hand-eye coordination rather than foster it, the company's research shows.

Engaging the brain and, thus, forcing athletes to "rethink" each motion on every single rep is what best builds skill. 

Additionally, in the study conducted by LoDuca and the ASPI Team in Tampa, Florida, the subjects participating in random practice (RP) saw a decrease in reaction time when compared to those of the blocked-practice (BP) group. This research proves that RP subjects were able to detect a signal (e.g., pitch, opposing player's movement, location of a slapshot) and make a decision (e.g., swing, pivot, move the glove hand) faster than the BP group. A quicker reaction time is, of course, a boon to any athlete in any sport.

While the data is obviously important, Robosport Technologies' focus is elsewhere. In the sports world, these days, when the brain is discussed, it's often spoken of in terms of "mental" or "psychological" aspect. While that is no doubt important, the company is more interested in expanding the neuro-motor network-because that's where the frontier of athletic performance lies, and it has been criminally overlooked for a long time.

Robosport Technologies is more concerned with what drives the data: What are the techniques that alter performance levels? The data it seeks are the delta values (changes) that enhance performance via methodologies that combine opposite-side training and randomization or new methodologies that expand the nervous system and connect to more muscle and muscle fiber than traditional means.

"We want to utilize technology not to make the robots more human, but to make the humans less robotic," Sal says. "We are seeking to expand the Sports Neurology sector to include methods that foster neuro and neuro-motor plasticity rather than just focusing on concussions. We develop technology that answers the question, 'Does the method and technology foster neuro-motor plasticity?' If the answer is no, we do not pursue."

Here are the tools Robosport Technologies uses to accomplish its mission:

Originally designed for baseball training but with a current focus on all sports, Robosport Technologies and its multi-patented products aim to improve hand-eye coordination with what exists between the eyes: the brain.

The manner with which Robosport Technologies aims to change the data and expand mind-body control or foster neuro-motor plasticity and expand neuro-motor networks is by utilizing and combining these two well-established and long-studied techniques of opposite-side training and randomized practice with:

The Single-Axis Robotic Batting Tee offers randomized positions from a one-dimensional personal strike zone. It aims to: prevent batters from hitting the ball in the same consecutive height; force batters to "rethink" each swing; prevent batters from locking in one swing path or groove; and eliminate the mental and physical monotony of repetitive practice. It's the first batting tee to effectively teach "knowledge of the strike zone."

The 3D Strike Zone Tee offers thousands of randomized positions from a one- to three-dimensional personal strike zone that: prevents batters from hitting the ball in the same consecutive spot; forces batters to "rethink" each swing; prevents batters from locking in one swing path or groove; eliminates the mental and physical monotony of repetitive practice; and is the first batting tee to effectively teach "knowledge of the strike zone."

An IoT Connected Mobile App will control minimum and maximum position levels based on the batter's height, stance, and the MLB strike zone. Subscription membership will include: randomized training sessions, future competition and gaming features, data collection, and player performance feedback on progress and improvement.

Robosport Technologies has more products in future development. This includes wearable batting gloves and bat rings, both featuring technology that will tap into sensorimotor training via artificial intelligence and augmented reality-making practice virtually indistinguishable from the real game.

An attorney by trade whose background is rooted in New York City real estate and hotel development, Sal started the company to focus on the neuro-motor aspect of athletic performance following his son's cancer diagnosis; the company's work combines established scientific principles with state-of-the-art technology.

Sal is also the founder and CEO of two additional startups, Offset Ventures, LLC (d/b/a oOLO Fitness) and Neurobotics, LLC. He holds 12 patents and numerous patent-pending applications for sports performance, strength and conditioning, and sports and medical rehab.

In addition, he finds the time discuss neuro-motor plasticity as well as the ambidextrous nature of high-level athletes on the podcast he founded and co-hosts, Bats Left Throws Right.

"We feel tapping into the brain and expanding neuro-motor networks in a safe and efficient manner is the future of sports performance and unleashing untapped potential," Sal says. "The brain is like software and the body is the hardware-if you don't update the software, it becomes obsolete."

The Robosport Technologies team also includes: Matthew Fisher, Chief Technology Officer & Board Member; Michael Laluna, Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer; MLB veteran Jack "Cactus Jack" Howell, Robosport Board Advisor & MLB Strategist; Nick Derba, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer; and Dr. Jacob Wilson, Ph.D., Research Partner.

Although Robosport Technologies has many players on its roster, it's always looking for free agents-the company is currently seeking investors to help pioneer its revolutionary approach to sports training.

1 A Tale of Two Sides - Training & Conditioning (training-conditioning.com)

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