I have a few half-baked ideas of how to trick athletes' minds and bodies into performing better. The particular application I had in mind was running. These ideas include zero research, and are mostly just for fun.
Half-baked idea #1: Use
a wind tunnel to train at higher speeds
A competitive sprinter who is aiming to achieve a PR is really aiming for a
speed they’ve never run before. How about they train at a speed faster than their
PR so their body learns to run that fast? To do this, they could do their speed
exercises, running with a strong wind in a wind tunnel.
Half-baked idea #2: Trick
a runner to believe they’re still approaching a record when they’re actually
breaking it
A runner who has approached a record (e.g. world record for the mile run) has
enormous pressure, knowing they face the challenge of a mile time that nobody
on earth has ever achieved. Through their career, as they approached the
record, they knew others had also approached the record – so they at least knew
that approaching the record was possible. So silly idea #2 is to identify a
runner approaching a record, and alter their environment so they don’t realize
how close they are to the record. For example, when Roger Bannister was
approaching the four minute barrier in 1954, what if his training tracks,
stopwatches, or pace-setters were being altered so when he believed he was
running a 4:02 mile, he was actually running a 4:00 mile. This way, when Roger
finally hit 4:01, believing he faced a challenge that so far proved impossible,
he had actually already broken the four-minute mile.
Half-baked idea #3:
Use fear and adrenaline to push a runner over a record
We’ve heard war stories of soldiers accomplishing extraordinary feats when they are in life-threatening situations on the battlefield. What would happen if a runner were sprinting toward the end of their umpteenth failed attempt to break the same record – but this time you released a cheetah behind them? Yes, this is a silly idea. Let’s try it! (For safety, the trainer would still secretly have control over the cheetah.)