Total Sports Simcoe County Edition, Winter 2016 Winter 2016 Issue | Page 10

Mind to Muscle Expands
Training Facilities
By: Rick Schaly, Athletic Therapist, M2M Director, Photos By: FITLIGHT Files
Mind to Muscle has opened its second location expressly
for team performance training!
A new 3200 square foot facility with state of the art
equipment and technology is located at 500 Huronia Road,
right across from Sports Medicine and Mind to Muscle.
The new technology includes the FITLIGHT Trainer, which
is an excellent tool for developing athletic skills. It provides
athletes and strength coaches with an advanced training
system to develop enhanced performance, movement and
foundational skills necessary to be a high level athlete.
The Toronto Raptors are one of the sports team using the
system, as the Trainer offers a variety of benefits not only
to athletes, but also to trainers and coaches and is widely
used for workouts and drills as well as for injury recovery.
The FITLIGHT Trainer is a wireless system consisting of a
PDA controller and 8 RGB LED-powered interactive lights
which are used as targets for the player to touch during
a workout routine or training session. When the user
touches the lights, they are either activated or deactivated,
and his or her performance can be measured for instant
feedback and downloaded to a computer for later analysis.
The system’s data capture function makes it easy for

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athletes and trainers to analyze and interpret the athlete’s
potential and performance in terms of timing, scores,
and complexity of the training session. The system also
allows the user to create benchmarks for specific drills and
compare data of different team members, which makes
the FITLIGHT Trainer particularly useful to professional
athletes and coaches.
The FITLIGHT Trainer can help coaches improve the vital
aspects of players’ performance, including speed, agility,
acceleration capabilities, visual cognitive processing
and reaction response, fluidity of movement, physical
conditioning, motor skills, cognitive skills, focus and
concentration, peripheral awareness, vertical lift capability,
multi-directional change, and hand-eye coordination. The
system also helps trainers track progress in injury recovery.
The FITLIGHT Trainer offers a variety of possibilities as
the interactive lights can be deactivated with the user’s
hands, feet, or head either by full contact or by proximity
sensing. The lights can be set up on floors, walls, or any
apparatus used in a workout, as a way to enhance the
training session. They can be mounted to simulate specific
situations in sports, like those involving goal nets, soccer
matches, or baseball. The system is portable and can be
used both indoors and outdoors. Mind to Muscle coaches
have received advanced training to use FITLIGHTS. You can
see the FITLIGHTS in action at M2M, or go to their website
at mindtomuscle.ca.