Jacco Verhaeren becomes chrono coach
Since his return from Australia, Jacco Verhaeren, the former national coach of the Dutch swimmers, has been busy. In addition to his part-time work for the German swimming association, he will collaborate with experts from the Tilburg company FluxPlus, who have developed a unique method to optimize the physical performance of people. This system is called chrono coaching and can make the difference within top sport. Verhaeren explains: “It is sour to see that an athlete is in top shape at some point but is losing his lead due to jet lag, reduced sleep quality or an incorrectly synchronized sleep / wake rhythm. Chrono coaching can make a difference in top sport here, just as it can for the physical and mental health for everyone inside and outside the sport. I am very excited to put an easily usable and accessible product on the market that can make a difference for many ”. One of these accessible products is smart light glasses with accompanying chrono coaching app.
Toine Schoutens of FluxPlus adds: “In swimming, cycling, skating and athletics, the differences are so small that every detail can determine whether you win a prize, whether you reach a final, whether you qualify or not. By taking the position of the biological clock into account and shifting it to an earlier or later moment, the performance of the individual athlete can be substantially improved ”.
Chrono coaching is a fairly new, very effective method within top sport in which the sleep / wake rhythm is influenced in such a way that top performances are possible at almost any time of the day. The biological clock in the brain is programmed in such a way that a person is able to perform activities during the day while sleep and recovery take place during the night. This human rhythm is under pressure in many situations. The moment that a top athlete is capable of the best physical performance is usually at the end of the afternoon. This is not always in accordance with the moment when a top performance is expected from an athlete. For example, many finals during the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer are in the morning or sometimes very late. These are times when the body is less able to deliver a peak performance.
Incidentally, the collaboration is not limited to sport alone. Chrono coaching is also successfully used for problems that arise when working at night and during intercontinental travel (jet lag). In addition, many people have a disrupted sleep / wake rhythm, which can eventually lead to problems with the metabolism or other disorders. Adjusting to a more regular lifestyle can lead to improvements in public and mental health over time.