Invictus Games and Integrated Warfighter Training

Sleep patterns. Elevated heart rates. Overactive stress responses to real or perceived threats. For athletes and soldiers alike, knowledge is power. It yields valuable insights into performance and health, accelerating readiness and optimizing recovery on and off the field, whether it be an upcoming deployment or a big game.

Lindsay Blaine, Maryrose Blank, Irik Johnson, and Judy Morgan are part of Booz Allen’s human performance training team. For years, they’ve been helping soldiers train like professional athletes. They used the very same technologies and techniques to help athletes from the military community train for the 2023 Department of Defense (DOD) Warrior Games Challenge and the Invictus Games, two of the premier athletic events supporting wounded, ill, and injured military members who are on their recovery journeys.

Members of Booz Allen’s human performance training team have diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Maryrose is a recreational ultra-athlete with a doctorate in sport and performance psychology. Irik has optimized athletic programs for the national professional sports organizations: the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB. Lindsay has delivered onsite cognitive performance coaching to the Army and other defense organizations, and Judy Morgan was a Marine.

Together, they and their Booz Allen colleagues are bringing all the pieces together for health, wellness, and mission readiness.

“Human performance isn't just in the gym. It's a 24/7 approach to readiness, recovery, and resilience,” says Irik.

Cognitive training helps you think faster, learn faster, and develop the mental acuity to stay focused and make better decisions under pressure. Meanwhile, devices like trackers and sensors, and analytics enable personalization, real-time feedback, and insight into the root causes of challenges. Simulations and immersive virtual/augmented reality environments further allow people to gain realistic experience, build muscle memory, and form neural connections.

What’s relatively new—and powerful—in the human performance industry is an integrated approach to all the above aspects. With traditional training methods, cognitive scientists, nutritionists, and other professionals used to work “in their own lanes,” Lindsay says. “But now we’re really looking at the whole person and how all the different systems interact with each other and how ultimately that leads to readiness.”

The team recently took their show on the road to athletes in the military community, first to the DOD Warrior Games Challenge and then to the global Invictus Games.

Their mission involved deploying wearable devices, sharing interactive demonstrations, and having one-on-one conversations with athletes, coaches, and medical providers. How could they fine-tune their preparation leading up to the games? What techniques could help them best manage pain and stress and optimize restoration and recovery?

“Many of the athletes told us they were interested in wearables, but they didn't know how to use the data, so they were either not using the data at all or were unsure if they could rely on it. Some avoided wearables altogether,” says Judy. “They appreciated having our coaching team around to help answer questions about their data. By the time of the Invictus Games, we could tell some athletes had aggregated enough data to establish a baseline and were using their wearable data to make training and recovery decisions.”

“We were there with them throughout the entire Invictus Games training camp and available remotely while they were competing,” Maryrose says. “We had some great opportunities to do biofeedback integration, especially in sports like archery. And some of that hip-pocket coaching allowed us to talk through the data that athletes saw so they could bring it to the forefront while they were competing.”

“I think the repeat exposure, and especially that in-person component, was so impactful because it allowed us to build rapport and relationships with those athletes,” Lindsay says.

“You can look a lot of stuff up online, but sometimes people just want someone to talk to,” says Judy.

The wearable experiments and conversations have value beyond this year’s games. “It gives coaches some tools and techniques that they can then train their athletes on,” says Maryrose. 

Conversations with the athletes that initially focused on competitive performance led to broader subjects.

“They asked us questions about sleep and stress management, which led to conversations about overall wellness,” Lindsay says. “They discovered that a lot of the skills we discussed could be used in their personal lives, whether training for the Paralympics or the next big mountain they’re going to climb. They can take these skills forward.”

“That's what grabbed my interest with this project,” says Judy. “Human performance and wearables aren’t limited to a specific community or situation.”

“By combining human coaching with wearables and performance technology at large, and then adding data science, AI, and virtual and augmented reality, you have this creative and almost limitless approach for training, readiness, and recovery,” says Irik.