Dore Sport

News and information on the Dore Sports program run by the Dore Achievement Centres

ADD / ADHD Treatment, Digital Fitness, Dore Achievement Centres, Dore Sport, Dyslexia Treatment, Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit

One of the short comings of the Dore program and all movement based treatments is the low level of feedback you get when doing the exercises. Without someone watching you and checking the instructions for an exercise, its very hard to tell if you are doing them correctly. This is a major problem for people who cannot tell left hand from right and could easy spend ten minutes doing an exercise without noticing they are doing it completely wrong. Of course having someone to help is ideal but for adults doing the course that isn’t always possible and for children, it demands a great deal of time from other members of the family.

Its partly because of this problem that I’m interested in how technology can help deliver training programs like Dore. Computers or games consoles are the perfect way to monitor the exercises and provide feedback so that the exercisers knows they are doing it correctly. This reduces wasted time, improves the rate of progress and most importantly, reduces the demand on the rest of the family. This all adds up to a more effective treatment with a lower drop-out rate.

One technological development that has a lot promise is the slowly emerging 3D cameras. These are not strictly speaking 3D cameras, instead they use a variety of methods to identify depth and distance. This information is then passed back to the computer which can use it to workout if objects are moving towards it or away from it. Something that is very hard to do with a traditional camera.

The best demonstration of this technology I can find is this Second Life demonstration. Second Life (SL) is a virtual reality world shared by many thousands of people. Using a mouse and keyboard the players moves their avatar through the world but in this demo, a 3D camera is used to track the players movements.

It is not hard to make the leap from this demonstration to a computer program that tracks how well the person does does an exercise. We are already seeing this sort of approach in Wii Fit. More demonstrations of the technology are available from the makers of the camera. Here, an on-screen avatar mimics the movement of a real person and in this one, the player is throwing and catching a virtual ball. More are available from 3DVSystems.

Dore Achievement Centres, Dore Sport

Dore Sports has launched as training program for sportsmen. Its based on the Dore Program for dyslexia and ADHD and is a logical move for Wynford Dore’s company.

The original Dore training program focuses on the cerebellum, an area of the brain related to processing information and physical control. Through a series of exercises taking around 12 months, this area of the brain is improved. For a dyslexic or ADHD sufferer this brings the cerebellum up to normal ability levels allowing them to learn skills such as reading or self-control.

For sportsmen and women, who for the most part already have a good cerebellum, Dore Sports takes it to the next level. Just as a the right physical exercise program can allow a coach-potato to run a marathon, the right training program can turn an average athlete into a world-class athlete.

Dore Sports is aimed at professionals and those who want to become professional. There are no details given on the website about costs but its is likely to around the £3000 for a year’s treatment.