What is the Athletic Intelligence Quotient (AIQ)? The Athletic Intelligence Quotient (AIQ) measures intelligence that is most relevant to athletic performance. Conventional IQ tests such as the Wonderlic focus on aspects of intelligence that aren’t relevant to athletes, while missing the most important cognitive abilities that determine athletic success or failure. Plus, the AIQ provides an in-depth and sport specific analysis of each score. The main components of the AIQ are: Reaction Memory Time Visual Processing Processing Speed Athletic Intelligence Why Measure Athletic Intelligence? Physical factors that impact success are relatively easy to measure, while the mental factors are not. AIQ is designed to reduce the guess work. Intelligence is the ability to learn, process, and apply information. Often when analyzing talent, evaluators compare knowledge, not intelligence. The risk of evaluating only knowledge is that knowledge is dependent on the athletes’ experiences (where they went to school, who coached them, what system they ran, etc.). By comparison, intelligence is an innate ability that is essential to skill attainment, decision making, creativity, adaptability, versatility, and the ability to understand and apply tactics and strategy. Some evaluators use personality inventories to identify talent. Unfortunately, personality traits vary in different environments. For instance, how athletes act at practice may be very different from how they act when being evaluated. Additionally, personality tests rely on paper and pencil measures which are dependent on the athletes’ desire to answer the questions honestly. By contrast, intelligence is a stable genetic trait and one of the greatest predictors of success. Furthermore, the AIQ is not a paper and pencil questionnaire, but a series of applied tasks that directly measure the athletes’ abilities. AIQ Identifies an Athlete’s Innate Abilities AIQ Advantages for Coaches The amount of time and effort it takes to master Improve player selection new skills and strategies Increase practice efficiency Derive more benefit from less effort The speed and effectiveness of decision making Increase learning retention The ability to adapt to unpredicted situations More sophisticated game plans The ability to adjust to constantly changing Decrease injury opportunity environments Faster learning means less time exposed to risk of injury Tailor coaching to athletes’ learning styles Decrease coaching frustration By comparing athletic intelligence, the AIQ will improve your player selection process which can help you find a “diamond in the rough” or avoid a “coach killer.” Copyright 2012 Athletic Intelligence Measures, LLC .