The Dunlop Mindset study was conducted on April 13, 2015, in partnership with University College London’s Professor Vincent Walsh at GSK’s Human Performance Lab:
The study contained two groups. The first group consisted of five elite athletes and the second group consisted of five members of public. Both groups were subject to exactly the same tests.
Four tests in total defined the results. The first two examined performance under physical pressure and the next two tests exposed how participants held up under mental pressure or distractions including when they had to assess risk.
Before [physical] stress there was no great difference in the score between the two groups [on the visual search test]. They both took an average of around 630 milliseconds to detect the target.
After stress the athletes took 512 milliseconds and the non-elites 932 milliseconds.
The athletes improved by 11%, whilst the non-elites got 60% worse
After stress the non-elites took 82% longer
Suvorov talks about the Soviet/Russian special purpose units and their use of athletes. The athlete just makes for a better soldier was the Soviet perception.