Training with Hockey IntelliGym

Presented by:

Kevin McLaughlin, Senior Director of Hockey Development, USA Hockey Danny Dankner, CEO, Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE)

Training

Hockey Sense

The Big Picture – Why Are We Here?

Personality Maturity Competitiveness Team Work Hard Working Motivation Recovery from mistakes

Physical Traits Speed Agility Power Fitness Athleticism Dietary discipline

Fundamentals Skate Pass Shoot Plays Offence / Defense

Cognitive Skills Awareness Reading plays Decision making Peripheral Vision Concentration Anticipation …

The Need

A good player plays where the puck is.

A great player plays where the puck is going to be.

Wayne Gretzky,

Considered as one of the greatest hockey players ever

“”

Hockey Action Cycle   Quick adjustment when entering a

shift   Reading the ice   Recognize patterns on the ice   Anticipation   Planning (evaluating a few options)   Fast decision making   Execution

General Skills   Gain complete mental image of the ice

(grow 'eyes in the back')   Team play   Adjustment to rapid situation changes   Divide attention (e.g. skating while

planning ahead)   Coping with time constraints   Cope with changing number of players   Recognize opportunities (e.g. in

shorthand/power-play situations)   Concentration during a shift and

throughout the game (long term attention)

Why Train Hockey Sense? Better Performance

Fact 1: Unintentional contacts accounted for 66.0% of overall injuries.

Serious injuries (fractures, dislocations, concussions) resulted more

often from unintentional collisions.

Fact 2: Head impact severity decreases with heightened player anticipation of

impending body contact, especially with respect to head impacts of

moderate severity.

Fact 3: Hockey sense training was found to reduce injuries by 17% and

concussions by more than 25%.

Why Train Hockey Sense? Avoid Injuries

Sources: Darling et al. “Intentional versus unintentional contact as a mechanism of injury in youth ice hockey.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2010

Mihalik et al. "Collision Type and Player Anticipation Affect Head Impact Severity Among Youth Ice Hockey Players." Pediatrics 125, no. 6 (2010); 1394-1401.

NTDP Study, impact of hockey-sense training on injury rates

Hockey Sense – Filling the Gap

  Physical Training

  Hockey-Sense Workout (Cognitive Skills)

  Training Fundamentals

?

Hockey Sense – Filling the Gap

  Physical Training

  Hockey-Sense Workout (Cognitive Skills)

  Training Fundamentals

Developing the Hockey IntelliGymTM

The Technology: Origins

  A DARPA-funded research utilized a cognitive training program for improving real-time decision making of pilots in the cockpit

  30% increase in performance compared to the test group*

  Additional studies by NASA and the US Army Aviation Center substantiate these outstanding results

* Gopher, D. (1990). The Skill of Attention Control: Acquisition and Execution of Attention Strategies. Gopher, D., Weil, M., Bareket, T. (1991). The Transfer of Skills from a Computer Game Trainer to Actual Flight.

** Hart S., Battiste, V. (1992). Field Test of Video Game Trainer – US Army Aviation Center

Product Development Participants

Hockey Domain-Experts

Video-Games Experts

The Hockey ™

Hockey Domain-Experts Domain-Experts Domain-Experts Domain-Experts

Video-Games Experts

The Hockey ™

Co Eng

Actual Training Environment

Members Area – Player Participation

Members Area – Player Performance

IntelliGym Training Regimen @ National Team

Hockey IntelliGymTM Training Outcome

NTDP Case Study: Team Improvement

NTDP - U17 - 2009/2010 season*

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Before the IntelliGym After the IntelliGym**

win

s ra

tio

* A total of 44 official games, sep-2009 to feb-2010 ** After completion an average of 10 IntelliGym training sessions per

player and ongoing maintenance during the period

42%

8%

NTDP - U18 - 2009/2010 season*

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Before the IntelliGym After the IntelliGym**

win

s ra

tio

NTDP Case Study: Team Improvement

* A total of 50 official games, sep-2009 to feb-2010 ** After completion an average of 10 IntelliGym training sessions per

player and ongoing maintenance during the period

29%

70%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

U18 2007/08(NAHL)

U18 2008/09(NAHL)

U18 2009/10(USHL)

NTDP Case Study: Team Compared to Itself

18%

7% 4%

* Pre/Post Milestone: after completion an average of 15 IntelliGym training sessions per player

Wins Ratio Change Pre/Post IntelliGym Training Threshold

Injury Prevention Impact

Sample size: 869 reported medical visits

Post-IntelliGym

Initial Results in Ice-Hockey

  Four different IntelliGym-trained National Teams

  Two first USHL Playoffs

  A total of 13 gold medals out of 18 international tournaments

  4 consecutive IIHF U18 World Championships titles

Under-18 World Championship Record

Source: International Ice Hockey Federation http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/history/all-medallists/u18.html

Hockey IntelliGym training adopted by USA U17 and U18 National Teams

Recognition

The Hockey IntelliGym has been announced as the First Prize Winner at the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards Judges panel includes: –  Neurotechnology Program, MIT –  Stanford University –  Osher Learning Institute @ Berkeley –  UC Neuroscience Research Institute –  Intel’s Digital Health Group –  American Society on Aging –  Alzheimer’s Association –  International Council on Active Aging –  Barrow Neurological Institute

Thanks!

www.TheHockeyIntelliGym.com Show reel and more info available at:

Q&A

Hockey Action Cycle   Quick adjustment when entering a

shift   Reading the ice   Recognize patterns on the ice   Anticipation   Planning (evaluating a few options)   Fast decision making   Execution

General Skills   Gain complete mental image of the ice

(grow 'eyes in the back')   Team play   Adjustment to rapid situation changes   Divide attention (e.g. skating while

planning ahead)   Coping with time constraints   Cope with changing number of players   Recognize opportunities (e.g. in

shorthand/power-play situations)   Concentration during a shift and

throughout the game (long term attention)

Decomposing “Hockey-Sense”

  Spatial Orientation   Attention Control   Spatial-Time Integration   Spatial Anticipation   Attention Switching   Situational awareness   Rapid patterns recognition   Peripheral vision   Visual Search Strategies   Read and React   Strategies Selection   Anticipation skills

  Memory structures   Data collection   Visual search strategies   Planning skills   Dividing Attention   Working Memory   Prediction Skills   Spatial Orientation   Time Prediction   Speed Prediction

Decomposing “Hockey-Sense” – The cognitive version

The Science of Brain Performance Enhancement

Inspiration: Training Fighter Pilots

Fighter pilots’ training concepts – breakthrough in teaching instincts

Training Fighter Pilots Off-Air

Source: NASA, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA.

Flight simulator – high-fidelity training environment

Low Fidelity Simulation: The Space Fortress

Source: DARPA, Learning Strategies Project

Training skills - low-fidelity training environment

The Technology: Origins

  A DARPA-funded research utilized a cognitive training program for improving real-time decision making of pilots in the cockpit

  30% increase in performance compared to the test group*

  Additional studies by NASA and the US Army Aviation Center substantiate these outstanding results

* Gopher, D. (1990). The Skill of Attention Control: Acquisition and Execution of Attention Strategies. Gopher, D., Weil, M., Bareket, T. (1991). The Transfer of Skills from a Computer Game Trainer to Actual Flight.

** Hart S., Battiste, V. (1992). Field Test of Video Game Trainer – US Army Aviation Center

Terminology

Cognitive Engineering – a research field substantiated in the

early 1980’s - deals with the study of brain functions and their

enhancement for improving human performance in complex

environments.

Cognitive Engineering explores the way people perceive

information, analyze it, make decisions and execute these decisions.

The “Brain Gym” Concept - in many aspects our brain

functions like a muscle. Its performance can be dramatically

enhanced if properly trained.

C Cognitive Simulation

Mapping the cognitive skill-set of the specific domain (e.g.: Hand eye coordination, Attention, Decision making, Perception, Spatial orientation)

Training the cognitive skill-set via Cognitive Simulation

Training the brain’s CPU directly !

Performance During a Shift – The Challenges

Performance During a Shift – The Challenges

Getting into shift Fatigue

Main area of potential

improvement

Head-Mounted Camera Footage

  Player’s first-person view   Significance of video footage:

  Analysis of head movements   Analysis of attention allocation

Helmet mounted camera substantiate findings.

Hockey to Cognition Analysis

Hockey to Cognition Sample: ‘Reading Plays’ Skill

Hockey Cognitive Elements

Reading plays is commonly perceived as the player’s ability to understand and anticipate the following elements:

1.  Position – player, peers and rivals

2.  Speed – of other players on the ice

3.  Puck – location and direction

4.  Intentions – peers and rivals

• Time perception

• Spatial perception

• Movement perception

• Pattern recognition

• Working memory

Trainer and Cognition Analysis

Trainer and Cognition – Data Acquisition

IntelliGym Cognition

Turning the ships invisible (with or without audio warning), will train players in recognition of movement patterns and in efficient use of working memory.

Actual Training Environment

Demonstrating Various Training Scenarios

Clouds – partial hiding Long threat

Moving goals Spotlight

Members Area – Team Participation

Members Area – Player Participation

Members Area – Player Performance

t Measuring the Program Efficacy

Measurement methodologies:

ü  Coaches Perspective

ü  Pre-post comparison

ü  Comparison of improvement rate of same team to previous seasons

ü  Comparison of improvement rate to other teams and previous seasons

ü  Championships outcome

ü  Comparing injury figures

NTDP Case Study: Team Compared to Other Teams

-60% -40% -20% 0% 20% 40% 60%

USNTDP

Win Ratio Pre/Post IntelliGym Training Threshold NAHL 2008/09

-30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

NTDP Case Study: Team Compared to Other Teams

USNTDP

Win Ratio Pre/Post IntelliGym Training Threshold NAHL 2007/08

-50% -30% -10% 10% 30% 50%

NTDP Case Study: Team Compared to Other Teams

USNTDP

Win Ratio Pre/Post IntelliGym Training Threshold NAHL 2009/10

Best Practices (1/2)

Training Regimen Twice a week, 30 minutes each training session

Not more than one training session a day

Ongoing, long-term training, similar to the weight room

Scheduled training

Not right before/after mental effort

On-Ice Impact The difference on the ice is apparent after 8-10 hours of brain workout

Tracking Execution and Progress Both the players and the staff can follow up on the players’ progress

Online reporting system presents both compliance and performance

Best Practices (2/2)

Environment

Quite environment is better for training

The program runs on both PC and Mac

Internet connection required

Securing Players Buy-In

Pre-training info and expectation settings

High involvement of top coaching staff

Present the correlation between training and on-ice performance

Optional: Publish scores on team boards

Optional: concentrate on true wannabes and more receptive players

Note: some players want to keep their training confidential