A cognitive training system called the Hockey IntelliGym develops habits in hockey players to help them think faster and play better

Sporttechie.com

An Israeli-based company called Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE), that has worked with the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and has trained fighter pilots, created a video game-like system called the Hockey IntelliGym to improve player performance on the ice. 

Hockey players have been seeing major benefits and improvements in all aspects of their game thanks to the IntelliGym system. The skills needed to make shots, avoid injury, plan skate paths, and recognize opportunities are all trainable outside the rink.

The Hockey IntelliGym is based on a concept originally created for Air Force fighter pilots by an Israeli researcher, Prof. Daniel Gopher. His goal was to train the brains of pilots on the land, using a cognitive trainer or simulator, so they would be better prepared for all the intangibles they could face in the air. The goal was to make anticipated challenges almost instinctive. The system was called Space Fortress.

Following great success, Gopher’s team joined forces with ACE to bring their revolutionary technological genius to sports. The Hockey IntelliGym system they created has shook the whole hockey world within its first three years and has proven to be the premiere training needed to take your game to new levels.

Studies have confirmed that attention control is a skill that can applied across different settings

Cognitive scientists have determined that the brain can be trained, just like any muscle in the gym or on the ice. The daily repetition of mental endurance, flexibility, and thinking on the fly, can all be taught just as easy as learning to skate or shoot a puck. Mental excellence has been proven by IntelliGym to be measurable, but more importantly, changeable.

“It has been shown that if trained, such attention control skills could be transferred and generalized across different settings and different task requirements, as long as the tasks maintained the same processing modality.” (Gopher, Armony & Greenshpan, 2000; Armony & Gopher, 2002).

A training performance evaluation discussing the reflection
of mental skills and on ice performance

In a 1994 study by Gopher and his team, cadets that had undergone a minimum of 10 hours of “gameplay” in Gopher’s new cognitive system, results identified more than a 30-percent improvement rate in flight performance in two of the leading air forces in the world. NASA was so blown away by the results Gopher’s team was seeing that they hired cognitive scientists to perform a study on cadets who either had or had not used Gopher’s system to see if they could pass an Apache helicopter simulator. The results showed a 100 percent success rate with the cadets that had used Gopher’s system, and only an 18 percent success rate with those who had not.

The integration of IntelliGym into the weekly practice routine of hockey players shows results in as little as 5 weeks 

By using the system twice a week in 30-minute sessions, Intelligym improves a player’s hockey sense on his or her own time. The system creates a personal program that automatically adapts to the player’s strengths and weaknesses and helps hone their skills and make smarter plays under pressure.

IntelliGym claims that players will see results in just 10-15 sessions on average. Their statistics will also increase, boasting a 30 percent improvement rate on the ice (goals, assists, completed passes, giveaways, etc.). The program accesses a different type of muscle to improve player ability; it taps into a player’s hockey sense, and although you may be at home and not in all your smelly hockey gear, trust me, it will still make you sweat!

The cognitive system targets five separate areas of a player’s game, and as you progress along through the system, the areas are combined together to test your abilities. The area is Maneuver; this area is based on how and where you move, teaching you where you should be on the ice at any given time, and when you should go attack or play defense. That leads us to the next two areas, Offense and Defense. The game teaches you when to be offensive, and when to be defensive.

The next area is called bomb, and is essentially the puck. The cognitive system uses a bomb instead of a puck to eliminate the idea that you are playing hockey and create a new team-building environment for your brain. The final area is Team Play, this ties together the other four areas of the game and is based on how you perform with your teammates, teaching you not only to be an unselfish player, but also where to be so your teammates can find you for a convenient pass.

                                                                    Two players on the University of Maryland Ice Hockey Team
                                                                             discuss adjusting to the system and seeing results

The system showed improvement in the USA Hockey’s U-18 Team using IntelliGym to increase their win percentage from 29% to 70%.

In the 2009-2010 season, the US Nationals U-17 and U-18 adopted the Hockey IntelliGym and have seen some of the most groundbreaking results. On average, the players increased their number of goals and assists by 42 percent after 8 weeks and their win ratios more than doubled itself during that season.

Data graph highlighting the US National Teams

In the five years since then, six different US Nationals teams have used the Hockey IntelliGym, winning 24 gold medals in international tournaments, including six International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Championships. The IIHF Championship is elitist international tournament, apart from the quadrennial Olympics, for players around the world.

In a 2013 article in the New York Times, the writer, Jeff Z. Klein, talks about how the Hockey IntelliGym has spread beyond just USA Hockey, and interviews Danny Dankner, the chief executive of ACE, as well as players who currently play in the National Hockey League (NHL), including Dougie Hamilton (Calgary Flames); Ryan Strome (New York Islanders; and J.T. Miller (New York Rangers).

According to research done by ACE’s Dankner, 68 percent of injuries result from “unintentional contact”, where two players collide on the ice with neither seeing the other player. Dankner’s research has found that teams that use IntelliGym have experienced a 14.9 percent reduction in injuries and an astounding 27 percent decrease in head injuries.

The skills that the system allows for a player to learn create better positioning for yourself as well as more on-ice awareness of surrounding players, which in result, reduces the amount of injuries in the game. A concept that is a win-win for players and parents.

Players at the University of Maryland tested the system for a week throughout practice and games

I had two teammates each play two sessions before we skated on the ice for practice on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as an additional session each on the bus ride up to Rowan University on Saturday afternoon. I chose to ask two defensemen on the team rather than a forward because the system I paid for was set up to tailor to a defensemen’s brain and style of play.

                                            Eli Gorgevski-Sharpe discusses his results with IntelliGym

Eli Gorgevski-Sharpe, a sophomore from Palm Springs, Florida, was one of the two participants. Eli finished the weekend a -2, but had two assists against Rowan. The other participant, Patrick Havey, a sophomore from Cornwall, New York, finished the weekend even in a +/- rating, as he was on the ice for one goal against, as well as one goal for us.

                                                                             Patrick Havey discusses his results with IntelliGym

Both players said they had difficulty adjusting to the controls when they began using the system, but as they progressed through the week, especially in their third and final session, they both saw much improved results in the gameplay, which in result contributed to their play on the ice.

My personal experience with the system over the past two weeks has seen results in the cognitive games, as well as on the ice 

I have been using the Hockey IntelliGym system since the beginning of Thanksgiving break and have logged over three hours on the system, amounting to six sessions worth of gameplay. Since then, I have practiced twice on the ice and had two games; one on Friday vs. University of Delaware; Saturday vs. Rowan University. 

The largest difference I noticed was my ability to read plays better, and anticipate not only where the puck was going, but also where my teammates and opponents would skate next. I felt very comfortable in the two games we played this weekend. After a strong performance against Delaware, my coach, Coach Jim Gaudet, awarded my play with a spot in the starting 5 lineup the following day against Rowan.

Although we lost both games, 7-1 (Delaware) and 6-3 (Rowan), through both games I was only on the ice for one of the opponents’ goals, a power play goal in the Rowan game, and I was on the ice for all four of our goals, giving me a +/- rating of +4 on the weekend. Power play goals do not affect your +/- rating.

A typical pre-session screen giving advice and showing gameplay

Within the cognitive system, I also saw a steady increase in each of the five areas of my game. One aspect of the system that particularly enjoyed was the “Let the Game Begin!” screen that would appear before you begin that day’s session. This screen would give you advice on how to perform best in the day’s session and would include a video on what to focus on when you play. The video would be of real ice hockey gameplay from the United States U18 team. The screen was extremely useful and relevant for every session.

For a long time, “hockey sense” was a skill that was considered elusive and unteachable, but thanks to the Hockey IntelliGym, players can now learn skill development off the ice, while also learning to play a safer game.