Literature Review and Sense Arena Update

Literature Review

Technology and Ice Hockey Training

Nicholas Skelton

EDLD 5314

Blended Technology in Ice Hockey Training

Introduction

The use of blended technology has moved forward over the last few decades from use of computers in the classroom to pilots training without planes or helicopters. One technology that is starting to be used in blended learning is Virtual Reality. Virtual reality (VR) is a global term often used to describe a mostly visual-based computer simulation of a real or imaginary environment (Craig, 2014). VR is becoming a more popular standard when it comes to learning in the classroom and outside of the classroom as it can encompass multitudes of layers when it comes to observing and interacting.  Outside of the classroom, VR is finding little limitations for its functionality, specifically in sports. In the past and currently, VR has been used in medical and safety training. VR is still rather new and in its infancy in the sports industry. Several sports have recently incorporated VR over video play back for training and theory. There are several companies that work with those sports but only one company works with the sport of ice hockey. That company is Sense Arena. They are on the edge of breaking through to style of training for hockey players that rivals none other. This review will not discuss VR as a video game or entertainment center, but it does recognize that companies like Microsoft, Sony and Samsung (among others) have allowed VR to advance with their own respective research and technology to help all companies mentioned. This review we will explain Virtual Reality, current state, equipment being used, specific sports and fields; research studies using VR and Sense Arena; the future of VR and why Sense Arena will work for ice hockey training; and how VR has many benefits and unlimited boundaries that have yet to be discovered.

Currently

Currently there are many different types of VR training offered from pilot training to safety hazard training to even train firefighters on space awareness with results as good as traditional methods (Michalski, Szpak, Saredakis, Ross, Billinghurst, Loetscher 2019). VR is the ability to be immersed into an environment that can help eliminate dangers or risk taking by evaluating and understanding moves while not endangering personnel or the public when it comes to both pilot and safety training. VR is an intergrade technology that uses computer simulation technology, different forms of multimedia, human-computer interaction, sensors and sensor activation, intelligent man and machine interface, both 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional graphics, human psychology, high performance computing technology, human behavior and human motor behavior, artificial intelligence and other fields (Li, 2018).

Modern competitive sports are high skilled, difficult design, precise and fast memory and muscle development, which makes sports training more beneficial when helped by modern technology. In order to maximize the potential of people and athletes, modern sports need modern science and technology to continue growth and skill development (Li, 2018). Applying VR to sports training has several advantages. One of those advantages is VR offers the possibility for people to train without the necessary sporting environments or multiple training partners (Michalski, et al., 2019). Several sports have embraced VR technology in the last few years. The National Basketball League (NBA) in America is currently using VR training to increase free throw percentage, Andre Drummond used STRIVR to correct his free throws by more than 10% accuracy (Bulletin, The , 2017) and in the National Football League (NFL) in the rehabilitation of quarterbacks,  Carson Palmer was able to learn to recognize blitz packages sooner, therefore cutting his reaction time (Bulletin, The, 2017).

STRIVR, started by former Stanford University kicker Derek Belch, is a VR based company that designs and programs their environments on game enhanced film study specifically to train quarterbacks.  Belch believes in the future iPads will be obsolete and players will be reaching for VR headsets. Currently STIVR works with NCAA and NFL including Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings. STRIVR puts the athletes into a real-body situation where the participant is mimicking the movements of a athlete that has a 360-degree camera attached to their body. This is situation gives the participant a feeling or perception they are the athlete (Schnell, 2015).

Equipment Used

Some of these programs offer the Head Mounted Displays (HMD) while others use a Computer Assisted Virtual Environment (CAVE). In a CAVE model the participant is put into a room that has multiple LCD monitors that surround them. The participant usually wears a specific set of goggles or eye wear that will allow the computer to interact with them and with joy sticks in their hands. Unlike an HMD, the CAVE model allows the participants to move around in the area. HMD usually are not look through, and for safety concerns the person is usually limited on their movement. On the contrast though, HMD have a more realistic look compared to the CAVE model. HMD are less expensive, more portable and smaller comparable to CAVE systems (Slater, 2009). Both CAVE and HMD allow participants to be in one the three levels of VR (non-immersive, semi and full). Full immersion enhances the participants feeling of being in the actual environment with the use of both HMD and CAVE (Akbas, Marszatek, Kemieniarz, Polechonski, Stomka, Juras, 2019).

Benefits of VR and Results

A major benefit of VR is it can be manipulated close to real time to adjust information and the environment in which the subject is placed (Craig, 2010). This means that subjects’ perception or mechanics can be altered or adjusted immediately. Researchers can fine tune and reproduce same scenarios exactly how they are supposed to appear (Craig, 2010). Coaches and researchers can monitor head movements and adjust so the subject can have a viewpoint in real time all in a stereoscopic experience through HMD or CAVE settings (Craig, 2010). Along with the technical benefits for the competitors and workers, there are some possible benefits for the non-athletic population. Lee and Kim reported in 2018, that after a 4-week exercise VR program that the subjects’ body compositions had changed and that stability and posture were improved. They also said that VR can possibly help strengthen cardiopulmonary function through aerobic exercises in VR (Lee, Kim, 2018). STRIVR’s Derek Belch said they’ve shown that full immersive VR is more beneficial than the standard 2-D video when it comes to a person learning Tai Chi. According to the study, those who learned from VR were able to perform at a higher capability in every phase of the experiment (Bulletin, The, 2017).

In recent studies with participants utilizing the HMD in VR environment during table tennis training, findings show that players who used just the HMD were more accurate when target shooting compared to the player that received training from just the professional table tennis coach without VR training. The disadvantage of the test was their form and overall technique suffered compared to the players that were coached (Michalski et al., 2019). They related this problem to the inconstancies in the virtual environment which lead the players to unnatural movements that are not transferred into real world application. The results showed that VR training improved overall real-world table tennis skill compared to the ones who had no training at all. Michalski believes that VR could possibly be better used as evidence-based training instead of real-world training. Yet, he also states that using VR is better practice than no practice at all.  If VR systems are designed to understand performance-based solutions needed for individual athletes, then the administers of the program can alter or manipulate to facilitate skill solutions and development for the participant (Stone, Strafford, North, Toner, Davids, 2018).

Other benefits show VR can work in not just the game play scenarios or the conditioning the heart but also in sports psychology. Using success in military psychology training, researchers have started to investigate athletes. They believe that anxiety can be induced in a VR environment in a variety of different subjects tested (Stinson, Bowman, 2014). Some athletes in high pressure situations will make poor decisions or face an anxiety that will hinder them from performing to their maximum potential. VR is used to simulate large crowds, specific environments, and or high stress situations to help the athletes train for the mind games. This technique was first used in preparation for speed skaters before the 2002 Winter Olympics (Stinson, Bowman, 2014). Other sports and athletes who have utilized VR for sports psychology include a collegiate golfer and a crew team. All CAVE systems in these studies included noise from crowds and environments that triggered anxiety in the participants (Stinson, Bowman, 2014). Much more research is needed in showing improved physiological, psychological and cognitive function with help of VR.

Research and Result

Much quantitative research exists concerning the use of Virtual Reality in scenarios from sports, corporate training and injury prevention to neuromuscular stimulation. However, currently there is limited research and results with the use of the Sense Arena with primary focus on read and reaction times of the players participating in the training. Several companies such as STRIVR can run simulations to monitor and put in place scenarios that would allow employees as well as athletes to learn what options they can use when these types of situations arise. Much like athletes, “employees must often make split-second decisions that impact the entire organization.” (Pappas, 2020) Having VR allows the participants to, “take risks, try out their skills, and learn from their mistakes, so they never have to struggle through a task or doubt their decision-making abilities,” (Pappas, 2020) all while decreasing their read and reaction times. Much like the SA, these companies are focused on read and reaction when learning in VR which shows significant faster ability to read plays and decision-making time decreasing by 20%. (Belch, 2017)

Virtual Reality Read and React Studies

Several studies from groups, including STRIVR have shown the speeding up of reaction times and improved sports performance (Ryan, 2017) over the last few years showing that VR training is working effectively. Hedderik van Rijn in 2017 conducted a study on learning and memory to show the differences between introspective and performance measures of learning. This was achieved by introducing serial reaction time task (SRTT) developed by Nissen and Bullemer to study the processes underlying a broad range of behaviors, including the cognitive and biological principles of learning and memory.(Sense, 2018) The test was conducted with four sequences of random targets that light up  appearing in the VR headset. The participants sat in a chair and wore an HTC Vive VR headset with a single hand-held controller (in dominant hand). (Sense, 2018) The participants positioned themselves virtually so they would be able to touch the objects that appeared in the headset easily. A baseline test was administered before starting the practice round of 25 trials where shapes would light up in specific orders that participants would have to virtually touch. The performance test conducted consisted of 150 trials that were completely random and did not repeat. After the test was completed, overall 98.8% were correct on the practice trials with little to no errors. (Sense, 2018) The performance task of 150 trials was near perfect: incorrect responses account for 0.6% of the performance trials. Responses were fast: The median reponse time (RT) across correct responses was 425 ms and 90% of those were between 302 and 603 ms, with only 0.5% of all correct trials resulting in RT’s longer than one second. (Sense, 2018) After the completion of the study, one of the discussion topics was how VR has an advantage to manipulate the environment from which the study is being conducted to fit any test. (Sense, 2018) With the results of over 17,000 tests, it is reassuring and opens the door to innovative experimental manipulations for an established experimental paradigm using state-of-the-art technology. (Sense, 2018)

Sense Arena Research

Sense Arena’s focus on read and react time has had reports commissioned by Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic (CU) focusing on hockey training with cognitive processes in both hockey and non-hockey specific areas in the youth players aged 10-11 years old, as well as a University of Wisconsin Stephens-Point(UWSP) who administered one that focused on cognitive function, specifically related to hockey sense in competitive ice hockey collegiate athletes.

Dr. Beth Kinslow DSc, LAT, Assistant Professor of Athletic Training at UWSP conducted a study with a Sense Arena that included 30 NCAA Division III University varsity ice hockey athletes (15 males, 15 females) that focused on “how an interactive sport specific virtual reality system can improve cognitive function, specifically related to hockey sense in competitive ice hockey athletes.” (Kinslow, 2020) read and react were calculated from diagnostic testing protocol with the VR system. (Kinslow, 2020) read scores were comprised of weighted averages of peripheral vision, multiple object tracking, detail recognition, time movement anticipation and looking for open lanes. (Kinslow, 2020) react scores were comprised of the weighted averages of reaction time, release time, correct decisions, spatial orientation and verbal communication. (Kinslow, 2020) The results show a significant increase in both read (mean scores were 8.73 in the experimental group compared to the control group at 0.61) and react scores (experimental group 11.31% mean difference of 2.18% in the control group) to those who trained in the Sense Arena compared to those who didn’t engage in the additional immersive VR training. (Kinslow, 2020) “The evidence supports that training with the Sense Arena System improved hockey sense which is a necessary component for peak athletic performance.” (Kinslow, 2020)

Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, conducted a study that involved using the Sense Arena with youth hockey players ages 10-11 years old. The purpose of the study was to: 1. Create an environment in the VR system to improve cognitive processes of the players and develop gamer performance factors. 2. Assess to what extent VR training develops selected cognitive functions and how it will affect game performance. (Perič, 2019) The study focused on both Hockey-nonspecific, development of cognitive processes (attention, decision making, proprioception, peripheral vision, reaction rate, situation awareness and others), and Hockey-specific, focused on hockey skills and game situations (linking of motor skills, rhythm development, reading the game, selective (complex) reaction speed to specific stimuli, situational decision making, divergent creative decision making and more). (Perič, 2019) The experimental group underwent three months of VR training that consisted of over 1,740 minutes in total. The control group underwent three months of nonspecific VR training for the same amount of time. Both groups were tested for: 1. Cognitive testing (Vienna test system) – 5 tests (total 28 items) 2. Specific hockey performance tests – tests on ice (in real ice hockey). (Perič, 2019) The results show that out of the 28 tests in the cognitive tests, the experimental group doubled in improvement over the control group. (Perič, 2019) In the specific hockey tests, the control group achieved faster scores in puck handling and shooting tests while the experimental group achieved higher absolute performance overall. (Perič, 2019) In conclusion the study states, “1) A virtual reality training program has been developed that focuses on the development of cognitive processes and hockey-specific activities. 2) This program has brought higher development of the selected cognitive functions, while increasing hockey performance of probands in specific hockey tests.” (Perič, 2019)

Both studies prove there are benefits of training for hockey in a VR environment, especially Sense Arena. VR is a possible complement or replacement in some situations of hockey training. (Perič, 2019) Currently, Sense Arena has commissioned two other studies in Prague, one on players and another on goalies. Sense Arena recently released a ground breaking goalie training application that incorporates sensors on the goalie’s blocker and glove to help train on save percentages and reading game time situations.

Ice Hockey and Why Sense Arena Will Work

Ice hockey, like other sports, is very traditional when it comes to training. However with the increase of participants to over 650,000 (USA Hockey, 2019) and the lack of available ice times at the limited ice rinks in the United States, Virtual Reality (VR) can help eliminate or reduce the amount of wasted ice time where the athletes are standing around talking about game theory and reconstructing in game skills.

Using both technology and sports, Sense Arena (SA) has developed a state-of-the-art VR immersion program that allows the athlete to be immersed into a VR ice hockey rink. This means that anyone anywhere can be have a virtual ice rink to practice their skills on. Sense Arena was developed in the Czech Republic in 2016 to focus on the training of the “Brain Muscle” for players ages 10+. According to the Sense Arena website, SA is currently integrated in six countries (Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States) with selected hockey programs and over 1,300 registered users worldwide. There are nine places in the US that offer SA: Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas, NV, Colorado Springs Tigers, Colorado Springs, CO, REM5 St. Louis Park, MN, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI, Washington Little Capitals, Washington D.C., First Live Training Center, Rockville, MD, Sharpskate NY, Brooklyn, NY, NOA Physical Therapy, Darien, CT, SoNo IceHouse, Norwalk, CT (Sense Arena, 2019). The Vegas Golden Knights location is only for their NHL team players use.  Out of the locations listed above, only four are open to public use while the others are for either medical or private uses.

Hat Trick Training Academy, Inc would be one of the facilities in the US that would have Sense Arena training available to its members. The SA program employs the use of a Head Mounted Display (HMD) that has a 3D capable monitor that fits over the brow and eyes. The HMD also utilizes headphones to give the participant the full effect of being immersed in the environment. SA also includes a chargeable ice hockey stick that supports the immersion by letting the athlete feel vibrations of a hockey puck hitting the stick and using it to practice the specific skills (Sense Arena, 2019).

Limitations of Virtual Reality and What the Future Brings

Widely used in novice training areas of practice, rehab and clinical trials, VR is becoming more common in high performance jobs that have high risk and high skills such as medical, flight crew, pilot training and mining industry. There are huge unexplored areas of VR training for athletes. (Akbaş, Marszałek, Kamieniarz, Polechoński, Słomka, Juras, (2019).  

Because the technology is so new there isn’t a lot of research available currently. Some coaches are hesitant on trusting technology and experimenting with VR, so the coaches won’t use it (Katz, 2016). VR is primarily recommended for open skill sports like ice hockey, table tennis, baseball and others (Akbas et al., 2019). Full emersion isn’t literally full emersion into a completely different world.

On December 11, 2019 Sense Arena held the world’s first Hockey E-Skills Competition during the Elite Hockey League (EHL) Showcase at Newington Ice Arena in Connecticut. The competition had two EHL teams, Connecticut Rough Riders and East Coast Wizards, participate with five players from each team facing off head to head in SA’s CAVE system. Two players, one from each EHL team, both having an HMD and stick competed in their SA space facing each other with the program administering the competition and collecting the points. Audiences could watch either live in person at the arena or on streaming services from either YouTube or Twitch. The competition went to double overtime where the Connecticut Rough Riders won the first Sense Arena Hockey E-Skills Competition Cup. Sense Arena is planning on holding more competitions in the future in Europe and North America (Sense Arena, 2019).

Every year technology advances and designers are continuously turning rudimentary graphics into more realistic ones. VR is nowhere near what it can be. It’s going to change human performance. Paper playbooks and notepads will be obsolete as players employ the HMD to see a full 360-degree version of plays and game related situations (Bulletin, The, 2017). Robert Griffin III, who holds a masters in Virtual Reality from Baylor University and is a current rostered quarterback in the NFL, in 2016 believed that VR was not yet ready to deliver the real game day experience as it is not yet, “seamless” enough (Rockwell, 2016).

Seeing the Outcomes…Virtually

Virtual Reality has been drawing a lot of attention lately. During the summer of 2020, Sense Arena was adopted by the Canadian ice hockey national governing sports body, Hockey Canada (Paule, 2020). Hockey Canada utilized Sense Arena’s; team-building activities, mental preparation and ice sliding simulations with their players (Paule, 2020). These virtual sessions were held twice a week to ensure that the Hockey Canada athletes continued to develop their skills, despite being quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic (Paule, 2020). Outside of hockey, Formula 1 drivers are also working with VR to train. “To practice, the more realistic, the better. We had a simulator that was virtual reality and we used a lot of that to prepare for the actual driving,” said Formula 1 driver, Nico Rosberg, who is affiliated with three-time reigning driver and constructors’ champions, the VR frontrunner, Mercedes-Benz (VB, 2018). The football (soccer) world has also embraced VR with clubs like Arsenal and Stoke City of the English Premier League who partnered with Beyond Sports, a VR company to help track the players, stats and specific play sets (VB, 2018).

Outside of the sports realm STRIVR is using VR to train employees at Walmart and other companies. STRIVR states its VR training solution can result in learning retention rates up to 75% just when using it for lectures and reading literature compared to 10% retention without any VR (WBR Insights, 2018). VR enables employees to learn through practical experience. Experiential learning has long been argued as the most effective way to learn and studies have shown that learning through experience increases the quality of learning, and retention by 75-90% (Thompson, 2019).

In education, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, educator Eric Garcia is using VR to help his students develop skills like empathy, compassion, and understanding.  Garcia is using VR tours of places like the Holocaust museum and the Mayan Temples. VR is allowing Garcia to bring Día De Los Muertos celebration to life to help teach his students about different cultures. “Virtual reality really helps out not only students with learning disabilities but students with social-emotional problems or language barriers, who have never been outside the bubble,” Garcia said his students who normally struggle with traditional learning systems are drawn in through VR (Morley, 2020).

Introducing the Goalie training through Sense Arena

In the middle of the year 2020, Sense Arena launch a now platform directed toward goalie specific training. This new development, gives goalies an opportunity to improve their skill without the physical wear and tear with on-ice training (The Coaches Site, 2020). According to Bill Ranford, goal tending coach for the Los Angeles Kings, load management is a big topic nowadays in goaltending. Sense Arena brings quality, realistic goalie training without the need to wear all the goalie gear (Sense Arena, 2020). Since ice hockey goalie training is specific to the position, there are many differences in the equipment and programs being used compared to the traditional ice hockey player. Currently there is not an option for goalies to utilize their stick or leg pads with the VR sensors (Mountain, 2020). However, there are sensors for the goalie glove and blocker along with the Oculus HMD. Using the Oculus Quest HMD with Sense Arena, allows goalies to make thousands more touches without the physical wear and tear on their bodies, while working on skills, box control, learning game situations, visualizing them, while managing concentration and stress (The Coaches Site,2020).

On startup, the participants are immersed into the VR environment where they can select which skills, they would like train on. When the training program starts, the goalie is in first person view and can see virtual shooters in front of them. The athlete is able to move around in the given around (about 8ft x 8ft area) where they have a 360-degree view when turning their head. Maria Mountain, MSc, from GoalieTrainingPro.com worked with a professional goalie who says, Sense Arena represents situations just like what they see on the ice (Mountain, 2020). Along with a variety of skills and drills, one of the features that the Sense Arena Goalie Training allows is random shots from the Artificial Intelligence in the software. It has been suggested that when learning sports skills (either in VR, VE or AR), it is highly beneficial for the athlete to learn a variety of skills in a single training session and practice in a random fashion (Farley, O.R.L., Spencer, K., & Baudinet, L. 2020). Sense Arena has incorporated real time video of players taking shots in the VR environment to give the goalie a more realistic view.  Being that the SA Goalie training program is so new, more research will be needed in the future to see more results.

What Hasn’t Work

With Sense Arena being so new to the training world, there is very little research and few studies showing any adverse side effects with the specific training program. However there have been studies about the side effects in the classroom with Virtual Reality. Some of those side effects are; Possible addiction to the virtual world, functionality issues with the programs, lack of flexibility (in simulations) and deteriorations of human connections (Hicks, 2016). All of these examples could lead to an athlete who has been so immersed in VR training, that they become use to certain plays happening certain ways. When that application is then tried in the real world, the outcome might not be the same as in the VR and the athlete might not know how to address it with their teammate. Having a more human interactive, time limit and program flexibility VR training sessions could help eliminate those problems. Future studies and research will be needed to address the situations that might negatively affect the athletes using Sense Arena. 

Improvements That Might Need to be Addressed

Being that Sense Arena is so new to the market, there is always room for improvements. One of the improvements Maria Mountain has suggested is that Sense Arena adds more games for the goalies to work with as well as leg pad sensors for the goalies (Mountain, 2020). During the goalie sessions in the VR environment, the glove and locker do not match in color (Mountain, 2020). Sometimes when the sensors are attached to the glove and blocker, they became “lost in space,” as they disappear from the VR environment (Mountain, 2020). With Sense Arena only being used in 40 locations worldwide (Sense Arena, 2020) and a the at home goalie version still so new, more research and usage will be needed to address any improvements that will need to be addressed.

Lessons Learned and The Future

Working with the any new innovative project such as Sense Arena, there is a challenge to find articles and research search papers specific to the project. However, speaking with the Sense Arena company and users of the products, this has helped limit that curve on find the needed information. While there is still much more data and research to be collected for the Sense Arena specifically, there is an abundance of research related to VR in education, corporate training and sports. Most of the research points in a favorable way toward Virtual Reality in training the brain and senses. Continued research and data collection will be needed to continue the success of Sense Arena and training ice hockey players in Virtual Reality.

Conclusion

Since VR is such a new technology there is very little information on the effects of VR and athletes in their respected sports. With Sense Arena planning more E-Skills competition in in Europe and North America, more players will have access to the benefits of SA and VR for hockey training. This will encourage more studies to evaluate and understand the full benefits of VR and the what the future can bring. Even though there is very little information about training with VR in hockey, this should not deter anyone from experimenting with VR. With limited ice time and availability of an ice rink, Sense Arena will help fill that void. To understand VR and Sense Arena’s full benefits, further studies and research will need to be conducted.

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