Data-hungry athletes can鈥檛 get enough of wearables, from the golf gadgets pros use to analyse their swing, to fitness trackers basketball players strap on during practice. But ice hockey has been slower to adapt. Engineer wanted to find a way to pull data out of a player鈥檚 natural movements and show amateurs what they鈥檙e doing wrong.
鈥淚n hockey, there are some specific things we know are optimal. For example, some beginners have their hands too high on the stick,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his system tells you what you can improve.鈥�
To do this, Hardegger鈥檚 team fitted traditional hockey equipment with a range of sensors. Instruments on the skates monitor where a player鈥檚 feet are and how fast they鈥檙e moving. The stick, too, has sensors that can track pressure, strain, and motion.
Advertisement
A smartphone app crunches all the data, letting players review their technique and compare it to a professional鈥檚. An algorithm can pick out different types of movement 鈥� like jumps, turns, and power stroke 鈥� as well as the characteristics of a shot in the net.
The prototype got its first test early this year at public ice rinks, where players practised skating and shooting while wearing the augmented gear. The testers included eight professional players from the Swiss National League team EHC Olten, as well as the researchers themselves.
Their results will be presented later this month at the Body Sensors Network conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The system could be invaluable for amateurs, says , who works on sports technology at MIT. In sports, it can be very difficult to unlearn a bad habit: a coach might correct you during practice, but by the next day, you鈥檝e forgotten what you were doing wrong. 鈥淚ntermediate or continuous feedback could be super helpful,鈥� he says.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e looking at the performance an athlete on the field or on ice, it鈥檚 easier if you鈥檝e got data on the athlete as opposed to watching a video.鈥�
