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"It's an interesting product, and what it's trying to do is exercise the parts of your brain that are involved in making decisions on the ice." — K E N M A R T E L , T E C H N I C A L D I R E C T O R F O R U S A H O C K E Y ' S A M E R I C A N D E V E L O P M E N T M O D E L t's been said that a player's hockey sense is something that he or she is born with and not something you can teach. Through the past decade, USA Hockey, in partnership with Applied Cognitive Engineering, has helped more than 52,000 hockey players of all ages and skill levels to develop a greater hockey sense by forcing them to make quick decisions through the Hockey IntelliGym. "It's an interesting product, and what it's trying to do is exercise the parts of your brain that are involved in making decisions on the ice," said Ken Martel, tech- nical director for USA Hockey's American Development Model and a contributor to the software. "We've always been especially interested in how we help our players potentially be more intelligent on the ice and have that hockey sense." During the 2009-10 season, the USA Hockey National Development team incorporated Hockey IntelliGym into their daily routine at both the Under-17 and Under-18 national teams. With a total of 44 players partici- pating, the athletes improved their points per game by an average of 42 percent, compared to the previous year, as well as more than doubled their team wins ratio. "How do you quantify one more good decision per shift?" Martel asks. "The way I would equate things is you're trying to look at marginal gains in performance. If we can make every individual on the team just a little bit better in different areas, then that exponen- tially makes the team better." Since the release of the Hockey IntelliGym 10 years ago, partner- ships have also been made with organizations such as Minnesota Hockey and Hockey Canada and it has been used among highly regarded programs like Penn State, Ohio State, Northeastern, the Niagara Icedogs and many more. This technology has given ath- letes from all programs the oppor- tunity to build upon their craft while off the ice. "One of the difficulties in our sport is the fact that you can't be on the ice hundreds of hours," Martel says. "There is no substitute for being at hockey practice or in a game for improving your hockey abilities including your hockey sense, but for another avenue, like going to the weight room, we thought exploring ways to improve that would be beneficial." Ongoing research continues to support the positives and real impacts that are being made on the ice as a result of integrating Hockey IntelliGym into weekly training sessions. In terms of how the devel- opment of a player's hockey sense can be tracked, there are many strides that are still being made. "Right now, our measurement for trying to quantify productivity and game intelligence is very difficult because all you can measure are outcomes, not how the outcome was derived," Martel says. "Sometimes the right decision doesn't go well, but it was the right decision and you don't get credit for that." P Sidney Binger is the 2020-21 Brian Fishman Intern. I 46 // NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM By Sidney Binger BRAIN TRAINING WITH A PURPOSE Hockey IntelliGym Celebrates 10 Years Of Improving Hockey Sense