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“We’re able to not only identify events, but we’re able to determine what led to those events, and we can create intelligent reports for players and coaches,” Nathwani said. We’re talking multiple events recorded per second, outlining the examples listed above such as skating speed, zone entries and a lot more.
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All these pieces of technology work in conjunction to build a complete and remarkably detailed map of every event, down to the most microscopic level, that happens during a game. A “stick tag” insert puts a tracking device in the butt end of a player’s stick. A tracking device is embedded in a custom-built game puck that behaves exactly like a regular puck.
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HOCKEY SPLAYER SERIES
So how does Drive Analytics’ version of player tracking work? As Nathwani explains, it starts with placing a series of sensors, between 12 and 14, around a rink, typically on the glass. With a massively underserved market in mind, the Drive Hockey team began creating its revolutionary technology. “They may not necessarily have that expertise that you would see once you get to the higher ranks, (where teams) identify a need for additional tools and resources to support decision-making for coaches but also in support of recruit and player development.” “In a lot of cases, coaches, particularly at the lower levels, are volunteer coaches or parent coaches,” Nathwani said. The NHL had been teasing the idea of player tracking for years, but Dahlstedt wondered if there might be an even greater need for that type of research at the grassroots level, where the people charged with running teams had far fewer resources – and far less time because they often still had day jobs. According to chief operating officer Adam Nathwani, it began with anecdotal musings from founder Mike Dahlstedt a few years back. So how did Drive Hockey Analytics, a Vancouver-based company incorporated in 2018, make a foray into player-tracking technology? The idea started as a sports technology engineering project at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Thanks to readily available information on a Drive Hockey app minutes after a game, Mom and Dad might be pointing how their kid’s peak skating speed dipped from last week or how their average shift length increased. Forget the classic trope of parents driving their kids home after games, doling out advice on how they needed to hustle more or finish their checks. The advent of player tracking is already in the process of making instant analysis a reality at the NHL level, but it’s also about to start happening at much lower levels thanks to breakthroughs made by a company called Drive Hockey Analytics. What if, in the near future, nothing players did at the minor or senior hockey levels went unnoticed? What if coaches could track, in real time, how fast players were skating, how long they held the puck, how effective their zone entries were…in the middle of a game, right after their shifts? That idea doesn’t represent some far-off future in a world with flying cars. If only we could’ve been seen for all the little things we did well on the ice. How many of us retired hockey players romanticize the idea that we could’ve made it in the pros with a bit more luck? If only that hardnosed bantam coach hadn’t overlooked us, ignored us because we were too small or because the coach wanted to play their own kid. The Drive Hockey "stick tag" sensor (courtesy of Drive Hockey Analytics)