New virtual reality technology company Sense Arena announced its hockey VR training platform will showcase at CES Las Vegas 2019 from Jan. 8 to 11. Sense Arena launched this past October with a minor investment from Boston Bruins’ right winger David Pastrňák.
The Czech Republic-based company will host free trials at its CES booth where guests can experience the platform’s hockey training drills in VR. Sense Arena provides access to more than 70 training drills designed to help players improve their hockey skills, reaction time, cognitive ability, and hockey sense. Using the system, players can quickly rack up thousands of virtual repetitions.
“The technology and the reality of the environment are just amazing and so far, we’ve only seen half of what Sense Arena can be further developed into! I would definitely encourage you to try Sense Arena—you have to try it to believe it,” said Pastrňák in a news release from Sense Arena.
Sense Arena’s total package includes an HTC Vive headset, specially-engineered hockey sticks with small sensors, a mobile computer kiosk, and four other sensors that can be placed in the corners of a room to help the platform align a digital map of a hockey rink to the space. Results during training are tracked by Sense Arena, meaning the data could be used by coaches and scouts to evaluate and compare players’ skill levels.
Sense Arena has partnered with several club and professional ice hockey organizations in Czech Republic, including the Czech Ice Hockey Association. In the U.S., Sense Arena is used by the Colorado Springs Tigers club and the Washington Little Caps, both amateur youth-level clubs.
“The brain is the most important ‘muscle’ in an athlete’s body. Every command to our bodies starts in the brain. Improving cognitive functions of players is going to be the new game changer. VR gives you the benefit to work on speed of reaction, decision making, reading of the game etc.,” said Bob Tetiva, Sense Arena Founder and CEO.
SportTechie Takeaway
By visiting Sense Arena’s booth, guests at CES 2019 will have the opportunity to experience the newest technological revelation in training: virtual reality. Sports teams are taking advantage of VR tech such as Sense Arena so that players can accumulate thousands of practice reps outside of official training sessions. Villanova University has also begun using virtual reality to train its baseball team while a recent study showed VR could reduce pain during exercise.
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