Strobe glasses improve hockey players' performance

Strobe glasses improve hockey players' performance

Dec. 13, 2013 — Professional hockey players who trained with special eyewear that only allowed them to see action intermittently showed significant improvement in practice drills, according to a Duke University study with the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes.

---

Share This:

The eyewear features lenses that switch between transparent and opaque, producing stroboscopic visual conditions, much like a strobe light in your favorite dance club.

Earlier research using the stroboscopic eyewear during training showed improved vision, visual attention, and ability to anticipate the timing of moving items. But the small pilot study with Hurricanes players is the first to directly explore whether those effects can improve sports performance. The study appears online in the November-December issue of Athletic Training & Sports Health Care.

Players who trained with the strobe eyewear experienced an 18 percent performance improvement in a series of on-ice skill tests. A control group showed no change.

"From a sports perspective, you want to know if something is going to be an actual, viable training tool," said Stephen Mitroff, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. "If players train with it, will they likely get the benefits? Our previous work showed that stroboscopic training affected vision and attention, and here we explored if those changes can benefit sports performance."

The strobe eyewear forces the wearer's visual system to train in difficult conditions in much the same way that wearing ankle weights makes training harder for a runner, he said. The eyewear's lenses alternated at different rates, always with a clear state for a tenth of a second, and various opaque states ranging in intervals from 67 milliseconds to nine-tenths of a second.

Mitroff collaborated with Hurricanes athletic trainers and strength and condition coaches Peter Friesen and Doug Bennett to test players during the team's 16-day pre-season training camp. Eleven players completed the full study wearing eyewear called the Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe.

The athletes were randomly divided into a five-player control group that completed normal training and a six-player strobe group that wore the eyewear once daily during normal training. Each group completed a performance assessment before and after training. Forwards were asked to perform a task that involved difficult skating before taking shots on goal, and defensemen were asked to skate in a circle before completing long passes.

"That 18-percent improvement for on-ice skills for professional players is huge," Mitroff said. "This is a dramatic improvement observed in professional athletes."

Mitroff cautioned however, that these results are preliminary due to the small size of the pilot study. More research is needed to determine the true impact of the eyewear on performance. "That we observed an 18 percent improvement in professional athletes is pretty amazing." Mitroff said. "So, given that this is a small sample size, I would imagine that with more data the effect will be significant and real, but a smaller percent improvement."

Although the most immediate application of the strobe eyewear is in athletics, Mitroff said the potential does exist for it to have future impact in medical, military, and physical rehabilitation settings.

Welcome to SUV System Ltd!

SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences.

We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our years of professional service.

SUV System Ltd is Electronic Components Distributor Supplies,Find Quality Electronic Components Supplies Products IC(Integrated Circuits),Connectors,Capacitor,Resistors,Diodes,Transistors,LED at Suvsystem.com. Sourcing Other Energy, Environment, Excess Inventory Products from Manufacturers and Suppliers at Suvsystem.com

Electronic Components distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com

Connectors Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Connectors-1.html

IC Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/IC(Integrated-Circuits)-1.html

LED Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/LED-1.html

Capacitor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Capacitor-1.html

Transistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Transistors-1.html

Resistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Resistors-1.html

Diode Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Diodes-1.html

SUV System Ltd insists on the managing faith ofsincereness,speciality,foresight, win-win,so we build up stable-relationship customers located all over the world, including the States, Europe, Argentina, UAE, Malaysia, Australia,and India etc

we are focus on the following fields,and hope we can help you.

HARRIS IC chip Filter saws ST Transistors Metal Can Packages Transistors Switches VISHAY IC ST Diodes Fairchild Semiconductor Transistors Voltage Regulators Transistors FAIRCHILD diodes Current Sensors Resistors Transistors About US INFLNEON Diodes Diodes Inc MAXIM IC Schottky Diodes LED Transistors Freescale ROHM Resistors IR Diodes Chip Inductors Chip Ferrite Beads MURATA IC Cypress IC MOTOROLA IC Kingbrigt LED TI IC Multi-units Transistors Zener Diodes Diodes LINEAR IC IC(Integrated Circuits) IR transistor Electronic News NEC Diodes LITTELFUSE Diodes AVX Resistors TDK IC PANASONIC Resistors
http://www.suvsystem.com/a/8164.aspx