Identification of "sleeping" talent using psychological characteristics in junior elite ice-hockey players.

Scouts search for "sleepers" who may be initially overlooked but ultimately exceed expectations. The psychological characteristics of those players are often neglected because they are difficult to observe, but hold promise to identify sleepers given for example the self-regulation and perceptual-cognitive skills that those developing players might need to flourish. The aim of this study was to examine whether sleepers could be retrospectively identified using psychological characteristics. Ninety-five junior elite ice-hockey players (aged 15-16) were assessed on self-regulation and perceptual-cognitive skills before the yearly draft. Seventy players were drafted after the second round (37th or later). Three years later, professional scouts identified 15/70 sleepers they would now pick if given the chance. Those identified by the scouts showed higher self-regulation planning, and had distinguishable gaze behaviour (fewer fixations on more AOIs) when performing a video-based decision-making task than other late-drafted players (84.3% correct classification; R2 = .40). In addition, two latent profiles differentiated by self-regulation were found, with the profile with higher scores including 14/15 players selected by the scouts. Psychological characteristics were successful in retrospectively predicting sleepers, and may in future help scouts to make better selections of talent.

Linking the preference in a bilateral asymmetric task with handedness, footedness, and eyedness: The case of ice-hockey.

Most people know whether they are left-handed or right-handed, and usually base this assessment on preferences during one-handed tasks. There are several manual tasks that require the contribution of both hands, in which, in most cases, each hand plays a different role. In this specific case, holding an ice-hockey stick is particularly interesting because the hand placement may have an incidence on the playing style. In this study (n = 854), the main objective was to determine to what extent the way of holding an ice-hockey stick is associated with other lateralized preferences. Amongst the 131 participants reporting a preference for the left hand in unilateral tasks, 70.2% reported a preference for shooting right (placing the right hand in the middle of the stick); and amongst the 583 participants reporting a preference for writing with the right hand, 66.2% reported a preference for shooting left. 140 (16.4%) participants were classified as ambidextrous and 61.4% of them reported a preference for shooting right. This preference on the ice-hockey stick is closely correlated (uncrossed preference) to the way one holds a rake, shovel, or broom, or a golf club, but inversely related to the way one holds an ax and a baseball bat. The link between the way of holding the ice-hockey stick and eyedness or footedness is weak. These results are contrasted with the results reported by Loffing et al. (2014) and reveal the need to clarify the exact nature and requirements of the targeted tasks when studying bilateral asymmetric preferences.

About the Predictive Value of a 3D Multiple Object Tracking Device for Talent Identification in Elite Ice Hockey Players.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to verify if a single session on the NeuroTracker has predictive value in talent identification in ice hockey. Methods: Thirty-five male ice hockey players (aged 16-20) from the highest Canadian competition level for that age group participated in the study. A battery of tests (attention, working memory, time reproduction, pattern recognition, temporal equivalence, technical ability, and decision-making) was administered to verify the relation between various cognitive abilities, on-ice performance, and the baseline score on the NeuroTracker, which is claimed to solicit multiple cognitive functions. On-ice performance indicators were game-related statistics: games played, points (mean per game), on-ice goals differential, and draft rank. Results: Results show that the baseline score on the NeuroTracker is not associated with draft ranking, nor is it able to predict which players will perform best based on game-related statistics. However, the NeuroTracker baseline score does correlate with various tests involving working memory and attention. Conclusion: Currently, NeuroTracker is not specific enough to allow talent identification among same-level elite athletes in ice hockey.

One psychological second does not necessarily last 1000 ms.

The duration of the representation of 1 s was estimated with two methods: (a) the adjustments of the duration of a sound and (b) the production of 10 s with counts from 1 to 11. The estimations were not close to 1 s and varied considerably. Assuming that the representation of 1 s is close to 1000 ms could well be misleading.