Visual, Spatial, and Temporal Occlusion in Ice Hockey
How limiting information sharpens cue recognition and enhances performance through perception-action coupling
In many sports situations, the object moves so quickly that reacting in real time is nearly impossible. Players must rely on reading environmental cues to anticipate what is likely to happen. This could mean identifying where a shooter is aiming the puck or predicting the direction of a breakout to improve forechecking effectiveness.
Looking at this picture, where is this shot likely headed? … Why did you guess that?
Looking at the video (in slow motion for help) leading up to the shot, where is this shot likely headed? … Why did you guess that?
See if you were correct:
Given the speed of the game, players have to read cues and information within the game. It’s all about anticipation and perception, so players can make quality decisions and executions. Those who have great predictive talent can better read and execute with deep adaptive behaviors.
Background Definitions
The exercise you just went through could be called temporal, spatial, and visual occlusion. A person hides body parts or movements, often via video or film editing, in order to study how people use vision to anticipate the next best course of action.
Occlusion: a process where something is hidden or obscured from prominence or view. In our case, obscured from an athlete’s visuomotor workspace.
Temporal = relating to time
Spatial = relating to space (eg, removing specific sources of information)
Visual = relating to sight
Occlusion is a method used in sports that involves temporarily blocking or withholding visual information during an exercise.
From a talent identification standpoint, does this player have strong hockey-specific pattern recognition skills relative to his peers?
From a training perspective, how is a player currently thinking about the game, and what information are they picking up from their environment?
Within many other sports, occlusion is a well-known and used tool in talent evaluation and performance improvement. This method helps athletes improve their ability to anticipate events by forcing them to rely on earlier visual cues for decision-making, given the informational constraints imposed upon them.
Soccer/Football Example - Cristiano Ronaldo in the Dark
Here is an example from soccer/football where Cristiano Ronaldo scores from crossed balls. Each time, the lights shut off earlier to make it more difficult. He is unable to track the ball all the way in, but rather has to make judgment calls based on the cues in his environment (the kicker/crosser/passer).
Yes, he actually timed out shoulder contact and rotation for the final goal… truly remarkable.
Baseball Example - Swing or Don’t Swing
Baseball occlusion on whether to swing or not swing.
Messing With Your Cues
The elite of the elite play the meta-game and are extremely deceptive on many levels, including the information that they give off.
In this video, we see Auston Matthews load up and show body language (“Kinematic cues“) you’d associate with a high and hard shot, only for him to adjust his arms and hands to snap the puck on the ice to score from over 20 feet away.
Next week, we are going to run a test by “becoming” Matthews for a shift.
Further Reading