Jets-linked biometrical hockey skills platform launches

High-performance hockey players may soon choose more paperwork.

Rather, they’ll choose reports — detailed documents breaking down the skills they need to improve upon. True North Sports and Entertainment Ltd., the ownership company behind the Winnipeg Jets, is throwing its weight into a new business producing data-filled analyses.

“This was probably one of the most exciting things I’ve seen in skating in a long time,” said Dave Cameron, head on-ice instructor and program director of Jets Hockey Development.

Cameron, a former WHL and Canadian university forward, has taught young hockey players through Jets programs for a decade.

He couldn’t estimate how many students he works with in a given year, between training camps and private sessions. Jets Hockey Development programs draw roughly 1,000 people in spring and summer.

Last summer, Cameron was presented with Kin Hockey, an analysis platform created by the father of one of his students.

Marshall Ring is the former head of the Manitoba Technology Accelerator. During his tenure, the MTA assisted with the growth of SkipTheDishes and Callia, a popular flower company. (The MTA has since merged with Tech Manitoba to become Manitoba Innovates.)

“Dave would say (my daughter is) getting better on skills,” Ring said. “But I wanted to know — why is she getting better? Is it that she’s got flight extension? Is it that she’s transferring energy better?”

And so, he spent the past 18 months researching and building a software platform.

Physical sensors tracking data isn’t ideal in hockey because of the constant movement, Ring said. He wanted to use video footage.

By his account, he compiled a data set from 120 peer-reviewed articles on skating movement performance ranges. He used Python code to build an algorithm. Ring then pulled skating videos from public sources, including platforms that livestream rinks, such as LiveBarn.

He’d feed videos into the algorithm. Rick Farmer, the 7 Oaks Hockey Skills Academy’s program director, became Ring’s business partner and the “sniff test” to see if algorithm results aligned with problems Farmer viewed in the tapes.

Kin Hockey brought athletes to Keith Bodley Arena in the spring and produced reports based off video footage.

Cameron saw a report during his summer dinner with Ring. Reports can focus on forward and backwards skating and shooting.

“I was just very impressed by the detail of it, and the information it gave to players,” Cameron said.

Later during testing, Kin Hockey would analyze videos of Cameron’s clients (with consent) and produce reports.

“Pretty much everything that I would have worked on with them was in the report,” Cameron said. “Our job as coaches will be to help them work on those specific skills and make sure that they continue to improve.”

On Tuesday, True North inked a deal with Kin Hockey to be the exclusive provider of biomechanical skills analyses in Winnipeg.

Reports cost $150 per player. In Manitoba, a Jets Hockey Development coach will go through the analysis with students.

Any hockey player can book a report and session on the Hockey For All Centre’s website, starting later this week; the $150 cost includes a 30-minute meeting.

Program coaches teach roughly 85 per cent of Winnipeg’s young high-performance hockey players, said David Sattler, general manager of the Hockey For All Centre.

Staff will promote the optional reports to development program participants.

Hockey Winnipeg’s High Performance Council is also supporting the new business, though it won’t require teams to order analyses.

“We don’t have any skin in the game,” said Paul Krestanowich, Hockey Winnipeg’s U15 AAA girls age group director. “It’s basically, ‘Hey, here’s this excellent opportunity.’ This is a pretty inexpensive add-on to your team.”

Krestanowich estimates there are 300 female high-performance hockey players in Hockey Winnipeg’s 9,000 player pool. The boys’ side has far more, he noted.

“When you’re competing at the elite level … every little thing you do can make a difference between playing at one level or another,” Krestanowich said, adding he expects report uptake to come from high-performance athletes.

The Kin Hockey crew has “crazy high credentials,” he said. (Farmer is Kin Hockey’s chief performance officer.)

Founders put roughly $100,000 into the startup company, Ring said.

The True North deal is set for three years.

Ring said he can’t patent his software, but he expects Kin Hockey has at least six months of a “sophistication” lead compared to competitors.

He’s aiming for 10-day turnarounds when a report is ordered. The amount of video needed depends on its quality — sometimes five minutes is required, sometimes 30 seconds, Ring said.

The deal could bring new faces to Jets Hockey Development training, Sattler noted.

Kin Hockey is in talks with hockey entities, such as academies, for exclusivity deals in Seattle, Boston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Calgary and Switzerland, Ring said.

Cory Kartusch is listed alongside Farmer and Ring as registrants of Kin Hockey in the provincial government’s companies office.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com