Cody Nelson is a 14-year-old lacrosse player who recently switched from attack to goalie. The transition has been smooth, except Cody struggled on bounce shots, or “bouncers,” as he calls them.
Some young athletes would just make a note of that and focus on it in practice. Cody had a different idea. He used his background in creating games with the Unity software to build a program that allows lacrosse goalies to train in virtual reality. With help from his dad Doug, a lacrosse coach for 17 years, Cody created the Virtual Goalie.
“After one of Cody’s lessons with a local coach, I asked him if he could make a field for the Oculus,” Doug said. “Within 48 hours, Cody had a ball on the field. The shooter wasn’t there yet, but it was a start.”
Doug works in IT and has been a lacrosse coach Cody’s entire life. Cody has very similar interests as his father.
“I have been programming and working with computers for five years now,” Cody said.
If Cody isn’t working on computers you can probably find him on the lacrosse field. “I first picked up a stick when I was three, I played my first game a couple of years after that,” he said.
“I’ve been a coach for 17 years, and Cody has been on the field with me since before he could walk,” Doug added.
The program works by placing the user in front of a virtual goal, then it creates a shooter in the field and the user hits a button to have the virtual attacker take a shot.
“Most kids, when they try it for the first time, they reach out and try to touch the pipes,” Doug said.
The program comes with an app that allows for customizable training packages. You can change the speed and which side the shot comes at or create fully custom drills that can allow the user to target a particular weakness, like bouncers.
“When I first switched to goalie, I wasn’t doing well on bounce shots,” Cody said. “After a week of using the training system, I could see the bouncers and predict where they were gonna go.”
After the shot, the app provides the user with feedback in a number of areas.
“Step towards the ball, drop on low shots, don’t punch with your top hand and let the ball rebound,” Doug explained. “You look at all that data, and it tells you how your actions impacted your save percentage.”
Next up for the father-son team is LAXCON where it has secured a booth to demo Virtual Goalie.
“I have a feeling that on fan day we will be yelled at to disperse the crowd (at our booth),” Doug said.
By showing what’s happening in the Oculus headset on a monitor over the display, the Nelson’s believe booth 567 will have plenty of traffic.
“We want people to use and understand what the product is. We want them to see how it can help goalies,” Cody said. “You have to get the system in front of them and get them using it to understand its power.”
The vast majority of American households still do not own a VR headset. It is hard to explain the applications of VR without being able to actually dive into the virtual world. Doug dealt with this same issue when he first came across the platform.
“Virtual reality is cool, but even as a techie, I wasn’t drawn to it. It’s like, what do you use it for? Why?” Doug said. “It’s abstract. A lot of people hear VR, but they don’t know what it means to have it on their head.”
His view on virtual reality has since pulled a clean 180. Now he can’t stop imagining the other applications this tech could have.
“We have a patent pending for training in virtual reality, hopefully it is written well enough for us to get it,” Doug said.
The tech naturally extends to being a goalie in hockey or box lacrosse. It could also help baseball batters and catchers better track pitches, but not all of the applications are sport-focused.
“Cody is almost coming up to the age where he can start driving,” Doug said. “You could have kids come up to an intersection where the light is turning green but a car is about to run the red light from the side.”
While those applications are still a long way off, both Doug and Cody can’t help but be excited for the future. In the meantime, Cody is working with the varsity team for his freshman year, and his save percentage on bouncers keeps rising.
