How CageWork Labs works, and what we’re still testing.
CageWork Labs is five short browser games for athletes 13–22. Each game has a short practice and a two-minute scored clock. The report turns how you played into a strengths-based snapshot you can talk through with a parent or coach. It is developmental feedback, not a tryout, a ranking, or a clinical test.
Athletes, parents and coaches
One short session, three ways to use it.
If you’re an athlete
- Five games, about 12–15 minutes, no questionnaires.
- See what stood out today and one thing worth practicing.
- Retest in about six weeks and see what moved.
If you’re a parent
- A strengths-based report, written for your athlete, not a ranking.
- Three debrief questions to talk it through together.
- We don’t sell results or share them with recruiters. Under 18s need your OK first.
If you’re a coach
- A conversation starter about memory, tracking, planning, and restraint.
- For development, never for tryouts or selection.
- We’re recruiting programs for our pilot.
Sample report · Sample coach one-pager
Join the coach pilotThe five games and what they’re based on
Four of the games are built on task designs that researchers have used for a long time to study memory, attention, planning, and self-control. We adapted them to short, touch-friendly games. The fifth, The Siege, is our own design. All five feed one report.
1. The Playbook → Working Memory
Tiles light up in a sequence and you tap them back. Sequences get longer as you succeed.
Based on: a Corsi-style block-tapping span task, a classic test of spatial working memory. What we score: the longest sequence you ran back correctly, plus tap accuracy.
2. Keep Your Eyes → Visual Tracking
A few dots are marked as targets, then everything moves among lookalikes. When motion stops, you pick the targets. It starts easy (a practice round where the dots stay still, then slow dots) and adds one thing at a time over five levels: more targets, more dots, faster motion, then thin posts and finally narrow moving screens.
Based on: multiple-object tracking, a well-studied attention task. The posts and screens are kept narrow on purpose: a dot only counts as hidden when all of it is behind one, and it is never hidden for more than about half a second, so the game tests tracking, not guessing. What we score: across all rounds, the share of targets you picked minus the share of wrong dots you picked, so random tapping scores about zero.
3. The Setup → Planning
Four-in-a-row puzzles: win now, set up a forced win, or block a loss. The greedy move is sometimes a trap.
Based on: planning puzzles in a simple board game. Each move is checked against a solver that looks several moves ahead. What we score: how close your moves were to the best move, and how often you avoided traps.
4. Take the Pitch → Inhibition and Timing Precision
Pitches come in on changing paths. Swing at lime balls while they are inside the zone, ideally as they reach the bright sweet spot that moves every pitch; let WASTE balls and balls beside the zone go.
Based on: go/no-go and stop-signal tasks, standard ways to study response inhibition (acting on one signal and holding back on another). What we score: the share of good pitches you swung at in the zone minus the share of take-pitches you swung at, so neither swinging at everything nor holding on everything scores well. Timing Precision is its own skill: how close your swings on good pitches came to the sweet spot (where you made contact, not whether you swung). It needs at least 10 such swings.
5. The Siege → Coachability and Strategy
Defend three bases (yours in the middle, Base 2 and Base 3 beside it) from falling rocks. Some waves give you a shot for every rock; most make you choose, and a coach’s call (not always right) and your teammates compete for your shots. A short guided practice comes first and is not scored.
Based on: our own design; there is no established task behind it yet. It feeds two skills. Coachability: how well you used the coach’s good calls and passed on the poor ones (following every call scores about the middle, not the top; it needs at least 6 coach calls). Strategy checks each interceptor against the best play: keep your own base standing (if it falls you can’t fire), follow the coach when the call is good (not when it is poor), then use what is left on the biggest teammate threats. Only waves where you have to choose count (it needs at least 4 such waves and 10 decisions); the easy waves check that the game made sense, and if many rocks are missed there, the report says so and leaves both Siege skills out of your pattern. Team Orientation and Composure are shown as extra reads next to them.
The report also shows Cognitive Load Tolerance, a combined read of how well you held up as the first three games got harder (longer sequences in The Playbook, the two top levels of Keep Your Eyes, deeper puzzles in The Setup). It is built from those games, not a separate test.
What we measure
Seven skills in three groups, all in one report. Everything comes from how you actually play, not from what you say about yourself. We’re upfront about which parts are well grounded and which are still being tested (below).
Focus & Memory
- Working Memory: how much of a play or pattern you can hold and run back accurately.
- Visual Tracking: keeping eyes on the right moving pieces as they get more numerous and faster, and through brief cover.
Decisions
- Planning: looking ahead to set up a win, and spotting traps before you bite.
- Inhibition: going on the right moment and holding back on the wrong one.
- Timing Precision: on good pitches, swinging as the ball reaches the sweet spot.
Team & Coaching
- Coachability: using the coach’s good calls and passing on the poor ones.
- Strategy: each interceptor against the best play: your own base, good coach calls, then the biggest teammate threats.
- Extra reads: Team Orientation and Composure. Plus one combined read, Cognitive Load Tolerance, from the first three games.
How the report reads your pattern
The report opens with Your pattern: a short summary across all seven skills. It compares your skills with each other, not with other athletes. Your typical level is the middle (median) of your scored skills. A skill stood out if it is at least 10 points above that, and is a place to grow if it is at least 10 points below it and not already Strong (75+). Smaller gaps are within the normal wobble of a single score, so they are not called out; if all your skills are within 15 points of each other, the report says your profile was even. It then notes up to two combinations from a short fixed list (for example, strong Inhibition with low Timing Precision reads as “patient, but not always on time”; high Coachability with lower Strategy reads as “listens well, still learning the board”; strong Working Memory and Planning together read as “holds it and plans ahead”), and gives two or three things to try. The profile name is your top “stood out” skill, or All-Round Competitor when nothing stood out. There is no single overall score: one number would hide exactly the pattern the report is about. A skill with too few plays says so on its own card and is left out of the pattern.
How it works
- Tell us the basics. A quick start form: name, age, and sport if you like. That’s it. No long forms.
- Play five games. A short practice, then two scored minutes each. A phone held upright, a tablet or a laptop all work; fast-reaction results may differ by device.
- We score the behavior. Your choices and timing feed seven skills, summed up in one report with your pattern across them.
- Get your profile. A strengths-based report you can download, revisit, and talk through with a coach.
What’s solid and what’s still being tested
On firmer ground
- The Playbook, Keep Your Eyes, and The Setup follow well-established task designs.
- In our computer simulation study (simulated players, not real athletes), scores from those three games tracked the abilities they were built to measure.
- In that model their consistency from one session to the next was moderate: good enough to start a conversation, not good enough for high-stakes decisions about one athlete.
- Scores never use made-up defaults. If a game didn’t collect enough data, the score is shown as “Not measured.”
Still being tested
- No real-athlete data yet. Everything above comes from a simulation. The pilot (below) is how we find out what holds up.
- Take the Pitch is new and wasn’t part of the simulation study.
- Take the Pitch’s Timing Precision and The Siege’s Coachability and Strategy are newer. In our simulation, Coachability and Strategy were less consistent than the first three games, so read them as a conversation starter, and they are not compared between sessions yet.
- Device matters. Fast-reaction games can play differently on a phone than on a laptop. Retest on the same kind of device.
- Very strong players can hit the two-minute clock before the games get as hard as they can, which limits the top of the scale.
- No age norms. So there are no percentiles and no comparisons with other athletes.
How retests work
Every score moves a little from one session to the next, even when nothing has really changed. The report only calls out a change when it is bigger than the normal retest variation we expect for that game; everything else is shown as “within normal retest variation.” Those limits come from our model for now and will be replaced with numbers from pilot retests. Changes are checked for Working Memory, Visual Tracking, Planning and Cognitive Load; the other skills are shown but not compared yet. For the fairest comparison, retest in about six weeks on a similar device, in a quiet place.
Why you can trust the read
Confidence comes from method, not marketing. This is a developmental tool to open conversations, not a verdict on an athlete’s ceiling.
Behavior, not self-report
We score how you actually play under pressure, not how you rate yourself on a questionnaire.
Many trials, not one play
Each core read draws on dozens of trials across a two-minute game, so no single play defines you.
Transparent & auditable
Every score traces back to specific in-game behavior, and the logic is documented on this page, including what’s still being tested.
Built to develop
The report names strengths and one clear opportunity to grow, meant to be used alongside coaching, not to rank or label.
Your data
An athlete’s data belongs to the athlete. We handle results carefully, especially for young athletes.
Private by design
Results are submitted to a secure database. The website can only send results in; it can never read anyone else’s data back.
Encrypted in transit
Every page and every submission is served over HTTPS, end to end.
Never sold
Individual results are never sold or shared with recruiters or colleges without explicit written consent. Any future norms use anonymized data only.
Copy or delete any time
Email info@cageworklabs.com to get a copy of your data or have it deleted. A parent or guardian can ask for a minor.
What we won’t do
- No rankings. We don’t rank athletes or report percentiles.
- Not for tryouts or selection. Scores should never decide roster spots, playing time, or scholarships. Our Terms say so.
- Not shared with recruiters. Individual results are never sold, and are not shared with recruiters, colleges, or anyone else without explicit written consent.
- No personality labels from one game. The profile name describes one session, and Coachability describes how you used coach calls in one game, not your character or attitude.
- No clinical claims. This is not a medical, psychological, or concussion test.
Our pilot plan
- Expert review. A panel of psychologists, sport psychologists, assessment specialists, and coaches reviews each game and score and rates whether it fits what it’s called. Labels that don’t hold up get changed or dropped.
- Athlete think-alouds. A small group of athletes across the age range plays while talking through what they’re doing, so we can fix confusing instructions and report wording.
- Pilot with real athletes. About 200 athletes, with a group retesting a few weeks later, so we can measure how consistent each score really is and replace the model-based retest limits.
- Only then: consider age-based comparisons. Until the evidence is there, the report stays descriptive.
Coaches and programs can help. Join the coach pilot by email.
Pricing
Free while we’re in pilot. We’re building the first cohort right now; paid tiers are on the way.
Athlete Assessment · Free
- All five games, two scored minutes each
- Your core development profile
- Strengths-based report to download
Enhanced Report · $49–99 (coming soon)
- Everything in the assessment
- Expanded narrative & development plan
- Context on what each trait means
Teams & Clubs · Let’s talk
- Bulk athlete assessments
- Coach view across your athletes
- Program-level insights
Gear: The Locker Room, CageWork Labs gear for the athletes, coaches, and parents who put in the work.
FAQ
How long does it take?
About 12–15 minutes in one sitting: five games, each with a short practice and a two-minute scored clock, plus a quick start form.
What device should I use?
Any of them. On a phone, hold it upright (portrait): every game is laid out for that, and if the phone is turned sideways mid-game the game pauses until it is upright again. Phone results for the fast-reaction games may differ from a laptop or tablet, so use a quiet place and the same kind of device if you retest.
Does it cost anything?
No. It’s free during our pilot.
Why did my profile name change when I retook it?
The name comes from whichever skill stood out that day. Scores move a little between sessions, so the name can change. It’s a snapshot of one session, not a label.
Is there one overall score?
No. The report describes your pattern across seven skills instead: what stood out, what to grow, and how skills fit together. One number would hide that. Cognitive Load Tolerance is a combined read of the first three games, not an overall score.
Who sees my results?
You see the report on your screen and can save or share it as you choose. A copy is saved to CageWork Labs’ secure database, which only CageWork Labs can access. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
Can I get my data deleted?
Yes. Email info@cageworklabs.com for a copy or deletion. A parent or guardian can ask for a minor.
Can a coach use this for tryouts?
No. It’s built for development conversations, not selection. See our Terms of Use.
Who built it
Built by Scott Hines, founder of CageWork Labs.
Contact
Questions, feedback, or a problem with the games? Email info@cageworklabs.com.