On-ice Energy Cost And Lactate Production During An All-out Anaerobic Test In Ice Hockey Players

Abstract

The lack of ice hockey-specific lactic anaerobic assessment tools limits the ability of coaches to better track and develop their players. PURPOSE: Establish two predictive equations for assessing indirectly 1) the O2 energy expenditure, and 2) the maximum lactate concentration following an all-out on-ice skating effort. METHODS: Twenty male elite ice hockey players participated in this study (age=15.7±1.0 year). The maximal anaerobic skating test (MAST) consisted of skating back and forth on an 18.2m course at maximal speed with abrupt stops at each end for a total of 12 shuttles (average time=52.0±2.0s). The O2 energy cost was measured using a portable metabolic analyzer (Cosmed K4b2) and the maximum post-exercise lactate concentration at 1, 3, 5, 15, and 20 min was measured with a Lactate Pro analyzer. The independent variables used to estimate O2 consumption were body mass, time, heart rate, and the number of skating strides and skating stride index both measured at the 2nd shuttle. For the lactate concentration estimation, the independent variables used were time, heart rate, and the number of skating strides and skating stride index both measured at the 6th shuttle. RESULTS: Correlation coefficients for both equations were r=0.87 and standard error of estimate (SEE) were 6.2% and 6.8% respectively for O2 uptake and lactate production, indicating that validity of the regression algorithms were excellent. Particularly for the estimation of the lactate level, the removal of variables in relation to the skating efficiency reduces the correlation to 0.49 and increases the SEE to 10.5% thus indicating the importance of considering an index of skating efficiency during this type of evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, there is no specific ice hockey field test allowing the indirect estimation of O2 cost and lactate concentration in a purely anaerobic test. Thus, using simple and easy-to-measure variables, coaches will be able to monitor more effectively their players’ progress in an effort to optimize their individual on-ice anaerobic performance.