Profiling Of High-intensity Events In Elite Chinese Female Field Hockey Matches

Abstract

Physical performance in field hockey (here on in referred to as hockey) is determined by many different factors. Recently, the development of small wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) has provided new possibilities to profile the physical demands in different team sports, especially in the high intensity events (HIEs) aspect of competition and training. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to profile the position-specific HIEs in elite female hockey matches with the use of IMUs. METHODS: Sixteen matches analyzing 22 elite Chinese female hockey players (height: 168.5±4.6 cm, body mass: 62.4±5.3 kg) were record by using IMUs (OptimEye S5, Catapult Sports, Australia) during the 2016-2017 Chinese national competition season. Players were categorized in three different playing positions: strikers, midfielders and defenders. Mean speed (MS), PlayerLoadTM (PL), accelerations (Acc), decelerations (Dec), changes of direction (CoD) and the sum of later three, HIEs, were extracted from raw-data files using the manufacturer’s software (OpenField, version 1.14.0). All Acc, Dec, CoD and HIEs >2.5 m/s2 were analyzed. Data were reported as mean±SD. Multiple paired t-test was used to compare data between different positions. Significance was set at P≤0.05. RESULTS: The mean on-field time for individual players was 48.8±15.8 min and the mean PL and MS when combining all playing positions were 9.4±1.3 PL/min and 108.6±12.3 m/min respectively. The mean HIEs, Acc, Dec and CoD combined for all players were 1.1±0.3 HIEs/min, 0.2±0.1 Acc/min, 0.2±0.1 Dec/min and 0.7±0.2 CoD/min respectively. Defenders showed significantly lower PL and MS (8.7±1.2 PL/min, 100.7±11.9 m/min) than strikers (9.7±1.4 PL/min, 114.2±10.6 m/min) and midfielders (9.8±1.0 PL/min, 111.9±9.2 m/min) (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The mean playing time reported in the present study was similar to data from international hockey matches (48.8 ± 15.8 vs. 44.7±11.0 min), yet PL and MS from the present study was lower than that of elite international players (9.4±1.3 vs. 11.2±2.1 PL/min; 108.6±12.3 vs. 113.3±13.5 m/min). Competition level (national vs. international) is the most likely reason for these differences. Further research should focus on the HIEs’ performance of elite international level hockey players. Supported by CSC (No. 2018083110192).