Statement of Problem

In reviewing the literature, it is apparent that the current literature does a poor job of describing the physiological demands of field hockey due to a lack of appreciation in the validity of the technology and how its applied given the specific context of competition and training. That is to say, that some data looks at position specific demands where in actual fact the roles of hockey players are more interchangeable than in other sports. Furthermore, applying and validating speed and acceleration zones from competition could be misleading because restricting the playing area in training will prevent these zones being achieved. In addition, the problems with specificity of individual movement patterns make it difficult to monitor individual patterns of activity.

Current analysis of field hockey has been a replication of the methods used in soccer which has been inappropriately considered to be a similar sport. For instance both field hockey and soccer studies report on position specific demands without considering the differing contexts with which these sports play. Soccer tactics mean players have quite specific roles – you either play defence, midfield or attack with fewer nuances where players play between the lines (Reilly, 1997a and Mohr, Krustrup and Bangsbo, 2003). However in field hockey positional data is less specific with a variety of positions played on the pitch and large amounts of rotation expected by coaches (Reilly and Borrie, 1992). Reporting these position specific demands becomes blurred in field hockey where it is not uncommon for midfielders to play in what we would consider an attacking role. Inappropriately we may pigeon hole them into either role instead of considering them as individual field hockey player irrespective of position. Utilisation of team averages may be more appropriate

97 | P a g e especially when considering the players across teams with differing tactics and in comparison to drills such as SSGs which remove positional intricacies.

Further to this, the technology used in the most recent literature – GPS – has been used to specifically report positional data as well and compare competition to training drills such as SSGs. This technology has been report as valid for team sport performance (Aughey, 2011 and Cummins, 2012) but lacks the accuracy and specificity to display individual data with confidence. However GPS and its built in microtechnology reports important movements such as acceleration and decelerations which have been previously unquantifiable with other methods of TMA including heart rate and video analysis. We believe that the technology is not specific enough to determine individual differences but has huge potential for the comparison of activity demands across levels and activities. As such the mean data from each of these specific observations is proposed as the best method to answer the questions of this thesis.

In addition the current literature presents GPS data which has been analysed using the same procedures as those used on soccer. The results reported in the literature suggest that physiologically poorer athletes – field hockey players of both genders - play at a higher intensity than other sports people, namely soccer players (Cummins, 2012). This can be explained by the differing rules of these sports. For instance rolling substitutions in field hockey allow for periods of absolute rest resulting in higher intensities when they return to play (Spencer, Lawrence, Rechichi, Bishop, Dawson and Goodman, 2004). However is it appropriate to remove these rest periods

98 | P a g e from the analysis and restrict the observations to the field of play? Changing the time of the observation logically results in relative intensities which are higher but this does not mean that field hockey players play at a higher intensity or have greater physiological and physical capacity. For this reason the aim is to analyse data specific to field hockey and the context of competition and training.

The physiological ability of players of different levels and their physical activity during competition and training have been reported in the literature. The one study on Scottish players (Johnston, Sproule, McMorris and Maile, 2004) suggests poorer ability than the top ranked teams in the world studied by Spencer and colleagues (2004), Gabbett (2010b), and Lythe and Kilding (2011). The contribution of physiological differences, physical activity differences and skill level on the ability of Scottish players compared to the top elite players is unknown. The reason for the difference could be due to differences in skill level and the inability to perform at high intensity without skill breakdown, poorer physiology limiting the volume and intensity of their activity during game play or possibly down to contextual variables such as opposition ability and tactics. Further to this, it may be the level of training and/or club competition which affects the experience level, skills under pressure and physiological training stimulus provided to Scottish players. As such assessing competition and training with a view to comparing between levels may allow for some of these questions to be answered.

Additionally, the ability to maintain performance levels throughout a game has been reported in the literature as an important factor in the eventual outcome of

99 | P a g e competition. Fatigue has been shown to occur during laboratory studies of RSE in field hockey players (Spencer, Bishop, Dawson, Goodman and Duffield, 2006 and Spencer, Fitzsimons, Dawson, Bishop and Goodman, 2006) but maintenance of activity has been shown in individual games (Spencer, Lawrence, Rechichi, Bishop, Dawson and Goodman, 2004) Only across a tournament have players shown decreased physical outputs (Spencer, Rechichi, Lawrence, Dawson, Bishop and Goodman, 2005). This is different to the soccer data reported where it is a common observation that players reduce their activity in the second half of games. The use of rolling substitution and the way they are used may be the key differentiator between the two sports and have a large effect on the ability to maintain performance late in the game. One study has looked at this in field hockey and substitutions were shown to impact on both physical activity and involvement in the game (Lythe and Kilding, 2013). Although this is a very important question to answer this study only looked at one position at one level of the game which offers very little insight into the wider use of rolling substitutions and their effect on fatigue. The way in which the field hockey specific rules are utilised must be assessed on the large scale to see if players of different levels and playing in different levels of competition alter their pacing strategies to suit their own circumstances.

The current perception of field hockey competition and training is largely based on the potentially inappropriate GPS data reported in the literature. Recent studies have criticised the intensity of training in comparison to competition with inappropriate foundations (Gabbett, 2010b). The observation of SSGs - which are restricted to playing size - and competition is an unfair comparison and is logically going to have differing physical demands. To the authors knowledge no study in field hockey has

100 | P a g e observed the whole training session and the elements which make it up to assess the contribution of drills to physical activity. Furthermore no study has assessed whether these drills have the potential to elicit a training stimulus. This type of information may be more appropriate for coaches and practitioners when prescribing training practices rather than a blanket criticism of training intensity in comparison to competition.

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