All things being equal: spatiotemporal differences between Open and Women’s 16-goal Polo

Abstract

This research was carried out with owner informed consent and in accordance with ethical animal research guidelines (International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals). Ethical approval for this investigation was provided by Waikato Institute of Technology's (Wintec) ethics committee (Approval code: WTFE2601102018).

Repeated Menthol Mouth Swilling Affects Neither Strength nor Power Performance

“…Mean best scores were calculated as a mean of participants’ best two efforts per test, per condition [ 24 , 30 ]. Data were analysed using SPSS (v24; IBM, New York, NY, USA); data were considered normally distributed as per the following criteria: Shapiro-Wilks test p > 0.05, skewness and kurtosis were within ± 1, if the mean and median were within 10% of each other, or if 2 × SD > mean [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. A two-way mixed repeated measures ANOVA was performed to assess the effects and interaction of treatment and participant sex, with an a priori alpha level of 0.05.…”

Player Heart Rate Responses and Pony External Load Measures during 16-Goal Polo

“…Players must change horses between periods of play (chukkas), which are contested over 7-7.5 min of regulation play [1]. The actual duration of chukkas varies widely, with values up to 19:27 reported [2,3], and differences are also apparent between Open and Women's Polo [4]. This poses significant stress upon players' horses; hence, players may change horses during a chukka to manage a horse's workload across a game or tournament.…”

“…Data were collected using GPS devices (VX Sport 350, VX Sport, Lower Hutt, New Zealand) and heart rate monitors (Suunto Smart Sensor, Suunto, Vantaa, Finland), sampling and transmitting at 10 Hz and 2.4 Ghz, respectively. GPS devices were set to an equestrian mode with a customized range of 0-60 km/h as previously reported [2][3][4]10]. It is important to note that this does not limit recording ≤ 60 km/h, but sets a benchmark in the accompanying analysis software, for which, to scale the data, collected GPS devices were turned on upon arrival at the ground, to secure an initial 'satellite lock', and left to sample for 1-2 min, effectively registering the location for the sample, before being turned off until game sampling.…”

“…Maximum speed and average speed (both km/h) attained per chukka are reported for each player for each chukka; All subsequent categories that rely upon speed (2.3 distance metrics and 2.4 time metrics) are divided into five speed zones, which are derived from an assumed maximum speed of 60km/h, and these zones are as follows: Zone 1: 0-19.2 km/h; Zone 2: 19.2-23.4 km/h; Zone 3: 23.4-28.2 km/h; Zone 4: 28.2-47.4 km/h; Zone 5: 47.4-60 km/h. These zones have been used repeatedly in our previous work across levels of Polo [2,3,10] and between Open and Women's Polo [4], and approximate to horse gait speeds of walk/trot, canter, fast canter-gallop, gallop, and maximal effort [11], although it should be noted that equine gaits tend to be categorized via footfall patterns, as opposed to velocity [4,11,12].…”

“…High intensity metrics include sprints, accelerations, decelerations, and impacts, and their associated parameters. Sprints are considered a positive or negative acceleration > 3 m/s/s [3,4,10] and are described as a count variable on a per chukka basis for game outcome analyses. Accelerations and decelerations are also considered on a count basis, with descriptive data pertaining to average length, maximum length, and total length of each effort (m) provided.…”