Comparing the Most Demanding Passages of Official Matches and Training Drills in Elite Roller Hockey

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify and compare the most demanding passages (MDP) in elite roller hockey in competition and in different training situations. Data were collected using WIMU PRO™ sensors with inertial micro-technology and ultra-wide band positioning. Eight professional roller hockey players from the Spanish First Division League (Ok Liga) were analysed during the 2017-2018 season. The MDP were studied using a rolling average method in which maximal values were calculated for three different time windows (1', 2' and 5') in official matches and in four different training drills commonly used in the weekly team-training schedule: practice match (TRAINING MATCH), 4 vs. 4 in half court and one transition (4vs4+1T), 4 vs. 4 in half court and two transitions (4vs4+2T) and 3 vs. 2 wave transition drill (3vs2). The variable used for the comparison was the distance covered in high speed skating (HSS: >18 km • h-1 ; m • min-1) and only the maximum value of each player, drill and time window were stored for the study. The results show that training drills could not reproduce the maximum conditional effort that occurs in an official match in any time window. Moreover, all the situations and games analysed had higher levels of effort as the time of the window studied decreased. The analysis of shorter time windows could be a topic for future research. In conclusion, the findings of this study pave the way for future research into the identification and comparison of the most demanding scenarios in elite roller hockey that may help coaches to design training situations.

Quantification of an Elite Futsal Team’s Microcycle External Load by Using the Repetition of High and Very High Demanding Scenarios

“…This seems to be a common concern for most practitioners who, regardless of the method, have sought to develop alternative approaches to identify the most demanding scenario of match play, since such consideration seems to contribute to the implementation of a more accurate training program prescription (Gabbett et al, 2012). Rolling average methods have commonly been used to describe the peak periods of competition in different sports such as Australian football (Delaney et al, 2017), soccer (Malone et al, 2015;Martín-García et al, 2020), basketball (Vázquez-Guerrero et al, 2020), and rink hockey (Fernández et al, 2020).…”

Match analysis in rink hockey: a systematic review

“…the authors collected information from 8 players and concluded that regarding external load competition demands, the distance travelled by a rink hockey player was clearly lower than in outdoor sports [46,47]. However, in another study, performed with the same positional system and the same sample of players, Fernández et al [24] collected positional data to determine the most demanding passages through the distance covered in high-speed skating (> 18 km • h -1 ) during a match, and also in training drills. the authors concluded that they could not reproduce the most demanding passages of the match in training situations.…”

“…Within descriptive approaches, most of the researchers sought to study age-related differences in under-17 (U-17) [18][19][20], under-20 (U-20), and senior players [17,[21][22][23][24][25]. In these studies, the authors focused their attention mainly on: (1) ball possession [17-22, 26, 27];…”

“…(2) type of attack [17-22, 26, 28]; (3) finishing actions [17,18,20,23,29]; and (4) activity profile [23][24][25][30][31][32][33] (table 1). to better understand where interactions are performed by rink hockey players, Vaz et al [28] delineated the rink hockey field into 18 zones (Figure 3).…”

Integrating External and Internal Load for Monitoring Fitness and Fatigue Status in Standard Microcycles in Elite Rink Hockey

“…While the use of technology in certain team sports modalities has increased in the last decade, research into conditional demands is scant. Some research has addressed official matches (Merino Tantiña et al, 2014;Fernández et al, 2020b) and the most demanding passages in certain drills (Fernández et al, 2020a), although microcycle training load dynamics has never been described.…”