Using Modified Equipment in Field Hockey Leads to Positive Transfer of Learning Effect

Abstract

Cross-education is the phenomenon in which repeated practice of a unilateral motor task does not only result in performance improvement of the trained limb, but also in the untrained contralateral limb. The aim of this study was to test whether cross-education or positive transfer of learning is also achieved for tasks in which both limbs contribute in different ways by using modified equipment that switches the limbs’ role. To this end, a reverse field hockey stick was used that requires a mirroring of arm and hand use and dominance (i.e., right hand on top of the hockey stick instead of the left hand). Two groups of young skilled female field hockey players participated in a crossover-design, in which participants received four training sessions with a reverse hockey stick followed by four training sessions with a regular hockey stick, or vice versa. In a pre-test, intermediate test (following the first intervention period), a post-test (after the second intervention period) and a retention test, participants’ performance on a field hockey skill test with a regular hockey stick was measured. The results revealed that training with the reversed hockey stick led to significantly increased improvements compared to training with a regular hockey stick. We conclude that modified equipment can be used to exploit positive transfer of learning by switching the limbs’ roles. The findings are discussed by referring to the symmetry preservation principle in dynamic systems theory and have clear practical relevance for field hockey trainers and players seeking to further improve field hockey skills.

Grip-preference distribution among Asian-Oceanian floorball players is opposite that of European and North American players – How environmental constraints may influence human motor behaviour

“…One such proposed explanation for the higher frequency of right-sided grip preference in the Asian-Oceanian confederation is the popularity of field hockey in many of the countries (20, 22, 29). Field hockey is a stick and ball game similar to floorball, with the notable difference that players are only allowed to hold the stick with a right-sided grip (30). Therefore, field hockey players transitioning into floorball are assumed to have retained a task-specific (stick and ball manipulating) right-sided laterality.…”