The Physical Characteristics Of Elite Chinese Male Field Hockey Players In Competition

Purpose: The aim of this study is measuring and analyzing the physical demands of elite male Chinese field hockey players in matches.The physical demands include parameters like average total running distance in matches,running distance’s distribution in different speed zones,running time’s distribution in different speed zones,demands of sprint and repeated sprint capability and movement patterns in acceleration,deceleration and change of direction.Based on these measuring and analyzing,we can provide the references for the technical and physical training of elite male Chinese hockey players.Due to the International Hockey Federation(IHF)start using the new hockey rules since January 2015,exploring the influence of new rules to field hockey matches was also a part of researching purpose of present study.Methods: The 23 players of Liaoning Men’s Hockey Team,which attended the Chinese domestic competition in 2015 and 2016,participated the present study(Height: 179.3 ± 7.1 cm;Weight: 74.8 ± 10.5 kg).The GPSports system(SPI Elite,GPSports Systems Ltd,Australia,5Hz)was used for collecting the running data of players in 4 matches of 2015 National Men’s Tournament.The manufacturer applied software(GPSports Team AMS,version 2014.11)was used for the running data editing and analyzing.The Catapult System(Optimeye S5,Catapult Sports,Australia,10Hz)was used for collecting player’s data of acceleration,deceleration and change of direction in 5 matches of 2016 National Men’s Tournament and 2016 Champion’s League.And the data of acceleration,deceleration and change of direction was editing and analyzing by the manufacturer supplied software(Openfield,Catapult Sports,Australia).Multi paired T test was used for analyzing the significant difference between different positions,different speed zones and different matches’ stages.The significance was set at P≤0.05.Results: The average total running distance and average total playing time of elite Chinese field hockey player are 5788 ± 1710 meters and 37.8 ± 14.0 minutes respectively.The distance percentage of low and moderate intensity running is 75.1%,and the distance percentage of high-intensity running and sprinting are 25.1% and 7.8% respectively.The players’ average sprint counts are 25.5;the average duration of sprints is 2.5 s;and the average distance of each sprint is 15.6 m.The percentage of sprints,which sprint distance less than 20 m,are 75% of total sprints counts.The major rest duration between each sprint were distributed by 0 – 60 s and >120 s,which accounted the 47% and 36% of total rest time respectively.The indicators of high intensity activities,such as percentage of high intensity running distance and sprint counts,of strikers and midfielders are significantly high than defenders(P≤0.05).The indicators of total activities volume,such as total running distance and total playing time,of defenders are significantly high than strikers and defenders(P≤0.05).In new rules matches,the indicators of total activities volume,such as total running distance and total playing time,have a trend of decreasing;however,the indicators of high intensity activities,such as time of high-speed running and average running speed,have a trend of increasing.In addition,the players showed less fatigue concentration in the new rules matches.Conclusions: The elite male Chinese field hockey players showed the specific physical demands in the matches,which performed high total distance running(5788 ± 1710 m).And the key capability in the field hockey is the high intensity repeated sprint at around 20-40 times and distance at around 20 m.There are significant different physical demands between different positions.The strikers and midfielders performed characteristics of high-intensity interval and low total activities volume.The defenders performed the characteristics of high total activities volume,but low intensity.In the 2015 new rules matches,the players’ total volume of running distance and playing time were decreased,but the matches’ intensity and competitive level got increased.The results indicated that in the daily training of elite Chinese hockey players,the coaches and scientists should pay attention on developing the capability of repeated sprints(20-40 times)with short distance(15-150m)and short rest interval(20-60s).Regarding the capability of acceleration,deceleration and change of direction,the coaches should focuson the equal development of accelerating and decelerating capability and pay attention to the training of change of direction.According to the different physical demands of different positions,the strikers and midfields should focus on the training of high-intensity interval training;the defenders should focus on the moderate-intensity continuous training.Regarding to the 2015 new rules,coaches should adjust the training intensity of daily high-intensity training,which could let players suit for the increased intensity of new rules matches.