NEAR MAXIMAL VELOCITY SPRINTS ARE RARE, BUT HIGH-INTENSITY ACCELERATIONS OCCUR FREQUENTLY DURING INTERNATIONAL MALE FIELD HOCKEY

Abstract

In team sport, high-intensity running is generally used to describe velocities associated with maximal aerobic speed, with sprints defined by near maximal velocities, which are considered important to team sport performance. However, recent team sport investigations have revealed that near maximal velocities are seldom attained, but high-intensity accelerations occur frequently and may better represent the most demanding aspects of team sport match play. Field hockey research in this area is lacking, and therefore, we aimed to explore the frequency of high-intensity accelerations in elite field hockey, and how often these accelerations resulted in the attainment of sprint velocities. Movement data were collected during 2023 across 3 tournaments (17 matches) from 27 members of the Australian male field hockey team (totalling 266 player matches). Duration, high-intensity accelerations (>2.5m.s-2 for >1s), sprints (>7m.s-1), and repeated high-intensity efforts (≥3 accelerations or sprints with ≤45s recovery between efforts) were extracted. Mixed effects models were used to estimate the mean for each outcome (fixed effect), with random intercepts modelled for player and match. Players were active for 51min and completed 42 high-intensity accelerations per match, which lasted for 3.6s, covered 12.9m, and reached a peak velocity of 4.8m.s-1. Only 6.4% of high-intensity accelerations resulted in the attainment of sprint velocity (2.5 per match), and these efforts lasted for 6.1s, covered 35.6m, and reached a peak velocity of 7.5m.s-1. Players completed 4.5 bouts of repeated high-intensity accelerations per match, which comprised 3.7 efforts per bout, interspersed with 16.4s of recovery; however, no repeated-sprint bouts were observed. High-intensity accelerations occur frequently in field hockey; however, these rarely result in the attainment of sprint velocities. Practitioners should consider monitoring high-intensity accelerations to ensure players are being adequately prepared for competition demands.