Physical preparation of the Australian national male field hockey team exceeded the movement demands of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games tournament

Paul S.R. Goods, Brendan R. Scott, Brendyn Appleby, Denise Jennings, Peter Peeling, Brook Galna

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This investigation explored differences in the pre-tournament preparation period relative to the movement demands of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games for the Australian male field-hockey team. Movement data was collected over 7 months prior to and during the 13-day Olympic tournament. Duration, distance (total; >80% individual peak velocity; >5 m.s−1), high-speed decelerations (>3.5 m.s−2), and total accelerations and decelerations (>2.5 m.s−2) were measured during each running-based session. A 13-day moving sum was calculated for each variable and compared to a player-specific “worst-case scenario” (WCS) for intra-tournament total movement demands. Summed 13-day movement demands exceeded the WCS for 6–58% of the preparation period across variables, for the entire squad. During the tournament, midfielders covered significantly greater sprint distance than Defenders (+84%,p = 0.020), with no other positional differences found. Greater variation in tournament movement demands was observed between players for accelerations, decelerations, and high-speed distance (CV = 19–46%) compared to duration and distance (CV = 4–9%). In conclusion, physical preparation exposed athletes to movement demands which surpassed WCS. Additionally, gross measures of training volume (duration and distance) are more generalisable to a squad; however, additional metrics such as sprint distance and high-speed decelerations are needed to better define positional and individual movement demands, and therefore, should be monitored by practitioners.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)512-518
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Sports Sciences
Volume41
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

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