Author(s): STONER, M., SUNDERLAND, C.D., MORRIS, J.G., MALCOLM, R., BARRETT, L.A., Institution: NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY, Country: UNITED KINGDOM, Abstract-ID: 1609

INTRODUCTION:
Indoor hockey is a small format version of field hockey, played with five outfield players and one goalkeeper per team. Matches consist of four 10-minute quarters, in a recommended 44-m (long) by 22-m (wide) area. Little is known of the match demands of this hockey format, despite obvious differences in team composition, match time and pitch size compared to outdoor field hockey. Local positioning system (LPS) technology, mapped to court parameters, allows the measurement of position in covered spaces, and hence allows the quantification of typical match demand metrics when performers are involved in indoor sport.
METHODS:
Following university ethical approval, 55 players, recruited across two tournaments, participated in the study (mean age: 24.2 (5.61) years; height: 1.7 (0.06) m; weight: 77.8 (9.72) kg). Match demands were assessed using a LPS (Catapult Sports S7 units 10 Hz, ClearSky system with 20 anchors, Catapult Sports, Melbourne, Australia). Heart rate was collected throughout matches (Polar H10, polar Electro, Kempele, Finland), and rating of perceived exertion was established immediately following the end of matches (modified Borg CR10 rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale). Means and standard deviations were used to present the demands across 20 indoor matches (mean temperature: 18.9 (1.3) degrees Celsius; humidity: 43.7 (4.0) %) for the following metrics: total playing duration (min), total distance (m), high-speed running distance (m, greater than or equal to 15.5 km.h-1), accelerations (n, greater than or equal to 2 m.s-2), decelerations (n, less than or equal to - 2 m.s-2), average HR (bpm) and RPE (au). These metrics have been used to assess match demands in previous outdoor field hockey research (1).
RESULTS:
The demands of indoor hockey matches were as follows; total playing duration: 24.2 (5.6) min; total distance: 1984.1 (426.6) m; high-speed running distance: 136.0 (77.8) m; accelerations: 38.4 (15.8); decelerations: 38.5 (14.7); average HR: 170.7 (10.8) bpm; RPE: 5.5 (1.7).
CONCLUSION:
The data in this study builds the foundation for indoor hockey research using LPS technology, which has become commonplace in comparative indoor team sports. Access to this example data could give coaches and practitioners a better understanding of how to prepare their athletes for the demands of indoor hockey matches. [1] Lam 2021