Quantification of external load of elite rink hockey players in official matches

Integrating External and Internal Load for Monitoring Fitness and Fatigue Status in Standard Microcycles in Elite Rink Hockey

“…The training contents prescribed in MD-3 and MD-2 training sessions described in Figure 1A could explain the greater load demands in EL and IL (in some metrics); in line with this, some research in basketball (Vazquez Guerrero et al, 2018 ) suggests that the bigger the space used in specific in-court drills the greater the EL imposed upon the players. The use of roller skates in rink hockey makes it easy to move around the court and more difficult to remain motionless in one place, and this could be a reason for the higher absolute values of distance, and high-speed distance than in other indoor sports (Fernández et al, 2020b ). Another interesting point is that DEC is a variable that is always lower on training days than on the match days (or at most equal).…”

“…The following variables were calculated in absolute terms to describe EL: distance travelled in metres (DT; m); high-speed skating, distance covered above 18 km/h in metres (HSS >18 km·h −1 ; m); player load, vector magnitude, expressed as the square root of the sum of the squared instantaneous rates of change in acceleration in each one of the three planes divided by 100 in arbitrary units (PL; AU); number of high-intensity accelerations (ACC; >2 m·s −2 ; n) and number of high-intensity decelerations (DEC; >2 m·s −2 ; n). All of these variables were selected because they were the most commonly used ones in other competition load descriptive studies and the thresholds used were the ones emphasised most in indoor sport research and previously described in rink hockey (Fernández et al, 2020b ).…”

“…While the use of technology in certain team sports modalities has increased in the last decade, research into conditional demands is scant. Some research has addressed official matches (Merino Tantiña et al, 2014;Fernández et al, 2020b) and the most demanding passages in certain drills (Fernández et al, 2020a), although microcycle training load dynamics has never been described.…”

“…Being an indoor sport, rink hockey is a team sport involving skates and a stick and is characterised by high-intensity actions such as accelerations, decelerations, sprints, and changes of direction (Fernández et al, 2020b ). Rink hockey is played in a 40 × 20 m court like futsal or handball, but with fences, a structural difference that means that there are fewer interruptions than in these other sports.…”

“…Finally, the use of roller skates makes the movement of the players on the court much easier; they are able to cover large distances, sometimes without effort. Finally, decelerations and accelerations are the key actions in this sport (Fernández et al, 2020b ). While the use of technology in certain team sports modalities has increased in the last decade, research into conditional demands is scant.…”