Modern field hockey is a fast, physically and technically demanding sport. Success in field hockey is ultimately depending on a cluster of factors among which we may include different components of physical fitness such as speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, etc. Many coaches include fitness testing among their training control strategies to detect strong and week points both at an individual and group levels. On the other hand, very little information about the physical fitness levels of senior elite players has been published. The main objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that even simple physical fitness tests performed using a non-specific battery (Eurofit) can discriminate between players of different competitive level. Methods Thirty one competitive Catalan-Spanish field hockey players of national and international calibre participated in the study: 3 goalkeepers, 10 defenders, 9 halves, and 9 forwards. They belonged to senior competitive teams of different category that we will note as elite (n= 16) and sub-elite (n= 15) ("Honor Division", and "First National Division", respectively, according to Spanish official categories). 12 players were also members of the National Spanish senior or under-21 teams, 5 players were members of the Spanish Olympic team who competed in Barcelona 1992 (5th place), and Atlanta 1996 (2rd place). The following tests and measurements from the Eurofit fitness test battery (Council of Europe 1988) were used: anthropometry, endurance shuttle-run 20 m x 1 min, standing broad jump, right and left-hand plate tapping, sit-ups in 1 min, shuttle run 10 x 5 m, and sit-and-reach. Sit-ups in 30 s, as well as 30 and 50 m sprints were performed in addition. Unpaired t-tests were used to compare both groups (p<0.05). Results The following table summarizes the results on both groups of players in the different tests. Data are mean and standard deviations (in parenthesis). Significantly higher values are in bold. No significant differences were observed between players in relation to their position in the field. Discussion The elite players were older and more muscular, and showed higher levels of aerobic endurance, explosive strength and abdominal muscular strength as compared with the sub-elite players. These were comparatively faster in 30 and 50 m sprints. The aerobic endurance level of our elite players was comparable to that of the Dutch National team in 1990 (Geijsel 1991) both measured using the shuttle run test. From these results, we conclude that the test battery used, even if not specific to field hockey, has been able to differentiate elite from sub-elite players and may be useful in establishing baseline reference data for field hockey players.
© Copyright 2004 Book of Abstracts - 9th Annual Congress European College of Sport Science, July 3-6, 2004, Clermont-Ferrand, France. All rights reserved.