Activity profile of field hockey players: comparison with soccer players

Abstract

Fields hockey is a team sport played by men and women with three (stickers, midfield and defender) (Jennings et al., 2012) or four (Fullback, Half-back, Inside Forward and Striker) (Lythe and Kilding, 2011) principal positional group. Description of the specific physical requirements of positional groups within male international-level or national-level field hockey is crucial for coach and specifically for fitness coach. Indeed, identifying physical demands of field hockey player will allow fitness coach to plan sport-specific training protocols needed during in-season physical training sessions. The enhancement of the needed physical demand of hockey player is crucial in competition moment. The development of motion analysis software and global positioning systems (GPS) could be a decisive tools to identify the physical demands of hockey field players (Lythe and Kilding, 2011;White and MacFarlane, 2013;Vescovi and Frayne, 2015).