Document Type
Article
Rights
Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence
Disciplines
Sport and fitness sciences
Abstract
The current study examined the extent to which pitch dimensions can influence the physical and estimated energetic demands of hurling small-sided games. Training data (n = 990) were collected from 24 (age 25.5 ± 3.2 years; height 178.9 ± 3.2 cm; body mass 78.5 ± 4.5 kg) hurling players using 4-Hz global positioning system technology (VX Sport, Lower Hutt, New Zealand). Total distance (m), high-speed running distance (m; ≥ 17 km/h), very high-speed running distance (m; ≥ 22 km/h), total accelerations (n), acceleration distance (m), peak and mean velocity (km/h) were considered. In addition changes in velocity were analysed by assessing the acceleration actions during SSG. This allowed for the assessment of estimated energy expenditure (kJ/kg) and the equivalent distance covered a different metabolic power thresholds. The main findings show that traditional speed-based data increased as pitch dimensions were increased (p = 0.002; d = 4.53 ± 0.46; very large). Furthermore, as relative player area increased there was an increase in estimated energy expenditure (p = 0.004; d = 2. 16 ± 0.20; very large) and average metabolic power metrics (p = 0.002; d = 1.13 ± 0.46; moderate). Distances covered at metabolic power categories (TP) increased with small-sided games pitch dimension (p = 0.002; d = 0.3 ± 0.06; small). The study enables coaches to better understand the physical demands imposed on players during specific hurling small-sided games pitch dimensions, and highlights that traditional speed-based data underestimate the running demands of small-sided games.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1747954116676112
Recommended Citation
Malone, S., Collins, K. D., & Doran, D. A. (2016). The running performance and estimated energy cost of hurling specific small-sided games. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 11(6), 853–858. DOI: 10.1177/1747954116676112
Publication Details
Published Open Access: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1747954116676112