Determining the Degree of Load on the Body by Monitoring the Heart Rate in Ball Hockey in Men’s Extra-League Matches

Antonín Brhel

Abstract

Introduction: Ball hockey is a young, progressively developing sport that lacks research into players’ loads in competitive matches. As far as we know, our work is the first. Aim of Study: The work aims to solve the problem of determining the degree of load during a ball hockey match by monitoring and analyzing heart rate in selected matches of the extra league of ball hockey. Material and Methods: The sample included ten ball hockey players (age 25 ± 5.21 years, height 184.2 ± 6.8 cm, weight 83.8 ± 11.48 kg) from three extra-league clubs in the positions of forwards (8) and defenders (2). The sample was monitored in six extra league matches of the basic part of the seasons 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. Determination of the maximum heart rate (SFmax) was performed by the protocol of a modified Conconi test (Hnízdil, 2006) performed on an HP Cosmos Venus running ergometer (HP Cosmos Sports and Medical, Germany), which the test subjects completed in wrestling equipment without a ball hockey stick. According to Ben Abdelkrim et al. (2010), individual intensity zones were determined based on SFmax results. Heart rate measurement (SF) was performed by Polar Team 2 (Polar O.Y., Kempele, Finland), which records and stores SF in beats.min-1 for five seconds. The documentation of the matches was done with a Sony HDR XR155E camcorder; the chronometer was made using a Secco stopwatch and a stopwatch on a mobile device. Video played in VLC player (Free Software Foundation, Inc., Boston, USA), SF evaluated in Polar Precision Performance 4.03.040 (Polar, OY, Kempele, Finland), and basic data processing was performed in Excel (Microsoft Corporation, California, USA). Results: The ball hockey player moves on average in the extra league match 3.4% of the time in the zone above 95% SFmax, 22.8% of the time in the zone 85–95% SFmax, 25.4% of the time in the zone 75–84.99% SFmax and 48, 4% of the time in the zone below 75% SFmax. When changing to rest on the inverter, its load is in the ratio of 1: 2.9. Conclusion: Our work is based on empirical findings brought by specific procedures for improving the training process. The limit of the work is the relatively low number of monitored matches and the low number of defenders. The work can be followed by detecting the load by more invasive methods (VO2max, lactate), by detecting the external load or by detecting the activity of the muscles in the load using EMG, or by searching for relationships between individual phenomena.

Keywords

APA Citation

Brhel, A. (2021). Determining the Degree of Load on the Body by Monitoring the Heart Rate in Ball Hockey in Men’s Extra-League Matches. Journal of Outdoor Activities, 15 (1–2), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.21062/joa.2022.010

Additional Information

Date: October 1, 2021