Hockey

Many hockey injuries are the result of contact with the stick or the ball. Scrapes and bruises are therefore common, but there are other hockey injuries. Due to the contact nature of the sport, as well as the use of sticks and balls, fractures, shoulder and knee trauma, and head and face injuries can occur.

Like most field sports, ankle sprains are most common. Spine pain and even disc herniations can occur due to bending and rotating required during play. Knee injuries of all types can be frequent. Hand, wrist, and elbow sprains can occur.

Due to the rapid movements and direction changes in hockey muscles pulls and strains can often occur. For the same reason, sprained and broken ankles also occur.

Technique training can also ensure field hockey injuries like shoulder tears are kept to a minimum. Amateurs will often swing aggressively with little control of the stick, leading to shoulder strains.

Common problem areas are:

Patella tendonitis (jumpers knee)
Quadricep injury (thigh)
Groin strain/adductor injuries
Ankle sprains
Hamstings
PFJ pain
Ligament damage
LBP

Ideas to help prevent these injuries:

Players should routinely warm-up and cool down, including adequate stretching, before and after play. Particular attention should be given to thoroughly warming-up and stretching the ankles, hips and lower back.
Balance drills and overall body strengthening and stretching should also be done three times weekly. Proper technique is important in stick and ball handling to prevent overuse injuries of the wrists and back, and equipment should be properly sized.

There are 4 main areas to work on for physical conditioning:

• Stamina

• Speed

• Strength

• Flexibility (refer to our stretching guide)

Stamina:

During a game players need to keeping going for 70 minutes and be able to continue to perform skills when tired. Stamina is therefore the basic component of fitness required to play hockey and a base to work from.

To improve stamina you should go on steady runs for 20 to 40 minutes as part of your programme. These runs can be more usefully combined with speed endurance work to help with change of pace. (see guide below).

As a base level, you should be able to run at a steady pace for 70 minutes. If you can't, build up slowly from however long you can run. Never try to push yourself more than this.

Speed:

Once a good aerobic level of fitness is established you should then start to work on speed training. These sessions can replace one or two of the long steady runs. During a match a player need to have the ability to reproduce good basic speed repeatedly, often following only very short recovery periods. In order to achieve this, it is essential that one, if not two training sessions designed specifically to improve a players speed endurance are incorporated into the training programme each week.

Such training sessions involve you running short intervals at close to maximum pace, with only a relatively brief recovery between efforts (The recovery period is generally 2 or 3 times the length of the exercise period). This type ff training is known as interval training. The important point to remember with this type of training is that each interval should be run at an even, fast pace. Much of the potential value of the session is lost if the first couple of intervals are run so fast that the quality of all the other sessions is lost.

A simple six week programme for the progressive development of speed endurance is described below. It is based around three training sessions each week, each session should be done on a separate day at a fast, but comfortable pace.

Week One
Session 1: 20-minute steady run.
Session 2: 25-minute run to include 4 one minute faster bursts, each separated by 3 minutes of steady jogging.
Session 3 4x600m (or two minutes running) at an even pace, each separated by 5 minutes of recovery.

Week Two
Session 1: 20 minute steady run,
Session 2: 6 x 40Om (or 80 seconds running), 3 minutes recovery between each effort.
Session 3: 20 minute run to include 6 thirty second bursts of fast running, separated by 2 minutes jogging

Week Three
Session 1: 20 minute steady run.
Session 2: 1 x 20 seconds running (60 secs rest), 1 x 40 seconds running (2 mins rest), 2 x 60 seconds running (3 mins rest). 1 x 40 seconds running (2 mins rest). 1 x 20 seconds running. 5 minutes steady jog, then repeat.
Session 3: 8 x 200m (or 35 seconds running), 90 seconds rest between each burst of running.

Week Four
Session 1: 25 minute run, to include 8 bursts of 20 seconds faster running, separated by a 1 minute recovery
Session 2: 8 x 400m (or 80 sees running). 3 minutes jog recovery between each effort.
Session 3: 6 x 100m (or 15 seconds running). 1 minute rest between runs. 4 minutes jog after the sixth run, then repeat.

Week Five
Session 1: 25 minute run, is in Session 1, Week 4.
Session 2: 1 x 60 secs, 1 x 75 secs, 2 x 90 secs, 1 x 75 secs, 1 x 60 secs. Two minutes rest between efforts.
Session 3: 6 x 150m (or 22 sees running). 80 sees recovery between runs; 4 minutes jog recovery, then repeat.

Week Six
Session 1: 25 minute run, to include 10 bursts or 10 seconds running, each burst separated by 40 seconds jogging
Session 2: 6 X 100m (or 15 secs running). 3 minutes jog recovery, then repeat.
Session 3: 2 x 50m, 2 x 100m, 2 x 50m. 20 seconds rest after each 50m. 40 seconds rest after each 100m. Three minutes jog recovery, then repeat.

Strength:
To aid speed and help prevent injuries keeping yourself strong will be important. Here are some ideas to help you do this:

Circuits:
Squats; Sit Ups; Squat Thrusts; Press Ups; Burpees (60 sec per exercise) (Repeat total circuit twice).

Ankle exercises:
Place exercise band around the inside of your foot. Twist your foot inwards against the band. 3 x 15 reps. Then swap the band to the outside of your foot and turn your foot outwards against the band. 3 x 15 reps.

Core Strengthening: see our guide on core stability.

Plyometrics:
This involves activities such as bounding, hopping, skipping, jumping. It develops explosive power and is essential for acceleration and change of pace. It should only be done once or twice a week as it can cause some damage to muscle fibres if done too frequently.

It is distinguished by involving an eccentric contraction followed by a concentric contraction. This develops greater power in the muscle contraction, similar to flicking an elastic band. The eccentric contraction (muscle lengthens under tension) is the same as the stretching of the elastic band; the concentric contraction (muscle shortens in length under tension) is the elastic band being let go.

For example, skipping with ropes involve this, running downhill develops this, bounding over a bench, hopping, footwork ladders etc.