SE Academic Review 2023

53 ACADEMIC REVIEW 2023

Method

PARTICIPANTS A group of 19 schoolgirl hockey players, aged 13 - 15 years old, with similar hockey experience was used as the participants. None of them had ever taken part in a stretching programme before. The 19 participants were randomly allocated to two groups, Group 1: The experimental group (the stretching group) and Group 2: The control group. There were nine participants in the experimental group and 10 participants in the control group. The control group did not take part in the stretching programme, enabling a comparison between the two groups. TESTING PROCEDURE Written consent was given through the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) to confirm agreement of the participants taking part in the experiment. Both groups completed warm-ups before both testing days. The same warm-up was used both times in order to increase accuracy of the results. The warm-up included a short jog of about 200m, and five dynamic stretches mainly aimed at the lower body as the muscles used the most in hockey are in the lower body. These stretches included ‘shoo the chickens’, ‘kick the cows’, a quadriceps stretch, lunges and glutes stretch. All participants from both groups completed the three different tests that measured the three different components of fitness (speed, agility and power) to assess hockey performance, before and after the four-week programme period. These tests included a short sprint, an agility test and a vertical jump. The first test was a 30m sprint while dribbling with a hockey ball and stick to test speed. I marked out a 30-metre straight section with cones on the pitch. I started the stopwatch and the participants ran as fast as they could with the ball on their stick under control. I stopped the stopwatch when the participant crossed the line and recorded the time (IB, 2015). I adapted the test for my participants to sprint with a hockey stick and ball to ensure greater validity in the test as it is more representative of hockey performance. I had all the participants from the group do this and then the process was repeated twice more to make a total of three trials from which an average was taken.

The Illinois Agility test (IB, 2015) was the second test conducted to measure agility. Beforehand, I set out the course; the length of the course was 10 metres and the width was 5 metres. Four cones marked out the start, finish and the two turning points. Another four cones were placed down the centre, all an equal distance apart of 3.3 metres. The participant started with a ball and stick and when asked to go, I started the stopwatch and the participant completed the course while dribbling the ball under control. The stopwatch was stopped when they passed the finish line and the time was recorded (IB, 2015). Again, I adapted this test to suit my experiment to complete the course with a hockey stick and ball to ensure greater validity in the test as it was more representative of hockey performance. The same was repeated for all participants for a total of three times from which an average was taken. The final test was the Vertical Jump test which tests power. The participants stood straight next to a wall with their arm outstretched and with a piece of chalk they marked where their hand was. They then jumped high as they could and drew another mark as high as possible. They repeated this a total of three times (IB, 2015). I recorded the difference between the starting mark and each of the three further marks for each person. The three fitness tests used to test the participants’ power, speed and agility were chosen because they each closely replicate three of the most important aspects of hockey performance. Power is important because you need to be able to push off the ground quickly to get the ball or run into a space. Short sprints are vital in a hockey game for all players on and off the ball, therefore speed is key. Agility is very important because the environment of the game is always changing, and you must react and change directions all the time to get the ball or get away from a player.