Happy Easter! A dose of sport science over in France...

Happy Easter from all at Space Clinics! Easter Sunday was Day 4 of the tournament, and Kelburne faced Austrian team Arminem.

Here's Ross...

Arminem appeared technically very good in training, and had beaten Whitchurch in their opening game. As long as we (Kelburne) didn’t lose by 2 or more goals we would top the group, and play (probably the hosts Lille) in the final. 

Yesterday Arminem lost to the Italians Roma, who Kelburne had beaten 5-1 in the opening game. The Austrians have played extremely defensively in their last two games, continuing to play a half court system (Everybody in their half), even when a goal down and Roma had two players sin-binned, gifting them a two man advantage! Interesting philosophy.

Prior to the match I was presented with written permission to enter the field of play with my treatment bag. I felt this was unnecessary as I was happy to take the officials at their word. Interestingly the day before they had refused to give me their refusal to enter the field of play with the treatment bag in writing for fear of medical-legal reprisals when asked. The game got of to a pretty slow start with both teams testing each other out, and the Austrians having the better of the opening exchanges. Kelburne were forced to concede their first short corners of the tournament, but held strong defensively, and were able to go into the break 1-0 up courtesy of a sensational Chris Nelson strike.  After the break Kelburne looked to secure their lead through an Alan Forsythe penalty after an Austrian had blocked a Willie Marshall shot on the line with his foot. Shortly afterwards Kelburne were reduced to 10 men following a poor tackle by Ross MacIntire. During his period in the sin bin the Austrians were able to pull a goal back, before Kelburne restored their two-goal advantage via Michael Christie. Further indiscipline by Kelburne saw twice more reduced to 10 men as both Bremner and Johnnie Chrisite were sin binned in debatable circumstances. During these periods the Austrians were able to press home their numerical advantage scoring twice more, with the game finishing a tense 3-3.  

The result means that Kelburne progress to the tournament final vs TBC. For a much more comprehensive match report please see http://www.scottish-hockey.org.uk/ when it becomes available. 

On the injury front, barring a few bumps and scrapes all the lads appear in good condition for the final. The player with the Hamstring injury has also improved significantly and may attempt some light jogging tomorrow. Another player who was used sparingly due to a Hip adductor problem, has was reluctantly called upon due to the tight match situation, and came through the game relatively intact. Now that’s the business end of the blog out the way, I thought I’d go off topic on a ramble.

Having never blogged before this trip, I didn’t quite know what to include in my reports back from Lille. Stephen had asked me to try and keep things interesting, with comments on what we Physio’s actually do on a trip, and anecdotes of what it’s like for the ‘team’, and how Sports' Science is involved.

This is probably as most people don’t have the opportunity to experience such trips. If you’ve read my previous threads, you’ll be aware I’ve mentioned things like, fitness assessments, injury management, medical legal issues, as well as talking about the daily routine of a team on tour, not to mention the bureaucracy  and logistics involved in the running of the tournament. 

Today I’m going slightly off topic and I’m going to talk about two very different things. Firstly the often ignored impact on players and support staffs’ family life.  Secondly I’ll briefly mention nutrition, having witnessed what I can only describe as a biblical plague of locusts descending upon the hotel and restaurants here in Lille.

I thought I’d mention the impact on family life, as this is an aspect of elite/professional sport often over looked. The issue may be pertinent to me today as I’m missing the chance to hunt for Easter eggs with my two year old. That said I’m also missing the chance to be woken at 5am with her jumping up and down on the bed. I won’t lie, when I woke up I quite fancied going home. Partly for the Easter egg reason and partly because I was knackered after working from 8am to 12 pm, two days in a row and getting up at 5am the day before. I’m sure some of the guys with family are feeling the same way, though it’s not something that we talk about. However these things shouldn’t be ignored in the long run as the psychology of the athlete may be affected.

Performance may be adversely influenced or more importantly it may affect the mental health of the athlete. This is an area of interest with recent reports of famous footballers and cricket players either quitting sport or more dramatically attempting or committing suicide due to the pressures of life outside of the sports field.

This mood got me thinking as to how often do we switch on the TV and watch our team play in Europe, only to switch it on again a couple of days later and watch them playing again else where sometimes in another, or on a public holiday such as New Years Day or Boxing day? It’s something we take for granted. We don’t appreciate that our favorite sports people have to travel from A to B and fit training in between. It may be justifiable for the professionals, but these lads from Kelburne have trained 6 days a week (including institute training), to enable them to be physically conditioned to be able to play at a high level of competition 4 days in a row. They have had to fit this around day jobs/studies, and give up family time to be here to play. 

Many of them represent Scotland at various levels, and will soon be in training for the international season in the summer. On returning from the World League this September the domestic season will already be underway, and those involved will be back in action at club level having had no break.  This will understandably require a huge level of dedication and support from the home front. I felt this was something worth mentioning, even to cause pause for thought, and allow you to appreciate the level of commitment the players and other athletes demonstrate to even compete at such events, and understand the non-sporting pressures that affect them. Even the person who finishes last at the Olympics this summer will have paid a huge price in their personal life, and demonstrated a huge level of commitment just to compete.

Before signing off for today I’ll very briefly mention nutrition, and maybe shatter a few people illusions about athletes diets. It’s true that when training it is important to have the correct diet. Too much body fat will reduce speed, as you have to shift unnecessary weight.  Not enough protein and muscle won’t fully repair. Too few or too many calories and weight will rise or fall out of a desirable range for optimal performance. In a tournament like this all that goes out the window and it’s eat as much as your body demands! I have personally witnessed over the last few days, the squad descend upon the breakfast buffet and literally clean it out. If you came down for breakfast after the boys had been, forget it. The whole process lasted approximately 2-3 minutes, and was executed in a methodical and clinical precision. Nothing was left. What wasn’t eaten at the tables was squirreled away (to the managers annoyance) for snacks later. Dinner was no different. The players were given a budget of how much they had to spend on food at the restaurant. Mathematic equations with the price list were done, deals made and most the squad (somehow) conjured two main courses each, ignoring the starter.  This was a well-drilled and savvy squad with the experience to obtain the maximum amount of food from a minimal budget. I was impressed.

In a tournament situation your body does not have time to repair damage or refuel diminished supplies of fuel sources i.e carbohydrates and creatine (used in the resynthesis of the phosphagen energy system). I remember from my time in Football that when in European competition, teams will play 3 games in a week. Domestic match at weekends, and European games mid-week. 

Physical performance diminished as time went on. That is to say, total distance covered by players reduced each game, as did the time spent sprinting, however slow jogging increased. In summary, recovery of our fuel systems is vital to peak performance. Our boys are playing 4 games in four days, not the three in a week that you so often here Football managers bemoan when complaining about fixture congestion. 

Calories are not an issue, as when playing as regularly as they are, and eating as often as they are, the players metabolisms are at full speed, and the calories will be burnt off. Another interesting consideration is hydration though I know Stephen has interesting theories on this, that I am sure will be mentioned in other Blogs. 

I’m not sure if I’ll blog after the final tomorrow, in fact I’m sure I won’t. The boys have a night out planned you see. If you want to check the results click here http://www.eurohockey.org 

Fingers cross we win!

Perhaps some form of communication will come later in the week once Ross returns.