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Background of Study

A study by Mujika (2009) that said there were no significant difference in repeated sprint

performance between soccer player u-15 and u-18 is strongly opposite to the study done by

Villanueva (2011) which said that there is a significant difference in the repeated sprint test

which also involved the soccer player. Both of these results encouraged this present study to be

done in order to know the actual result.

In many team sports such as field hockey, short bust of high intensity power production

play a very important role performance. Players frequently have to repeat sequences of short

explosive efforts, such as short sprints with frequent changes of direction. Field hockey is an

intermittent endurance sport involving short sprinting as well as movement with and without ball

(Manna et al., 2009). All the short sprint or short burst with high energy production used

anaerobic energy system which consists of anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity. The

anaerobic capacity is the total amount of energy from the anaerobic (without oxygen) energy

system that is the combined amount of amount produced for the ATP, phospho-creatine and

lactic acid systems while anaerobic power is energy that is stored in muscles and can be accessed

without the use of oxygen which the form of glycogen is retranslated back into glucose and sent

to the working muscles.

As field hockey is increasingly popular nowadays, the needs to produce a new and

talented players is a must in order to keep gaining fans from all over the world. The modern

game of hockey is played in 132 countries around the world and is second only in popularity to

soccer as a team sport (Shauna, 2002). With the introduce of astro turf in 1970, the field hockey

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game become faster compared to a game that is played on the normal grass. The reason for the

introduction of astro turf is astro turf promote a flatter playing surface than natural grass. This in

turn provided better ball control as it prevented the ball from shooting off into various directions

and the resistant towards the ball is decreased.

Problem Statement

Anaerobic exercise is very helpful when it comes to weight management in that it helps

to burn more calories even in a body at rest. Besides, anaerobic exercises also help to improve

endurance and fitness level. Anaerobic capacity of an older player is thought to be better than a

younger player. Two group of hockey players that are U-15 and U-18 are the target group to

determine which group of age will have a better anaerobic capacity. In many sports, the short

bursts of high intensity power production plays a major role in performance (Ozkan, 2013). The

same thing happen during a hockey match, a player needs to speed up to chase for the ball as on

the astro turf field, the speed of the ball become higher compared to the speed of the ball on the

normal grass.

It is important for a player to have an adequate anaerobic capacity as it can promote

speed, strength and power. An older player should be having a better anaerobic capacity due to

their body mass, height and their muscular strength. Anaerobic performance is composed of

anaerobic power and capacity. Anaerobic power reflects the ability to use the phosphagenic

system and anaerobic capacity reflects the ability to derive energy from a combination of

anaerobic glycolysis and the phosphagen system (Ozkan, 2013).

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In order to determine the anaerobic capacity of the players, they are required to do the

sprint activities. They need to sprint several times before analysis can be made of their anaerobic

capacity. This activity can help the coach to choose which player has the speed to chase for the

ball and it is very useful to organize the strategy in the game. Besides, this research also may

help coaches to recommend the type of daily food intake, modes of training program and muscle

strength in order to increase the anaerobic capacity for their hockey players. Thus, this kind of

study needs to be done.

Research Objectives

1. The objective of this research is to know whether young hockey players has greater

anaerobic capacity compared to older hockey players in u-15 and u-18 hockey team.

2. To identify the factors that lead to the good anaerobic capacity.

Research Questions

The present study explores the following research questions concerning:

1. What is anaerobic capacity?

2. What is anaerobic power?

3. What are the factors that contribute to great anaerobic capacity?

4. How anaerobic power improves players’ performance?

5. Which team has greater anaerobic capacity U-15 or U-18?

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Research Hypothesis

H1: There is a significant difference in anaerobic capacity between u-15 and u-18 male hockey

players.

H2: There is a significant difference in their muscular strength.

Significance of Study

This study is purpose to help field hockey coaches which he or she needs to assign the

suitable position for their players according to their ability. It is clear that in certain field

positions, the players are faster in vertical velocity whereas at certain other field positions they

are relatively slow and posses less anaerobic power (Bhanot, 1983).

Findings from this study may provide useful information to the hockey coaches regarding

the anaerobic capacity that is frequently used by the hockey players during the match. Modern

hockey nowadays use speed as their main skill as during the hockey game, 70% of the energy

used is come from anaerobic system which means it includes repeated sprint and short burst. For

example, the striker will run faster and make the circle penetration to deflect the ball into the

goal. Other than that, this findings also will help the coaches to design a better training program

for their players that will emphasizes more on anaerobic power. The coach also can encourage

his or her players to

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Definition of terms

Astro turf

An artificial grass made from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass and often used in

arenas for sports were originally or are normally play on grass.

Deflect

The skill that is usually used in field hockey purposed to change direction of the ball without

controlling the ball.

Sprint

Run at full speed over a short distance

Repeated Sprint

Described as the ability to perform repeated short sprints with only brief recovery between bouts.

Anaerobic Capacity

Anaerobic capacity is the total amount of energy from the anaerobic (without oxygen) energy

systems that is the combined amount of output for the ATP, phospho-creatine and lactic acid

systems.

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Literature Review

Relationship between anaerobic performance and muscle strength

Anaerobic capacity is strongly related to muscular strength. According to Ozkan (2013)

muscular strength is one of the key factors that has a main role in anaerobic performance because

with increased muscular strength the ability of muscles to generate muscular contraction and

power production in short-term high intensity activity also increases which mean when the

muscles have great strength, the ability to execute high velocity of muscular contraction will

increase with the higher power production which assist the muscular contraction to happen in a

short time.

The other study from Archna , Varishtha and Shyamal (2013) from University of

Alicante, state that anthropometric characteristics which are body fat percentage, height and

body weight have a positive correlation with the handgrip strength and lower limb power and

negative correlations with slalom sprint, aerobic fitness and dribble test in field hockey which in

other word, the anthropometric characteristics can influence the lower limb power which is

strongly related to anaerobic capacity that is used during sprint.

Age-related differences in acceleration, maximum running speed, and repeated-sprint

performance

As we know, all types of high velocity movement in a short time used anaerobic system

to be executed. Based on the research done by Alberto et al., (2011), a strong correlations was

observed between acceleration, maximum running speed and repeated-sprint performance in all

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groups of soccer players which were classified according to their age as well as the

disappearance of group differences in sprint performances when estimated biological maturity

(e.g. age at peak high velocity) were adjusted in order to cut off the differences. When the

differences was not present, the result suggested that high speed running in young highly trained

soccer players could be considered as general quality which is likely related to muscular

adaptations that occur with maturation because in the research, the result said that there are

progressively improvement from u-14, u-16 and u-18 in all sprint performances.

While in a study by Mujika (2009), the result state that total time for 6 times 30 m

repeated sprint test improved gradually from u-11 to u-15 while in the other groups that is u-15

to u-18 there were no significant improvements were obtain in the repeated sprint test. The result

of the repeated sprint test is strongly correlated with body mass and height between the age

group. Furthermore, despite previous suggestions that children recover more quickly from

intense exercise than adults, we report for the first time that there were no significant differences

in percent sprint decrement among age groups (Mujika, 2009). This study shows that growth

would appear to contribute significantly to enhance motor performance with age (Armstrong,

Welsman, & Chia, 2001). The improvements in sprint performance with age are also likely to be

associated with the greater glycolytic capacity and peak lactate concentrations reported for

pubescent compared with prepubescent boys (Ratel, Bedu, Hennegrave, Dore, & Duche, 2002).

According to Mujika (2009), their result support above statement from Ratel, Bedu, Hennegrave,

Dore, & Duche, (2002) as peak blood lactate concentration was increased in each successive age

group.

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Reliability of repeated sprint test

Every test conducted must have its reliability. Reliability means the test measure what it

claims to measure. For example, yoyo test purpose is to measure one’s cardiovascular endurance

and not one’s muscular strength. In the study that was conducted by Spencer (2005), which test

the reliability of repeated sprint test on hockey players, it stated that the TE (typical error) and

the smallest worthwhile change of the 6×30-m repeated-sprint with TE just 0.6% test were very

similar, the usefulness of the test was rated as ‘OK’ while the 6×30-m over-ground sprint test

departing every 25 s, with an active recovery, was very reliable when presented as the total sprint

time. However, as reported in similar studies, the percent sprint decrement was less reliable and

should be used with discretion (Spencer, 2005) which mean the 6 x 30m repeated sprint test is

the most reliable test to be used in testing the anaerobic capacity of hockey players.

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METHODOLOGY

Research Conceptual Framework

Research Design

This study involves quantitative research using experiment method to compare the

anaerobic capacity of u-15 hockey players and u-18 hockey players by using conducted 6 x 30m

U-15 hockey players (younger)

-muscular strength

-body mass

-height

U-18 hockey players (older)

-muscular strength

-body mass

-height

Anaerobic Capacity

-numbers of repeated sprint

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repeated sprint on astro turf. Subjects are meeting on astro turf and are kindly ask to participate

in the experiment.

Subjects

The subjects for this study are amateur hockey players to a selected school in Taiping,

Perak. The present studies utilized experiment method. A total of 22 hockey players (first-eleven

players) will be examine from the u-15 and u-18 hockey teams.

Procedures

Before conducting the experiment, permission is requested from the regarding school

principle. Following approval from the relevant authorities and appointment dates set, the

researchers then carry out the survey over one or two days according to the experiment

requirement. As much as 22 hockey players (first-eleven players) will be examine from the u-15

and u-18 hockey teams from a school in Taiping, Perak. The researcher meet face-to-face with

the subjects and brief them on the experiment site before the experiment is conducted. The

subjects are advised to work independently and seriously. However, no time limit is placed on

the subjects to complete the experiment but the subjects need to complete 6 x 30m shuttles for

the experiment and the time to finish the experiment is recorded. The researcher is present

throughout the session to record the result.

Instrumentation

For the purpose of collecting data for this study, a 6 x 30m repeated sprint test was

conducted. This experiment consists of three parts. First part, the subjects need to warm-up in

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order to avoid any unwanted injury. Next part, subjects will undergo the repeated sprint test until

they finish. The third part is subjects will do cooling down to lose the muscles and avoid injury

such as muscle cramp.

Data Analysis

During the test session, the data is recorded in a self provided table which record the time taken

for the players to finish the test. The .05 level of significance is used in the statistical analysis.

The data are analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics.

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