Assessment of On-Ice Oxygen Cost of Skating Performance in Elite Youth Ice Hockey Players

Allisse, M, Bui, HT, Desjardins, P, Léger, L, Comtois, AS, and Leone, M. Assessment of on-ice oxygen cost of skating performance in elite youth ice hockey players. J Strength Cond Res 35(12): 3466-3473, 2021-The purpose of this study was to evaluate the robustness of equations to predict the oxygen requirement during different skating circumstances commonly found in ice hockey game situations (skating forward, backward, with and without controlling a puck, during cornering and stops and starts). Twenty-four male elite ice hockey players from 3 categories (pee-wee, bantam, and midget) participated in this study. Anthropometric measurements were taken, and 4 different on-ice high-intensity and short-duration tests were performed. Execution time, heart rate, oxygen uptake, skating strides, and a skating efficiency index were measured for each test. A regression equation was calculated for each of the 4 tests providing an estimation of oxygen cost. Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.91 to 0.93, and SEE was between 4.5 and 8.4%, indicating that the precision of the regression algorithms was excellent. The results also suggest that execution time alone, which is the traditional manner to measure skating performance, is a bad estimator of oxygen uptake requirement for this kind of effort (average common variance <11%). Furthermore, age proved to be a determining factor with younger players showing an overall lower level of skating efficiency compared with older players. In addition, the introduction of a skating index also helps to better determine which factor of performance needs to be improved. Using simple and easy-to-measure variables, coaches will be able to obtain information that will allow them to intervene more precisely on the training parameters that will optimize the individual on-ice performance of their players.