Analysis Helps Hockey Hit The Target

 

by James Skitt - 19.01.09

Coaches and practitioners at all levels naturally take great pride in seeing their work with athletes achieve results, which is exactly the reason why English Institute of Sport (EIS) Performance Analyst Alistair Patterson leapt from his sofa last summer as he watched Crista Cullen slam home a last minute winner for the GB Women’s hockey team in their Olympic Pool B clash with Japan.

For not only did it keep Britain’s hopes of a semi final berth alive at the time – they would eventually finish sixth overall – but for Patterson it was the satisfying realisation of his work with the side in the lead up to the games.

Working alongside former EIS Biomechanist Matthew Brown, Patterson used cutting edge 3D SIMI motion software to help the teams penalty corner specialists improve the power in their drag flick – a specialist scoring shot usually used during penalty corners.

“Penalty corners obviously provide an excellent opportunity to score in hockey and therefore the coach, Danny Kerry, was very keen for his players to work on it in the lead up to Beijing” explains Patterson.

“We started off working with a small number of athletes analysing their technique using two high speed cameras, which is the minimum needed to obtain 3D footage. We then digitised this, which is quite a long process, before producing footage which showed the chain of movements through the legs, arms and the stick.”

Having assembled this, Patterson and Bramhall were able to sit down with the athletes and their coaches to go through the footage and help improve their technique.

“The 3D footage was able to show the athletes what they were doing in great detail and with the help of their coaches, we were able to look at ways to ensure they got maximum power when striking the ball” Patterson says.

“We then re-tested them three or four times at six week intervals over about six months to monitor their progress, before stopping two months prior to the Olympics in order that we didn’t unsettle the players by altering their technique too close to competition” he continued.

And despite enduring some freezing early mornings at Bisham, GB Women’s Assistant Coach Karen Brown is in no doubt that the work has been beneficial.

“The drag flick is a very important skill in hockey and the 3D analysis work we did with the players allowed them to make some small alterations to their technique which not only improved it and gave them greater power, but also gave them confidence that they were executing the technique correctly” she said.

The GB Women’s team would eventually score three of their seven goals in the Olympic tournament from penalty corners leaving Patterson pleased that he was able to play a small part in that success.

“The work we did went well with the players making some real improvements so it was really exciting to see us score from penalty corners at the Olympics, especially that last minute winner” he says.

Main Photograph (top) © Getty Images