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From the Tropics
to Tassie:
Investigations during a hockey tournament
Wood, R.J., Marsden, J.F. Finn, J.P., From the Tropics to Tassie: Investigations during a hockey tournament. Proceedings of the 7th Applied Physiology Conference, Darwin, Australia, Dec 2000.
The aim of this research project was to gain a better understanding of the body’s responses to travel and competition in a cold climate for Northern Territory athletes. This was achieved by travelling with the NT representative female under twenty-one years hockey team to Hobart, Tasmania, to compete in the national titles. The NT players were analysed, with players from the ACT squad acting as controls for some measures.
The athletes travelled from the mean daily temperature range of 20.0-30.5oC for Darwin during June, to the mean daily temperature range of 4.0-12.2oC for Hobart in July.
It is always difficult to analyse game data as there are many variables to consider, making the interpretation of results difficult. Although there were differences as the tournament progressed, it is hard to know whether this was due to adaptation to the cold, or because the last games of the tournament included to coldest games.
- due to confounding factors, and sometimes lack of good controls, it was difficult to determine if acclimatisation occurred, and what changes were due to the cold.
- the coldest game corresponded to the lowest tympanic temperatures, and the lowest heart rates
- subjective comments indicate the cold conditions caused possible distractions to the game at hand
Related Pages
- full list of research papers by Rob Wood
