Report

Altering the speed profiles of wheelchair rugby players with game-simulation drill design.

Game-simulation drills can be manipulated to alter speed profiles in Wheelchair rugby players.

Lead academic:
James Rhodes
Additional academics:
Barry Mason, Thomas Paulson, Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey
Funder:
The Peter Harrison Foundation

Introduction

WCR is an intermittent sport with players typically spending most of their time performing low-speed activities interspersed with bouts of high-speed activities.

Classification has been shown to affect activity profiles during competition, with greater distances covered and higher peak speeds reached by higher-classification players.

Game-simulation drills are a popular training modality adopted by coaches to enable a combination of technical, tactical, and physical elements of performance to be developed under competition-specific conditions. Despite this, very few studies have explored the physical demands of WCR training, and it is currently unclear how game-simulation drills can best be used to prepare elite WCR players.

Study aim:

1) To examine the speed profiles of elite wheelchair rugby (WCR) players during game-simulation training drills of differing player number and shot-clock regulations.

2) To determine whether speed profiles were further influenced by player classification.

Methods 

Eight elite WCR players (low-point n = 3, high-point n = 5) were monitored using a radio-frequency-based indoor tracking system during training sessions over a 5-month period.

Speed profiles were collected for 3 modified game-simulation drills: 3-versus-3 drills (n = 8 observations), 30-s shot clock (n = 24 observations), and 15-s shot clock (n = 16 observations) and were compared with regular game-simulation drills (4 vs 4, 40-s shot clock; n = 16 observations).

Measures included mean and peak speed, exercise-intensity ratios, and the number of high-speed activities performed.

Main findings 

  • Compared with regular game-simulation drills, 3-versus-3 drills elicited a moderate increase in mean speed (6.3%) and the number of high-speed activities performed (44.1%).
  • Minimal changes in speed profiles were observed during the 30-s shot clock.
  • Moderate to large increases in all measures were observed during the 15-s shot-clock drills.
  • Players performed ∼57% more high-speed activities during the 15-second shot-clock drills (1.1/min) than during regular game-simulation drills (0.7/min).
  • Classification-specific differences were identified, with increased activity observed for high-point players during the 3-versus-3 drill and for low-point players during the 15-s shot clock.
  • By reducing the number of players on court and the shot clock to 15 s, coaches can significantly increase elite WCR players' speed profiles during game-simulation drills, though this response is likely more pronounced for HP players.
  • Reducing the shot clock from 40 to 30 seconds during game-simulation drills has little bearing on the speed profiles of elite WCR players.

Reference

Rhodes JM, Mason BS, Paulson TAW, Goosey-Tolfrey VL. Altering the Speed Profiles of Wheelchair Rugby Players With Game-Simulation Drill Design. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2018 Jan 1;13(1):37-43. DOI: . Epub 2018 Jan 2. PMID: 28422583.

 

Image credit: © Paralympics GB