The relationship among agility, sprint, strength and balance in ice hockey players

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship among agility, sprint, strength and balance in ice hockey players. A total of 27 ice hockey players (age: 18.46 ±4.41 years, height: 175.96±9.34 cm, body weight: 71.19±12.76 kg, fat: 13.45±7.61 %) who were playing in ice hockey clubs in Ankara participated in this study voluntarily. Participants' agility level was determined on-ice by using "The Agility S-Test" and sprint values were determined by on-ice 30 meters forward and 30 meters backward sprinting tests. Peak isokinetic knee extension and flexion strength of the participants were determined for both legs at two different speeds (600s-1 an 1800s-1). Finally balance of the participants was determined as static and dynamic balance. Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis indicated significant correlation between on-ice agility and 30 meters forward (r=0.652; p=.000) and 30 meters backward sprint (r=0.768; p=.000). On the other hand no significant correlations were observed between agility and peak isokinetic knee extension and flexion strength and between agility and static and dynamic balance (p>0.05). Similarly when relation between sprint and isokinetic knee strength are taken into consideration, no significant correlations were found between 30 meters forward and backward sprint and peak isokinetic knee flexion and extension strength at 600s-1 and 1800s-1(p>0.05).Also no significant correlations were found between 30 meters forward and backward sprint and static and dynamic balance (p>0.05). Finally there was no significant correlation between peak isokinetic knee flexion and extension strength at 600s-1 and 1800s-1 and static and dynamic balance (p>0.05). As a conclusion on-ice agility and sprint values of ice hockey players were found to be were related with each other while no relationship were found among the rest of the parameters.