Cardiorespiratory Aerobic Fitness and Repeated Sprint Ability in Elite Ice Hockey Players

Ice hockey represents a sport with predominantly anaerobic efforts best reflected by repeated sprint ability (RSA) testing (5 × 5 s with 10 s recovery). A controversy persists about the usefulness of VO2max laboratory testing for the assessment of ice hockey players. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between laboratory-measured VO2max and RSA simulated on a supine ergometer and tested on ice. Elite male hockey players (n = 64) were tested in the laboratory (VO2max and RSA). RSA testing was performed by a modified Wingate test (5 × 5 s sprints with 10 s recovery). In 28 athletes RSA was assessed during on-ice testing (five maximal skating sprints between the goal and the blue line). The decrease in performance was assessed by fatigue indices. In the laboratory setting, VO2max correlated significantly with maximum workloads of the second, third, fourth and fifth bouts with increasing correlation strength (r = 0.26, p = 0.02; r = 0.48, p < 0.001; r = 0.57, p < 0.001; and r = 0.60, p < 0.001) and with fatigue indices—the percentage workload decrement index (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) and percentage maximum average workload decrement (%) (r = 0.38, p = 0.002). In addition, VO2max correlated with lactate levels after 10 min of recovery (r = 0.31, p = 0.01). There was no correlation between VO2max and on-ice testing results. Moreover, the results of RSA measured in the laboratory and on ice did not show any correlation. The lack of relationship between laboratory and on-ice testing further challenges the usefulness of bicycle ergometry laboratory testing in ice hockey.