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Characterising the impact performance of field hockey sticks

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Abstract

Published research on field hockey equipment is scarce. The aim of this research was to investigate methods for characterising the impact performance of field hockey sticks. Three sticks were used with fundamental frequencies in the range 74–154 Hz. Striking an initially still ball with a stick was identified as the preferred method for characterising performance. Impacts were simulated at mean velocities of 19 m/s at toe and 16 m/s at the shaft. The mean apparent coefficient of restitution and standard deviation were −0.32 ± 0.05 at the toe and −0.18 ± 0.02 at the shaft. The foundation work presented here provides the foundations for developing a methodology for characterising the impact performance of field hockey sticks.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Wasp Hockey for providing the hockey sticks, Mr Roger Webb for his advice, Mr Terry Senior for developing the impact rig, James Ibbotson for manually digitising the experimental results and Dr John Kelley and Mr Marcus Dunn for proof reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK

    Tom Allen, Leon Foster & Simon Choppin

  2. Department of Engineering and Maths, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK

    Tom Allen

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Matt Carré

Authors
  1. Tom Allen
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  2. Leon Foster
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  3. Matt Carré
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  4. Simon Choppin
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Correspondence to Tom Allen.

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Allen, T., Foster, L., Carré, M. et al. Characterising the impact performance of field hockey sticks. Sports Eng 15, 221–226 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-012-0099-2

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