Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Introduce us to a day in the life of a field hockey player, preparing for the Olympic Games.
Ms. Kate Richardson-Walsh:
As a sport we were very lucky to have an increase in funding in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. This ensured we were able to make some huge changes to the way we trained and prepared for tournaments as a group. It is thanks to UK Sport, the National Lottery and everyone that plays it that we were able to fulfill our dreams and stand on the podium twice at an Olympic Games. British hockey has been running a full-time centralised programme since 2009. The whole squad of 28 or 31 players, either lives close by or commutes to Bisham Abbey, our training base. We train physically twice a day, most days. The majority of the players also represent a club team which entails training one night a week and playing a club match at the weekend. The full-time programme most importantly gives us time to utilise the support services on a regular basis such as pyschology, strength and conditioning, nutrition, physiotherapy and video analysis. The time we spend together as a squad really binds us together and we can formulate our culture.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine?
Ms. Kate Richardson-Walsh:
As a British squad training towards the Olympics we would have five hockey sessions together on the field every week. Three of these sessions would be high intensity game like situations or practices. The other two would be lower intensity and focus on set pieces and more technical hockey work. As a group we would have three strength and conditioning sessions to complete as well. The S&C work was individualized and depending on our physical needs and the specific training period we were in as a group. All of these sessions required a thorough warm up and again this altered depending on the content of the session. One week out of four would be a purely physical training week with no hockey commitments. This week would have three or four running sessions and three gym based sessions.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Do you take some special diet or have a strict menu that you follow to remain healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Kate Richardson-Walsh:
As with everyone we are encouraged to understand our individual body. We are all different and we all require slightly different nutritional needs to make sure we can train and play to our optimum. Due to our heavy training load and the intensity of our tournaments we had a massive focus on recovery nutrition. Each of us had an individual recovery strategy which ensured we took on the right amounts of carbohydrate, protein and nutrients post workout. On the whole it was a case of eating a healthy well balanced diet. Fitness testing and body composition measurements helped us plan with the nutritionist and S&C coach what we needed to focus on nutritionally for each phase of training.
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