10 out of 16 FIH Hockey Women's World Cup teams train on Poligras
10 out of 16 FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup teams train on Poligras
The role of marginal gains in World Cup preparation
Disciples of Rugby World Cup winning coach, Sir Clive Woodward and Tour de France winning coach, Sir David Brailsford, will be no strangers to the concept of marginal gains – the theory that it is easier to improve 100 things by 1% than it is to change one thing by 100%. But you don’t have to be a rugby or cycling aficionado to know that this approach has influenced coaching regimes in many modern high-performance sports. Hockey is no exception.
World Cup teams have to think small to win big
Brailsford famously got his Team Sky riders to wear electrically heated shorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature, added pineapple juice to water to make it easier to drink and fastidiously researched a host of massage oils to find out which one promoted the fastest muscle recovery. The list goes on. The world’s best hockey nations have similarly been sweating the small stuff ahead of the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup. The psychologist’s bench, the data analysts’ laptops, the player’s kit bags are just some of the areas where those crucial 1% gains can be found. At Tokyo 2020, the Belgium gold medal winning coach, Shane McLeod, insisted the team took golf carts rather than walking, as walking was slow and their bodies were so highly tuned to explosive performance.
10/16 2022 Women’s World Cup Teams train on Poligras
So too is the surface the players train on. Not all hockey pitches are created equal and 63% teams who will battle it out for World Cup glory in Terrassa and Amsterdam this summer will be stepping out onto a world-class surface they know. Argentina, Australia, England, Germany, Spain, India, Japan, Korea, Ireland and China all train on Poligras turfs. This is the same surface that will provide the stage for this year’s Women’s World Cup which is uniquely being played across two venues. In a tournament of more variables than usual, the surface will provide the majority of the teams with the consistency and the familiarity of their training ground. After all, you wouldn’t expect an elite player to suddenly be comfortable using a longer stick - the same goes with turf.
“We are delighted to have been chosen by the FIH for another major event and to be trusted by so many of the participating teams as their training surface of choice”
Marginal gains apply to the teams behind, as well as on, the surface
Just as the coaching teams need to be myopic about the detail, so too is the Poligras team that develops and lays the World Cup’s surfaces. Paul Kamphuis has captained the development and installation of the hockey surfaces for 5 Olympics and 4 Hockey World Cups and has just overseen the delivery of the Poligras surfaces in this year’s two World Cup venues.
“We work closely with the athletes, facility managers, coaches – the whole hockey family – to innovate in ways that enhance the sport and help grow the game without negative consequences. The Poligras Platinum GT pitches at this year’s World Cup adopt the green technology developed for Tokyo2020 and have been laid with a deep understanding of the local construction practices in each World Cup venue to ensure they perform as well as possible. We are delighted to have been chosen by the FIH for another major event and to be trusted by so many of the participating teams as their training surface of choice.”
Top Ranked Women’s Teams in the World Choose Poligras
With this attention to detail and commitment to performance, it is not surprising that 7 out of the Top 10 FIH World Ranked teams and over 60% of this year’s Women’s World Cup teams have chosen and trusted Poligras as their training surface. As all of the teams look for an edge on the competition, familiar ground beneath their feet could add a crucial 1%.
