Examining the Determinants of Skating Speed in Ice Hockey Athletes: A Systematic Review

Ice hockey is a physically demanding sport that requires athletes to maintain high skating speed for optimal performance. This systematic review examines existing research on testing ice hockey athletes in relation to skating speed and identifies key metrics to inform future decisions on the most suitable testing regimes. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed for the literature search. After the literature search and application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, nineteen studies were deemed eligible. The identified measures which showed a significant correlation with ice skating performance were on-land sprinting, jumping, body composition, and anaerobic power. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of skating performance and suggest that a range of tests may be necessary to identify critical factors to overall skating performance; however, further research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.