## 4 Discussion
When each rotation was considered, a significant main effect was observed for relative total distance (\(p\)\(\leq\) 0.001; \(\eta\)\({}^{2}\) = 0.04; medium), relative high-speed distance (\(p\)\(\leq\) 0.001; \(\eta\)\({}^{2}\) = 0.03; medium), and the number of sprints (\(p\)\(\leq\) 0.04; \(\eta\)\({}^{2}\) = 0.01; small). A significant decrease was reported for relative total distance for R1 and R2 when compared to other rotations completed by players during match-play (Figure 1). Similar to relative total distance, when relative high-speed distance was quantified, a significant decrease was reported when R1 was compared to other rotations during match-play (Figure 2). Our findings are similar to data previously reported in other team sports [17,18]. Previously, [PERSON] and colleagues [18] reported that rotation duration influenced the physical activity profile of female Australian football players within the subsequent quarter of play, specifically short (4-6 min) and moderate (7-12 min) duration rotations were shown to generate the highest activity profile duringmatch-play. During each rotation, forwards maintained the highest relative output when compared to the defenders and midfielders. It is possible that prior knowledge of the team's rotations strategy may be associated with these higher relative outputs. Indeed, forwards typically are required to perform a rotation of 4-9 min, depending on the tactical requirements of the coaching staff, while defenders and midfield players usually complete longer duration rotations (5-11 min) during match-play. [PERSON] et al. [19] recently reported that football player's physical output can be more critically impacted by periods of peak high-velocity running. Our results have shown that after R2 no further reduction in locomotor parameters between rotations was reported. It is apparent that after R2 regardless of position, players relative locomotor activity plateaus. Due to their nomadic nature and the speed of the game, it is likely that an element of fatigue or differential positional pacing strategies may be apparent in particular positional lines of play within elite female field hockey [19; 20]. Given the extent of the reduction in physical performance across the rotations, it is suggested that, during training, coaching staff implement these typical work periods within conditioning drills to replicate and exceed match demands when required. Time on feet resulted in players achieving a higher percentage of HRmax and time above 80% HRmax during competitive match-play. Players attained a mean HRmax of 187 \(\pm\) 8 bpm equating to 86 \(\pm\) 4% of HRmax. Regardless of positional group, players were reported to spend 4.29 \(\pm\) 1.4 min of the 7.0 \(\pm\) 0.8 min above 80% HRmax. Midfielders (90 \(\pm\) 6%) were reported to reach a higher percentage mean HRmax during each rotation when compared to the defenders (90 \(\pm\) 6%) and forwards (86 \(\pm\) 4%) (Figure 3). Furthermore, our study reported that midfielders spent more time above 80% HRmax (4.39 \(\pm\) 1.5 min) when compared to the defenders (3.54 \(\pm\) 1.4 min) and forwards (4.10 \(\pm\) 2.1 min). These results are in line with the findings reported by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [4], who suggested that players who had a quicker heart rate recovery time had an enhanced ability to cope with the intensity of competitive match-play and could maintain the capacity to run at higher speeds. Forwards were likely to spend the least amount of time on feet during each rotation, had an overall lower mean percentage of HRmax, and could run at a higher intensity. These results suggest that reducing the time midfielders spend in each rotation may, in turn, increase their overall levels of intensity during match-play. Given the above,  
Figure 1: The average relative total distance m-min\({}^{-1}\) of elite female field hockey players across each rotational period during competitive match-play.