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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 6 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1427066
Pre-Per-and Post-Cooling Strategies Used By Competitive Tennis Players in Hot Dry and Hot Humid Conditions
Provisionally accepted- 1 Université des Antilles, Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe
- 2 Laboratory ACTES, Pointe-à-Pitre, France
- 3 International Tennis Federation (ITF), London, United Kingdom
- 4 Kobe University, Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan
- 5 Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan
- 6 Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT), Paris, France
- 7 Université de la Réunion, Saint-Denis, France
- 8 Laboratoire IRISSE, UFR des Sciences de l’Homme et l’Environnement, Université de la Réunion, la Reunion, France
This research investigated the pre-, per- and post cooling strategies used by competitive tennis players from various levels of play who occasionally train and compete in hot (> 28°C) and humid (> 60% rH), and dry (< 60% rH) environments. 129 male tennis players (M age = 24.9) competing at regional (N=54), national (N=30) and international (N=45) levels, completed an online questionnaire regarding their use of pre-, per- and postcooling strategies when playing tennis in hot dry (HD) and hot humid (HH) conditions. Competitive tennis players used both internal and external cooling strategies to combat the negative effects of HD and HH conditions, but considered the HH to be more stressful than HD and experienced more heat-related illness in HH environments. International players used cold packs and cold towel more frequently than the regional and national players in hot environments, and used cold water immersion and cold vest more frequently than the latter in HH. Differences in strategy use were mostly observed during per-cooling where regional and national players more frequently used cold drinks than international players who more frequently used cold packs in HD and cold towel in HH conditions. Moreover the latter more frequently used cold towel, cold packs and cold water immersion as post-cooling strategies than regional players. In the heat, it is recommended to employ cooling strategies to maintain health, limit declines in performance, and promote recovery. We recommend improving education regarding the appropriate use and effectiveness of cooling strategies, and increasing their availability in tournaments.
Keywords: Cooling strategy, Tennis, hot, environment, Hygrometry, Dry, humid
Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Robin, Crespo, Ishihara, Carien, Brechbuhl, Hue and Dominique. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nicolas Robin, Université des Antilles, Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe
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