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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
Nicolas Robin Nicolas Robin 1,2*Miguel Crespo Miguel Crespo 3Toru Ishihara Toru Ishihara 4,5Robbin Carien Robbin Carien 1Cyril Brechbuhl Cyril Brechbuhl 6Olivier Hue Olivier Hue 1,2Laurent Dominique Laurent Dominique 7,8
  • 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

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    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

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.