Investigation of Physiological and Kinematic Parameters of Tennis Players During the Simulated Games

Authors : Bilal Emektar, Ömer Şenel, Sümer Alvurdu, Tevfik Cem Akalin

Pages : 203-211

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Publication Date : 2023-09-30

Article Type : Research

Abstract :In this study, it was aimed to examine the physiological and kinematic parameters of elite male tennis players during the simulated games. Ten male elite tennis players (age: 16.2±3.2 years, height: 179.4±4.7 cm, body weight: 67.3±8.1 kg, sports age: 9.7 years) voluntarily participated in the study. Each player was given two simulated games in the singles category. Research data were collected with the Catapult Sports Vector S7 GPS athlete tracking system, placed in the middle of each player’s shoulder blades. Data were transferred to Openfield Console, and passive recovery periods were excluded. The Mann-Whitney U test was used in the comparative analysis of winner-loser and morning-afternoon games and the significance level was accepted as 0.05. The physiological activity variables of the players during the games were mean and maximum heart rate 144.9±13.5 beats/min and 178.2±11.05 beats/min, respectively; kinematic variables were determined as total running distance 4052.7±1034.3 m, maximum speed 19.01±2.07 km/h, maximum acceleration and deceleration values 3.49±0.42 m/s2 and -3.75±0.61 m/s2. It was determined that these variables did not differ statistically according to winning-losing and morning-afternoon games (p>0.05). The physiological and kinematic responses of elite tennis players differ when two consecutive games are played on the same day. These data may help to elucidate the need for specific pre-competition training loads or recovery strategies when faced with overloaded games. Physiological and kinematic findings obtained during competition are considered to be important for technical teams in planning training programs to improve athletes\' performance.
Keywords : Match demands, athlete tracking systems, GPS, racket sports