Fatigue has multiple elements including changes in muscle performance, blood markers of lactic acid and other compounds as well as brain central perception factors.
Long multi-set matches can last four or five hours. Obviously, at the end of this type of exertion, players have had to adjust to effects of significant fatigue.
Reid and Duffield review the key elements of fatigue in match-play tennis. Their review highlights the significant lack of data to understand fatigue in tennis. I will break my notes and comments into the components of their scholarly review.
Physiological Profile
- Maximum heart rates during tennis typically range between 60-80% of max with oxygen consumption around 70% of maximum
- Lactic acid levels fluctuate but do not typically reach levels seen with anaerobic exercise
- Blood markers of muscle damage after matches show significant increases in muscle related CPK enzymes
- Dehydration can contribute to impaired muscle performance as can deprivation of glycogen stores. These effects are largely prevented by professional tennis players use of fluids and oral carbohydrates in the course of play
- Physiological effects are significant with long matches but unlikely to be a key element of fatigue
- GPS and movement tracking devices are allowing more precise analysis of movement characteristics over the course of 3 or 4 hour matches
- Movement analysis suggests a 5% reduction in amount of movement during the course of a 3 to 4 hours match.
- Additionally, when long matches occur over consecutive days, movement can be reduced by up to 15% on day 4 compared to day 1
- The effect of these movement reductions with play is unclear and it has not been demonstrated that this factors is lessened in those who win long matches
Changes in Mechanical, Contractile and Cognitive
- The reduction in tennis stroke accuracy (i.e. % of first serves in play) with long duration of play is unclear
- Some studies suggest velocity reductions with fatigue are not automatically linked to reduction of stroke accuracy
- One element of the development of expertise in tennis is to show smaller levels of velocity reduction and inaccuracy with long duration of play
- Match play over 2 hours reduces contractile muscle strength by 10-25%
- Being interested in the brain, I noted the review found that mental fatigue and physical fatigue are correlated
- Elite players use their perception of their level of physical fatigue during the course of a match
- Motivation and cognitive factors may be able to delay or ignore physical fatigue perception later in match in elite players
The review notes that what is known about fatigue in tennis is often limited to players of average skill. Information about elite players is very limited.
However, with the evolution of sophisticated movement and physiological analysis, tennis is ready for a data and science upgrade to understand and enhance elite tennis player performance.
Readers with more interest on this topic can access the free full-text manuscript by clicking on the PMID link below.
Readers with more interest on this topic can access the free full-text manuscript by clicking on the PMID link below.
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