PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF YOUNG TENNIS PLAYERS TO TRAINING DRILLS AND SIMULATED MATCH PLAY

Gomes, RV, Cunha, VCR, Zourdos, MC, Aoki, MS, Moreira, A, Fernandez-Fernandez, J, and Capitani, CD. Physiological responses of young tennis players to training drills and simulated match play. J Strength Cond Res 30(3): 851-858, 2016The aim of this study was to investigate the responses of young tennis players during 5 different training drills and to compare the responses between drills. Ten (17.0 +/- 1.2 years) male tennis players participated in this study. Each athlete completed 5 total training drills. Drills 1-4 consisted of each player returning balls from a ball-serving machine and were stroke/time-controlled over 6 points. The fifth drill was a simulated match (SM) play, between 2 opposing players, and also lasted 6 points. The 4 stroke/time-controlled drills had the following strokes/time for each point: drill 1: 2 strokes/approximate to 4 seconds, drill 2: 4 strokes/approximate to 8 seconds, drill 3: 7 strokes/approximate to 14 seconds, drill 4: 10 strokes/approximate to 20 seconds. Peak heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration (LA), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured after the first, third, and sixth point of each drill. Drills were performed in a randomized crossover design; a 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used with significance set at p 0.05. All dependent variables (HR, LA, and RPE) significantly increased (p 0.05) as strokes, and time per rally increased in each drill. Furthermore, all variables were elevated to a greater magnitude (p 0.05) during the 7 and 10 stroke drills after the first, third, and sixth points when compared with the SM and the 2 and 4 stroke drills at the corresponding time points. These results suggest that the physiological responses to tennis training drills were stroke/time-dependent. Therefore, because of the intense intermittent nature of tennis, stroke/time-controlled drills, which require significant physiological demands, should be incorporated along with technically focused shorter drills to fully mimic the conditions of competitive match play. (AU)