Physiological responses and time-motion

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport

ISSN: 2474-8668 (Print) 1474-8185 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpan20

Physiological responses and time-motion characteristics of young tennis players: comparison of serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches Bulent Kilit & Ersan Arslan To cite this article: Bulent Kilit & Ersan Arslan (2017): Physiological responses and timemotion characteristics of young tennis players: comparison of serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches, International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, DOI: 10.1080/24748668.2017.1381470 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2017.1381470

Published online: 16 Oct 2017.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rpan20 Download by: [Siirt Universitesi]

Date: 16 October 2017, At: 23:15

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2017.1381470

Physiological responses and time-motion characteristics of young tennis players: comparison of serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches Bulent Kilita and Ersan Arslanb Faculty of Sport Sciences, Hitit University, Corum, Turkey; bSchool of Physical Education and Sports, Siirt University, Siirt, Turkey

Downloaded by [Siirt Universitesi] at 23:15 16 October 2017

a

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to compare the physiological responses and time-motion characteristics of young tennis players between serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches during simulated tennis match play. Heart rate (HR) and skin temperature (ST) were monitored along with total distance covered in four different speed zones—walking, low-intensity running, moderate-intensity running and high-intensity running, using two portable multivariable integrated 10 Hz GPS monitoring devices over fourteen outdoor clay court matches; ratings of perceived exertion were also determined at the end of the game. Variables describing the characteristics of the matches determined from video recordings were: strokes per rally, rally duration, effective playing time, work-to-rest ratio and rest time between rallies. The results showed no significant differences in physiological responses and time-motion characteristics both serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches (p > .05). These findings might be used for the training programmes in order to improve the tennis-specific technical and performance required for young tennis players.

ARTICLE HISTORY

Received 15 June 2017 Accepted 15 September 2017 KEYWORDS

Serve and return games; physiological responses; time-motion characteristics; winners and losers matches; tennis; GPS

1. Introduction Tennis is a game that characterised a combination of physical activities including running at different speeds, turns, changeovers, strokes, sliding and upper arm involvement. An idea of the levels of exertion required can be seen from the fact that the sport produces an average game heart rate of approximately 160 beats/min (ranging from 120 to 188) in young tennis players (Fernandez-Fernandez, Mendez-Villanueva, Fernandez-Garcia, & Terrados, 2007; Hoppe et al., 2014; Reid et al., 2013). Previous studies of simulated tennis matches have shown that young tennis players cover a distance of 2.7–3.4 km and are involved in a high-intensity activity for approximately 10–25% of the total distance covered (Hoppe et al., 2014; Pereira et al., 2015). They have also indicated match characteristics such as rally duration (~8 s), effective playing time (~22%) and resting time between rallies (~18 s) (Fernandez-Fernandez, Mendez-Villanueva, & Pluim, 2006; Fernandez-Fernandez et al.,

CONTACT Bulent Kilit

[email protected]

© 2017 Cardiff Metropolitan University


2

B. KILIT AND E. ARSLAN

2007; Reid, Duffield, Dawson, Baker, & Crespo, 2008). These results have helped sports scientists and practitioners to prepare tennis-specific training drills and to evaluate the intensity of simulated match play in young tennis players. A number of studies have focused on physiological responses affected by match characteristics, investigating factors such as heart rate (Fernandez-Fernandez et al., 2007; Kilit, Şenel, Arslan, & Can, 2016; Smekal et al., 2001), blood lactate concentration (Fernandez-Fernandez et al., 2007; Fernandez-Fernandez, Sanz-Rivas, Fernandez-Garcia, & Mendez-Villanueva, 2008; Mendez-Villanueva, Fernandez-Fernandez, Bishop, Fernandez-Garcia, & Terrados, 2007, 2010; Smekal et al., 2001) and the rate of perceived exertion (Fernandez-Fernandez et al., 2008; Kilit et al., 2016; Mendez-Villanueva, Fernandez-Fernandez, Bishop, & Fernandez-Garcia, 2010; Mendez-Villanueva et al., 2007) and the time-motion characteristics, including total distance covered (Hoppe et al., 2014; T. J. C. Pereira et al., 2016b) and total distance covered in different speed zones (Galé-Ansodi, Castellano, & Usabiaga, 2016; Hoppe et al., 2014; T. J. C. Pereira et al., 2016b) of tennis in different playing conditions (serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches). Consequently, it is well known from research on simulated matches that physiological responses and time-motion characteristics in different playing conditions were affected by physical, technical and tactical activity (Hoppe et al., 2014; Kilit et al., 2016; Martínez-Gallego et al., 2013). For example, tennis players expend more energy in the serve games during the matches, and they have higher physiological responses compared to return games (Kilit et al., 2016; Mendez-Villanueva et al., 2007). In addition, a study showed that winners’ matches induced higher total distance covered than losers’ matches during tennis matches (Martínez-Gallego et al., 2013). Therefore, these variables should be taken into account in the evaluation of the obtained results of the studies. Although there are separate studies on physiological responses and time-motion characteristics comparing players of different levels, sex and ages, no study has evaluated all of these variables together in young tennis players. Thus, the purpose of this study is to compare the physiological responses and time-motion characteristics of young tennis players between serve vs. return games and winners vs. losers matches during simulated tennis match play.

2. Methods 2.1. Participants Twenty-eight young male tennis players (age 12.2 ± .3 years) volunteered to participate in the study. At the time of the study, the players involved trained 15–20 h per week and had International Tennis Numbers (ITNs) ranging from 4 to 6 and national junior rankings of between 1 and 40. All of the participants were right-handed tennis players. All the players and their parents were notified of the research procedures, requirements, benefits and potential risks before providing written informed consent. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the local university and was conducted in a manner consistent with the institutional ethical requirements for human experimentation in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. 2.2. Experimental design This study was carried out over a 2-week period and included 2 main stages: the first involved on-court tests including the International Tennis Number Test (see Section 2.3.1)

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS IN SPORT

3


and the Hit and Turn Tennis Test (HTTT—see Section 2.3.1); the second stage involved simulated singles tennis match play, during which players were monitored using portable integrated 10 Hz GPS multivariable devices, and match notational analysis was conducted. All the tests were performed on an outdoor clay court at a similar time of day (between 9:00 and 12:00 pm) to control for similar chronobiological characteristics (Drust, Waterhouse, Atkinson, Edwards, & Reilly, 2005). Similar temperatures (25–28 °C) and relative air humidity levels (25–40%) obtained through all stages of the study. The participants were asked not to drink caffeinated beverages or take other stimulants for the 3 h prior to the test and to avoid strenuous exercise for the 24 h prior to the tests. During the matches, the Borg scale (RPE 6–20) was applied immediately after the end of every game in order to measure perceived exertion. Each player was individually filmed, and the characteristics of the matches were monitored for the entire duration of the match. 2.3. Procedure 2.3.1. On-court testing The ITN Test is an objective on-court assessment tool based on a set number of tennis-specific tasks (i.e. ball control, accuracy and power) and was developed to enable players to benchmark their tennis level against themselves and others worldwide (International Tennis Number, 2004). The ITN Test was performed according to the instructions provided by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). A ball machine (Tennis Tutor Plus, Sports Tutor Inc. USA) was used to feed balls to the tested players. The HTTT, an acoustically controlled progressive on-court fitness test for tennis players, was performed according to the procedures suggested by Ferrauti, Kinner, and Fernandez-Fernandez (2011). The highest HR measurement during the test was recorded as HRmax. After the test, estimated VO2max was calculated for under 14 boys by using the following formula (Ferrauti et al., 2011):

VO2 max = 30.0 + 1.66 × (player finishes level in HTTT). 2.3.2. Simulated match play For the second stage of the study, each subject completed simulated tennis matches on an outdoor clay court. Prior to each match, each player performed a standardised 10-min warm-up, including forehand and backhand shots, volleys, overhead shots and serves. All the fourteen matches were played in random order according to the rules of the ITF (the best of 3 sets) (Ojala & Häkkinen, 2013). A set of 3 new balls (Wilson USOpen, Chicago, USA) was used for each match. A portable multivariable monitoring devices (Bioharness 3, GPS Sports Systems Ltd., Annapolis, USA) (Zephyr, 2015) with integrated 10 Hz GPS units (BT-Q818XT, QStarz, Taipei, Taiwan) (GPS Features, 2013) were used to record each player’s physiological responses (heart rate and skin temperature) and time-motion characteristics (acceleration, speed and total distance covered in different speed zones) during the matches. Each player wore two devices at the same time during pilot testing in order to assess bias error. The pilot test involved the 20-m Multi-Stage Shuttle Run (MSSR) (Leger, Mercier, Gadoury, & Lambert, 1988), an acoustically controlled progressive test; participants completed 6 min 20 s of 20-m MSSR (from Level 1 to Level 6) (Johnstone et al., 2012b). Strong relationships were found in the present study in terms of the heart rate, skin temperature, acceleration, speed and total distance values between the two analysers in our 20-m


4

B. KILIT AND E. ARSLAN

MSSR test comparison (ICC = .70–.99, p .05; d = ranging from .04 to .20). Table 4 shows the correlation coefficients between HR and RPE values. Heart rate responses were moderately correlated with rally duration and strokes per rally in both serve vs. return games (r = .49–.42; r = .40–.38, p