Physiological responses to on-court vs running interval training in competitive tennis players

The aim of this study was to compare heart rate (hr),blood lactate (la) and rate of perceived exertion (rpe) responses to a tennis-specific interval training (i.e.,on-court) session with that of a matched-on-time running interval training (i.e.,off-court). eight well-trained,male (n = 4) and female (n = 4) tennis players (mean ± sd; age: 16.4 ± 1.8 years) underwent an incremental test where peak treadmill speed,maximum hr (hrmax) and maximum oxygen uptake (vo2max) were determined. the two interval training protocols (i.e.,off-court and on-court) consisted of 4 sets of 120 s of work,interspersed with 90 s rest. percentage of hrmax (95.9 ± 2.4 vs. 96.1 ± 2.2%; p = 0.79),la (6.9 ± 2.5 vs. 6.2 ± 2.4 mmol·l-1; p = 0.14) and rpe (16.7 ± 2.1 vs. 16.3 ± 1.8; p = 0.50) responses were similar for off-court and on-court,respectively. the two interval training protocols used in the present study have equivalent physiological responses. longitudinal studies are still warranted but tennis-specific interval training sessions could represent a time-efficient alternative to off-court (running) interval training for the optimization of the specific cardiorespiratory fitness in tennis players. © journal of sports science and medicine.