A study of intensity, fatigue and precision in two specific interval trainings in young tennis players: high-intensity interval training versus intermittent interval training
Question
Do continuous 2-minute tennis HIIT bouts and intermittent tennis intervals with brief within-repetition rests differ in intensity, fatigue, shot volume, and precision?
Summary
Thirteen national-level male youth tennis players completed two sport-specific interval formats. Both produced high heart rate, lactate, and perceived exertion. The intermittent format with short rests inside each 2-minute repetition preserved shot volume and reduced errors compared with continuous 2-minute work periods, suggesting that brief rests can maintain technical quality while keeping intensity high.
Methodology
- 13 healthy national-level male tennis players.
- 13 participants.
- Tennis cross-court forehand/backhand drill.
- Work intervals: 2 min continuous work.
- Recovery: Recovery to 130 bpm between repetitions and 120 bpm between series.
- Intensity: Individual 90% movement and shot rate.
- 18 min nominal work plus recovery.
- One test protocol.
- Acute comparison over two weeks.
- Within-subject sport-specific interval comparison
- Heart rate, Lactate, Perceived exertion, and Shot precision were tracked.
Outcomes
Intensity
HR, lactate, and Borg RPE were high and not significantly different between HIIT and IIT.
Average HR 90.65% max in HIIT and 88.76% in IIT; final lactate 8.00 vs 8.20 mmol/L; Borg 16.33 vs 16.6.
Shots
Absolute shot count was higher in HIIT early but fell by the third series; IIT was more stable and higher relative to real work time.
HIIT > IIT in series 1 p=0.009 and series 2 p=0.056; not significant in series 3.
Errors
IIT produced fewer errors than continuous HIIT across the series.
Errors lower in IIT with reported p values including series comparisons p=0.035, p=0.010, and p=0.001.
Fatigue
Continuous HIIT showed increasing errors and declining shots, while IIT maintained shot and error stability.
HIIT errors increased from series 1 to 3, p=0.03.
Insights
- When skill quality matters, inserting short rests within hard intervals can reduce errors without lowering physiological intensity.
- Shot or movement-quality metrics can reveal fatigue effects that HR, lactate, and RPE alone miss.
Limitations
- Small sample
- Male tennis players only
- Fixed protocol order
- Acute protocol comparison only
Safety
- No adverse events or injuries were reported.
- Participants were healthy and supervised during tennis-specific drills.