Duração dos pontos e características do beach tennis em homens e mulheres profissionais

Abstract

Beach tennis is a sport characterized by rapid movements executed within short time intervals. However, there have been few studies investigating the physiological landscape of the sport. With this in mind, the objective was to analyze the duration of points, ball exchanges, and the work-to-rest ratio within the discipline for professional men and women. Male (4) and female (4) matches from the BT400 Pure Beach - Marechal Deodoro - 2023 were analyzed, evaluating: (1) point duration, (2) number of ball exchanges, (3) time between points, (4) time between games, (5) total game duration, (6) effective game duration, (7) total pause time, and (8) workto-rest ratio. The data demonstrated that the male category presented significant differences for most of the analyzed variables, both in the first and second sets: point duration (men 3.62 ± 2.71 s and 3.72 ± 3.65 s; women 4.64 ± 3.48 s and 4.81 ± 3.78 s), number of ball exchanges in the first set (men 4.56 ± 3.22 exchanges; women 5.33 ± 3.86 exchanges), effective game duration (men 20.72 ± 9.10 s and 20.90 ± 10.42 s; women 25.57 ± 9.50 s and 24.16 ± 11.13 s), total pause time per game (men 216.64 ± 78.09 s and 217.16 ± 70.60 s; women 199.32 ± 67.24 s and 187.01 ± 66.89 s), and work-to-rest ratio (men 10.17% ± 3.61% and 9.98% ± 4.91%; women 13.65% ± 3.99% and 13.69% ± 6.65%). Furthermore, the analyzed variables did not differ between sets for either category, except for the time between points in the second set of the women's category. The majority of points ended within 4 exchanges for men (57.7% and 68.3% for each set) and 5 exchanges for women's matches (61.1% and 64%). The distribution of point durations showed that points ended within 3 seconds (men 54.21% and 59.35%; women 44.44% and 40%). This led to the conclusion that beach tennis features a faster pace compared to the sports from which it originated, as well as a faster pace when comparing men and women. These findings can contribute to describing and creating an energy and intensity landscape of the discipline, assisting coaches in more accurate prescriptions considering the sport's specificity.