Preliminary Analysis of Skin Temperature Asymmetries in Elite Young Tennis Players

Abstract

This preliminary study aimed to assess skin temperature (Tsk) asymmetries before and after on-court training in elite young tennis players and to find the correlation between these asymmetries and demographic data, racquet characteristics, and pain and fatigue variation. Thermal images of nine tennis players were taken before and after two and a half hours of standardised training. Thermal asymmetries were correlated to age, years of experience, racquet weight, string tension, body mass index (BMI), and variation in fatigue and pain. In contralateral comparison, Tsk was higher on the dominant side in areas such as the anterior (1.1 ± 0.5 °C, p < 0.001, ES = 0.5) and posterior forearm (1.1 ± 1 °C, p < 0.01, ES = 0.5). Concerning pre- and post-comparisons, post-training Tsk values were lower in all regions except in the posterior forearm, posterior shoulder, and posterior leg. Finally, significant correlations were found between thermal asymmetry and weight of the racquet, body mass index, fatigue and pain variation. Monitoring tennis players’ Tsk with infrared thermography (IRT) gives coaches vital information to evaluate contralateral asymmetries and technical pattern activations during training sessions.