Thermal Behavior of Children During American Football Sports Training

Abstract

This paper shows the thermal behavior in the nose, the fingertips and lower limbs (right and left) before and after an American football training in fourteen children who are members of a private football academy. During the one-hour training, four different activities were carried out: warm-up, speed test at 40 yards, long jump tests and three-cone drill tests, in which each stage was developed in a time of fifteen minutes. For the statistical analysis of the thermal information, a methodology that allows to calculate the thermal matrix and thus obtain the thermal values of each point was developed. Once the analysis was carried out, significant changes (temperature decrease) were found in the analyzed regions of interest, except for the thumb. Subsequently, a temperature decrease index was obtained and it was found that the greatest temperature change is shown in the area of the lower extremities.