title: Implementation of Motor Imagery during Specific Aerobic Training Session in Young Tennis Players.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of implementing motor imagery (MI) during specific tennis high intensity intermittent training (HIIT) sessions on groundstroke performance in young elite tennis players. Stroke accuracy and ball velocity of forehand and backhand drives were evaluated in ten young tennis players, immediately before and after having randomly performed two HIIT sessions. One session included MI exercises during the recovery phases, while the other included verbal encouragements for physical efforts and served as control condition. Results revealed that similar cardiac demand was observed during both sessions, while implementing MI maintained groundstroke accuracy. Embedding MI during HIIT enabled the development of physical fitness and the preservation of stroke performance. These findings bring new insight to tennis and conditioning coaches in order to fulfil the benefits of specific playing HIIT sessions, and therefore to optimise the training time.
authors.affiliation: Institut Universitaire de France, 75000, Paris, France.|Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport-EA 647, UFRSTAPS, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Aymeric
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guillot
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport-EA 647, UFRSTAPS, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Rienzo
authors.affiliation: Institut Universitaire de France, 75000, Paris, France.|Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport-EA 647, UFRSTAPS, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pialoux
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport-EA 647, UFRSTAPS, Villeurbanne, France.|Ligue du Lyonnais de Tennis, Bron, France.
authors.forename: Germain
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport-EA 647, UFRSTAPS, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skinner
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport-EA 647, UFRSTAPS, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rogowski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D056352:Athletes; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000379:methods*; D013715:Tennis / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*