Abstract:

Tennis is a sport played outside, requiring specific actions of hydration to avoid compromising performance and health. Thus, we aimed to identify the sweat rate and dehydration percentage of adolescent amateur tennis players. The study included eight athletes, male with a mean age of 14 ± 1,3 years. Data were collected during matches of the MG Stage of Brazilian Championship. The average temperature and humidity of air in the games were, respectively, 24 ± 0,8 º C and 68 ± 0,6 RH. Athletes were weighed before the warm-up and just after the end of matches. It was identified the fluid intake of each athlete and match duration for calculating the sweat rate. It was evaluated the hydration status by the difference of body weight before and after the activity and by the specific gravity of urine. The hydration of athletes was performed with water. It was used the descriptive statistics and paired T-test, being considered as statistically significant p<0,05. The majority (62,5%) produced between 798 and 894 ml of sweat per hour of activity and drank more than one liter of liquid. None of the athletes exceeded the rate of 1% of dehydration, but 62,5% started the match hypo-hydrated and 50% finished the game in the same condition. The initial state of hypo-hydration allows us to infer that athletes may have competed without being with their maximum physiological potential. Thus, it becomes necessary an awareness of the importance of hydration prior to the activity.

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