Analysis of selected external load indicators of deaf top tennis players

Abstract

The aim of the present paper was to analyze selected indices of external load of deaf elite tennis players. We analyzed 4 matches of five tennis players from the top 20 players of the Summer Deaflympics in Samsun, Turkey, in 2017. We used indirect observation through video recordings to collect research data. We analyzed the duration of matches, the average length of net game time, the average duration of individual exchanges, and the average duration of breaks between exchanges. We found that the average length of the matches of the deaf elite tennis players lasted 1 hour and 44 minutes, the average length of the net game time of the analyzed matches was 13.34 minutes, the average length of the exchanges was 7.14 seconds, and the average length of the breaks between exchanges lasted 23.86 seconds. The research also found that the analyzed time characteristics differ slightly from those without hearing loss top tennis players. The tennis play of deaf athletes is significantly affected by hearing loss.