Introduction
Racquet sports are played in all parts of the
world and, in addition to being a popular form
of recreational activity, have well-developed
professional circuits and are represented at the
Olympic Games. These games are played either
on a divided court area across a net (e.g. tennis,
badminton) or on a common court against a wall
(e.g. squash, racquetball). Table tennis provides a
slight variation on these general themes. The
nutritional requirements for racquet sports will
vary greatly between the sports and between
individuals and are likely to be determined by a
number of factors. Of most importance is the
level of energy expenditure which, in turn, is
influenced by the game duration, level of partici-
pation and quantity of training/competition,
type of match (singles vs. doubles), ability of
opponent and the extent to which they dictate
playing patterns and, in the case of tennis, court
surface. Environmental conditions will have an
additional impact and are a major determinant of
fluid needs. For the purposes of this chapter, dis-
cussion will be limited to tennis, squash and bad-
minton; however, the general principles should
apply to all racquet sports. Given the complexity
of these sports and the interactions between
cognitive and physical performance, the racquet
sports have been less studied by scientists with
an interest in sports performance.
Physiological and metabolic demands
of racquet sports
The physiological and metabolic demands of
racquet sports have been well summarized by
Reilly (1990). In general, they can be character-
ized as intermittent exercise, with relatively
short bursts of activity, involving both the upper
and lower limb muscles, followed by periods of
rest. The average duration of a rally is in the
range of 4–12 s (Docherty 1982; Dawson et al.
1985; Christmass et al. 1995; Faccini & Dal Monte
1996), but competitive matches may last from
just under an hour up to several hours depend-
ing upon the number of games/sets played. For
example, some years ago a tennis match in the
Davis Cup team competition, when advantage
rather than tiebreak sets were played, lasted for
over 6 h! Of the racquet sports, tennis has the
greatest range of court surfaces, the consequence
of which is variation in the duration of rallies and
matches. Matches on grass courts tend to be char-
acterized by shorter rallies and dominated by the
serve and volley. In contrast, matches on hard
and clay courts usually involve longer rallies
from the baseline. In general, rallies in squash
tend to be longer than those in badminton and
tennis (Docherty 1982), which may be a function
of the walled court allowing potential ‘out balls’
to remain in play.
Measurements of heart rate and V.
o2max.during
racquet sports support the contention that these
sports can be classified as moderate- to high-
intensity aerobic activities, with values in the