REPEATED SPRINT ABILITY IN PROFESSIONAL MALE FUTSAL ATHLETES: AN ANALYSIS OF TABATA PROTOCOL

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the RSA in futsal athletes during Tabata protocol.Cross-sectional investigation,composed of nine professional male futsal athletes,who were currently competing in the silver series of the state championship.Only players who acted on the line (fixed, wings and pivots) were selected. Aerobic capacity was evaluated by intermittent 30:15 test and after 48 h, athletes were recruited to perform Tabata protocol of high intensity interval training, which originally consists of eight sprints of 20s at 170% of the maximum vVO2,interspersed by 10s of passive recovery.In each sprint, the rating of perceived exertion (RPE), speed and percentage of the maximum vVO2 were registered. The reported RPE by the athletes significantly increased after each sprint performed,and all athletes finished with maximum perception of effort.There were no significant differences in the RPE only between the four/five,five/six and seven/eight sprints. In regard to running speed, only six-for-seven and seven-for-eight sprints showed no significant differences. Another important data showed that five of the nine athletes evaluated managed to perform only the first sprint in the intensity of the protocol,so final average of the percentage of the maximum vVO2 was 121.96 ± 9.32 %.Professional futsal athletes were not able to perform Tabata training protocol at the intensity proposed by the authors (170% maximum vVO2), as well as had significant loss in running speed and significant increases in RPE, with 100% of the players reporting maximum effort at the end of the protocol.