Evolution of Mental Fatigue With Consecutive Match Progression in Elite Fencing.

Abstract

Purpose: On-field daily monitoring has investigated the acute and cumulative nature of mental fatigue (MF) across various sport training/competitions. However, the evolution of MF under congested 1-day match schedules and its relationship with competitive performance, particularly in elite fencing, remains underexplored.

Methods: A longitudinal study monitored 31 (7 epee, 13 foil, 11 saber; 15 female) elite fencers' subjective MF in the morning (MVAS0) and immediately after each match (MVASi, measurement point i coded as match order) throughout the national competition day until elimination. Weighted least-squares regression with sample-size-based weighting was applied to capture the evolution trend throughout the day. A linear mixed-effects model explored the potential influence of performance statistics (total hits; hits difference) per match and the progression (i) on dynamic changes in MF (MVASi vs MVASi-1).

Results: The competition day of 31 fencers, totaling 153 matches, was analyzed. A downward, quadratic model showed that MF accumulated with a decelerating trend as the competition progressed (theoretical increase rate between matches reduced from +22.0% to +0.5%). In each match, only hits difference (estimate = -0.581, P < .001) negatively affected MF accumulation.

Conclusions: The present findings regarding intraday MF evolution in elite fencing suggest that practitioners should explore the benefit of proactive countermeasures and recovery strategies from the early rounds of a competition day. Applying real-time monitoring and MF-targeted interventions along with other motivational, emotional adjustments is critical to mitigate MF buildup and maintain performance capacity, particularly when a fencer is successively receiving hits.