Effect of between-set rest intervals on repeated-sprint ability and physiological responses in indoor sport athletes

Indoor team sports (e.g. basketball, handball, floorball) allow unlimited substitutions, where players go through a work-rest pattern of multiple high-intensity sprints during play and resting off-court during substitution repeatedly. This can be like performing repeated-sprint sets (RSS) with recovery intervals between sets and past research has found that repeated-sprint ability is a vital component of fitness in team sport performance. The purpose of this study was to observe the effects of rest-intervals on indoor sport athlete’s RSS performance indices and physiological responses (blood lactate, mean HR, peak HR and RPE) to repeated-sprints. 18 participants (10 males, 8 females) aged 22.7 ± 2.4 years, playing basketball, handball or floorball, performed 3 randomised protocols over three sessions, comprising of three sets of 5 x 20 m sprints with 15 s rest between runs and 60 s, 90 s or 120 s rest between sets. Results showed that 90 s rest interval has the best RSS performance (sum of sprint times: 54.74 ± 5.74s, 53.08 ± 5.42s, 53.95 ± 7.15s for 60 s, 90 s, 120 s respectively) although no significant differences (p = 0.06) were found in RSS performance indices between rest intervals. Additionally, this study found that 60 – 120 s rest intervals had no significant effect on physiological responses. In conclusion, 90 s rest interval could be optimal to maintain high-intensity sprints in set 2 and 3. Future studies can be done on indoor team sports with unlimited substitutions, to better understand the physiological demands and the work-rest ratio of athletes.Bachelor of Science (Sport Science and Management