Aumento do número de participantes no campeonato brasileiro de squash e a interferência de sprints repetidos na precisão da batida de atletas da elite do squash brasileiro

Abstract

Squash is a racket sport with intermittent characteristics, moderate to high intensity efforts, in which being able to rebound the ball accurately in strategic locations on the court and performing repeated efforts (sprints) can predict and determine performance. It is a sport that has experienced notable growth since its creation in the 19th century, with over 50,000 courts in the world by 2009 and more than 123 national federations today. In Brazil, it is already practiced in at least 8 states and has already achieved international achievements in the juvenile and adult categories, this achievement depending on the participation of athletes in championships. Based on that, the objectives of this dissertation were to assess the growth in the number of participants in the Brazilian Squash Championship between 2017 and 2022 in the first article and to evaluate whether a specific repeated sprint test (Multiple sprint test - MST) interferes with the accuracy of the stroke (Hunt Squash Accuracy test - HSAT) of elite Brazilian squash athletes in the second article. To evaluate the growth of the participants in the editions of the Brazilian Championship, the Tournament Software website was accessed and the manual counting of the total number of registered players was carried out, organized by class and gender, and the data were presented in absolute numbers. To verify the interference of the MST (10 sprints at maximum effort) on the HSAT (% of hits of each drill), the accuracy test was performed twice, once following the standard warm-up of official matches and the other immediately after the MST. There was a growth in the number of participants in the Brazilian championships from 2017 (176 participants) to 2022 (268 participants), however this behavior was not linear. Female participation was lower than male participation in all editions analyzed and the elite of Brazilian squash (professionals and 1st class) decreased from 2017 (60 athletes) to 2022 (37 athletes). The MST did not cause changes in the shot accuracy of elite Brazilian squash athletes, even though it was able to impart intensity similar to that of a match (~90% maximum HR) and having a duration approximately half that of a match (~17 minutes).