ABSTRACT
This paper compares physiological and physical demands and injuries in squash, tennis, badminton and table tennis. In some ways, these four racket sports are very similar, involving bursts of high intensity exercise, followed by rest periods between points and games. There are also considerable differences, however. A table tennis match generally lasts only 20 min, for example, whereas a tennis match may take up to five hours to complete. The physiological demands of the various racket sports are compared in terms of the effective playing time and mean heart rate and lactate levels. Physical demands are compared by studying the various injury rates, injury locations and causative mechanisms of the most common injuries.
