Peak Performance in Racquet Sports: Physical Training, Load Monitoring, and Performance Optimization

Dear Colleagues,

Racquet sports, including tennis, badminton, padel, squash, and table tennis, place substantial physiological, neuromuscular, biomechanical, and cognitive demands on athletes. The growing professionalization of sport, increased competition density, intensified training schedules, and heightened performance expectations across youth, elite, and recreational levels have amplified the need for evidence-based strategies to optimize performance while minimizing fatigue, maladaptation, and injury risk. Simultaneously, recent advances in athlete monitoring systems, wearable technologies, heart rate variability assessment, neuromuscular testing, biomechanical analysis, and performance analytics have created new opportunities for individualized training prescription, fatigue management, recovery optimization, and performance enhancement in racquet sports. Despite the growing body of scientific evidence, research remains fragmented across disciplines and sport-specific contexts, limiting the translation of scientific knowledge into applied practice.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue entitled “Peak Performance in Racquet Sports: Physical Training, Load Monitoring, and Performance Optimization”. This Special Issue seeks to provide an integrated platform for contemporary research and applied perspectives related to athlete preparation, physical conditioning, fatigue management, recovery strategies, biomechanics, and performance readiness in racquet sports, including tennis, badminton, padel, squash, and table tennis.

This Special Issue aims to integrate contemporary evidence and applied methodologies related to training, athlete monitoring, fatigue management, biomechanics, recovery, and performance optimization in racquet sports. Particular emphasis will be placed on translational sport science approaches that support individualized training prescription, performance readiness, injury prevention, and long-term athlete development across competitive levels. The proposed topic is fully aligned with the scope of the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology (JFMK) as it addresses fundamental and applied issues related to exercise science, biomechanics, physical performance, athlete health, training adaptations, and sport-specific movement analysis.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, systematic reviews, narrative reviews, scoping reviews, methodological studies, validation studies, short communications, and applied sport science reports are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Strength, power, speed, agility, and neuromuscular development in racquet sports;
• Plyometric, eccentric, and sport-specific training interventions;
• Athlete monitoring, internal and external training load assessment;
• Performance readiness, fatigue monitoring, and recovery strategies;
• Heart rate variability and psychophysiological assessment;
• Wearable technologies, sensors, IMU, and performance tracking systems;
• Biomechanics, asymmetry assessment, movement screening, and injury prevention;
• Match analysis, tactical and technical determinants of success;
• Nutritional and hydration strategies supporting performance and recovery;
• Machine learning and AI applications in athlete monitoring and performance optimization.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Adam Zając
Dr. Mariola Gepfert
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• racquet sports
• athlete monitoring
• training load
• performance readiness
• neuromuscular performance
• fatigue
• recovery
• biomechanics
• strength and conditioning
• performance optimization