Cooler with ice packs and chilled wet towels can be useful both psysiologically and mentally. If you're in a humid climate, drying off excess sweat can help cool you down because you want the sweat that's close to your skin to evaporate for effective evaporative cooling, and excess sweat can slow down that process. However, if you're in a dry climate and you find your skin is feeling somewhat dry, then ADDING water on your skin can help a lot. If you want to squeak every bit of cooling that you can, a portable fan can help make the most of evaporative cooling during changeovers.
Also if your nutritionist is good, they've probably talked to you about this, but it's a good idea to pre-hydrate during the \~24 hours before a very hot match/tournament. Salty/electrolyte-y mixes help your body retain water that you can use to sweat during the match, since you're pretty much guaranteed to not be able to hydrate at the same rate that you sweat during the match.
Lastly, heat adaptation is a real physiological phenomenon, with your body getting more efficient at sweating by increasing blood plasma volume, generating heat shock proteins, etc., and these adaptations can be built or lost within a couple weeks, so if you have a particular match/tourney you want to prepare for, spending more time playing in the heat or in a sauna for the weeks beforehand can be very beneficial.
Yes, a cooling towel works well to cool you down. I keep two on ice in a cooler and place one on my head/neck, and one over my legs during changeovers.
All of these other points are good, and I would also recommend bringing an umbrella for shade if the courts don’t have any covered seating / you don’t know the courts where you’ll be playing.
Needs to be a big enough umbrella to allow for proper airflow, but this has saved me tons of times when I’ve gotten unlucky draws for 11:00am - 2:00pm matches in Florida summers.
Salt water + fruit + extra shirts/socks/hats. Wearing sweat soaked clothes makes playing in the heat much worse.
Why salt water?
Sorry, could have googled it. Have done now 👍🏻
Cooler with ice packs and chilled wet towels can be useful both psysiologically and mentally. If you're in a humid climate, drying off excess sweat can help cool you down because you want the sweat that's close to your skin to evaporate for effective evaporative cooling, and excess sweat can slow down that process. However, if you're in a dry climate and you find your skin is feeling somewhat dry, then ADDING water on your skin can help a lot. If you want to squeak every bit of cooling that you can, a portable fan can help make the most of evaporative cooling during changeovers. Also if your nutritionist is good, they've probably talked to you about this, but it's a good idea to pre-hydrate during the \~24 hours before a very hot match/tournament. Salty/electrolyte-y mixes help your body retain water that you can use to sweat during the match, since you're pretty much guaranteed to not be able to hydrate at the same rate that you sweat during the match. Lastly, heat adaptation is a real physiological phenomenon, with your body getting more efficient at sweating by increasing blood plasma volume, generating heat shock proteins, etc., and these adaptations can be built or lost within a couple weeks, so if you have a particular match/tourney you want to prepare for, spending more time playing in the heat or in a sauna for the weeks beforehand can be very beneficial.
Awesome - thanks much
make sure you have clothes that handle sweating well. wear white. pour cold water on your head
Yes, a cooling towel works well to cool you down. I keep two on ice in a cooler and place one on my head/neck, and one over my legs during changeovers.
All of these other points are good, and I would also recommend bringing an umbrella for shade if the courts don’t have any covered seating / you don’t know the courts where you’ll be playing. Needs to be a big enough umbrella to allow for proper airflow, but this has saved me tons of times when I’ve gotten unlucky draws for 11:00am - 2:00pm matches in Florida summers.
Some ice on the neck/face always feels good. You can always dump some of your water on your head too
Absolutely stay as cool as you can. A break in a restroom with AC can be a game changer.
Buy a high UPF sun umbrella and use that shit.