POLYESTER KNIT CONSTRUCTION INFLUENCES SWEAT RATE DURING BADMINTON MATCH PLAY

Abstract

Introduction: Sportswear helps regulate the body's temperature, manage moisture and provide physiological comfort during sports activity. While polyester is the most popular fibre used in sportswear, little research is available that investigates the effects of various polyester knits on sweat rate during actual badminton match play. Background: The study's goal was to quantify the impacts of three 100% polyester sportswear fabrics, having different knit constructions, on sweat rate during badminton match play among competitive male athletes. Design and methods: The study was done in 2 phases. Phase 1 was a cross-sectional survey of 100 competitive male badminton players in order to find the most popular polyester sportswear knit constructions. According to the survey results, three representative 100% polyester fabrics were chosen for experimental evaluation, and they were all knitted using different fabric constructions, namely plain knit, dot knit and mesh knit. The experimental design for Phase II was a randomized repeated measures experimental design with 12 competitive male badminton players (17.24 ± 1.67 years). All participants played three game sessions in each of the experimental fabrics, presented in random order. The sweat rate was determined using the loss in body weight, fluid intake and urinary output. Data were analysed with a one-way repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni-adjusted post hoc comparisons. Results: Knit construction was discovered to positively impact sweat rate (F (2, 30) = 8.91, p = .002, partial η2 = 0.45). The sweat rate of the mesh knit polyester fabric was the lowest mean sweat rate of 0.82 ± 0.06 L·h⁻¹, followed by the dot knit polyester fabric (0.89 ± 0.05 L·h⁻¹) and the plain knit polyester fabric (0.94 ± 0.07 L·h⁻¹). Bonferroni post hoc analysis indicated that the mesh knit fabric had significantly lower sweat rates than either the plain knit (p = .004) or dot knit (p = .018) fabric; the plain knit and dot knit fabrics were not significantly different (p = .072). Conclusion: The use of knit construction during competitive badminton match play had an effect on sweat rate and not the fibre composition. The findings reveal that during HIIT, knit structure optimization of the polyester mesh knit fabric resulted in the best thermophysiological response of all the tested fabrics, indicating that optimizing the knit structure can improve moisture management and thermophysiological comfort in HIIT. The findings will be useful in designing and selecting sportswear for athletes, coaches, sportswear manufacturers and textile researchers.