Original title: Delayed decision, harder landing: how mental fatigue alters reactive step biomechanics and joint loading in table tennis players
The researchers tested collegiate table tennis players after a tiring thinking task and after watching a neutral documentary. Players then reacted to a cue and performed a quick side-step. When mentally fatigued, they took longer to start moving but finished the step sooner. They also bent their ankles and knees less to soften the landing, while forces on their legs rose.
Imagine stepping off a curb while carrying a heavy bag. If your legs stay stiff instead of bending, they absorb less of the landing, and the jolt feels sharper. In this paper, the stiff-legged landing matches what the players did after the tiring thinking task, when forces on their legs rose.
Players and coaches may need to consider mental fatigue when judging footwork, not just physical tiredness. In this study, fatigue was linked to higher forces on the legs during landing, which could matter for injury prevention as well as performance.
The abstract reports a study of 24 collegiate table tennis athletes performing one reactive footwork task after a 45-minute Stroop task or documentary viewing. It does not establish whether the same effects occur in other sports, during competition, or over time, nor whether mental fatigue causes lower-limb injuries.
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Delayed decision, harder landing: how mental fatigue alters reactive step biomechanics and joint loading in table tennis players — Qiang Li, Lingyue Meng, Yubo Wang et al. — Frontiers in Psychology — doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1871714
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.