The Potential Application of Neck-Head Cooling During Matches as a Thermoregulatory Strategy to Optimize Badminton Athletes’ Performance: A Scoping Review

Abstract

As a high-intensity intermittent sport, badminton requires rapid physiological recovery strategies between intervals to prevent performance decline due to accumulated thermal stress. Practical cooling methods that can be applied on the court are crucial to maintaining athletes’ consistency in competition. The purpose of this study was to analyze the potential application of the neck-head cooling method as a thermoregulation strategy to optimize the recovery and performance of badminton athletes. A scoping review design was used in this study with guidelines adopting PRISMA-ScR. A search of articles from the Scopus and PubMed databases yielded a total of 663 articles, of which 11 were eligible and relevant for analysis. The review focused on the impact of the intervention on the participants’ physiological parameters, physical performance, and perceptual performance. The literature synthesis showed that the application of neck-head cooling facilitated recovery, as indicated by an increase in time to exhaustion and a faster decrease in heart rate. This effectiveness was predominantly mediated by perceptual mechanisms, through a decrease in RPE and an increase in thermal comfort, rather than a significant physiological decrease in core body temperature. The neck-head cooling method is recommended as an efficient and practical psychophysiological strategy for badminton athletes to delay systemic fatigue and maintain peak performance stability, even though it does not directly contribute to improving physical and technical performance.