Be Aware of the Benefits of Drafting in Sports and Take Your Advantage: A Meta-Analysis

Table 3

Overview of articles on drafting with author names, number of participants with age in years, level of performance of the participants, drafting versus leading or drafting versus alone, design of the study, parameters, velocity, and practical implications of all the included articles.

Authors, years	Number of participants and gender	Age in years	Level of performance	Nondrafting situation	Design	Parameters	Velocity (km/h)	Practical implications
(Bi)cycling
Broker et al., 1999 [24]	7 males	NR	International	Leading	2 km	Power output	60 km/h
Hausswirth et al., 1999 [38]	8 males triathletes	20.8 ± 2.1	International	Alone	2 × 20 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, VO2, VE	39.5 km/h
Hausswirth et al., 2001 [39]	10 males triathletes	25.6 ± 4.1	NR	Leading	2 × 20 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, VO2, VE	41 km/h
Heimans et al., 2017 [40]	8 males	23.9 ± 3.4	International	Leading	10 × 3 km	Power output	56.7 km/h	Selection of most potential cyclists for the team
McCole et al., 1990 [42]	28 males	NR	NR	Alone	2 km	VO2	32 km/h; 37 km/h; 40 km/h
Ouvrard et al., 2018 [44]	12 males	23 ± 3.7	Recreational	Alone	2 × 2.7 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, power output, and RPE	Leader 18.8, drafter 18.0 km/h, significant difference 4.2%	Leading teammate improves uphill cycling performance
Kayaking
Gray et al., 1995 [37]	10 males	25 ± 6.5	International	Alone	2x km	Heart rate, VO2, VE	13.32 km/h	Practice and implementation drafting reduced energy expenditure on competition speeds
Running
Zouhal et al., 2015 [47]	10 males	25.6 ± 3.1	National	Alone	2 × 3 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, power output	Velocity significant different	Time benefit, design of training program, competitive strategies, and psychological benefits
Skating
Van den Brandt et al., 2021 [32]	12 males and 10 females	19.3 ± 2.6	International/national	Leading and alone	4 × 1.2 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, RPE	37.2–39.5 km/h	RPE equal for drafting and leading compared to skating alone
Krieg et al., 2006 [41]	6 males	25 ± 6	National	Leading	2 × 6 min	VO2
A							30 km/h
b							33 km/h
Millet et al., 2003 [43]	8 males	33.3 ± 7.6	Recreational	Alone	6 × 6 min	Heart rate, VO2, RPE
a							19.8 km/h
b							25.2 km/h
Rundell, 1996 [46]	14 males and 4 females	20.3 ± 4.1	National	Leading	2 × 4min	Heart rate, blood lactate	33.1 km/h	Drafting technique should be trained
Cross-country skiing
Bilodeau et al., 1994 [39]	6 males	24.8 ± 5.6	NR	Leading	2 × 2 km	Heart rate, blood lactate	20.2 km/h	Following a skier bigger than yourself better than a smaller skier
Bilodeau et al., 1995 [40]	8 males and 2 females	27 ± 2	NR	Leading	2 × 2 km technique: DS; DP; DS; DP	Heart rate, VO2	Males 17.7 km/h; Males 17.7 km/h; Females 16 km/h; Females 16 km/h	Following a skier bigger than yourself better than a smaller skier. And drafting is more advantageous in the presence of head wind
Swimming
Basset et al., 1991 [29]	7 males	36 ± 3	NR	Alone	2 × 0.549 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, VO2, RPE	4.3 km/h	In competitive swim training drafting should be avoided to maximize swim training benefits
Chatard et al., 1998 [11]	8 males	24.4 ± 2.7	International/national	Alone	2 × 0.4 km	Blood lactate, VO2, RPE	4.8 km/h, 5 km/h, significant different 3.2%	Train on the drafting technique and the racing strategy
Chatard et al., 2003 [33]	11 males	24 ± 5	NR	Alone	5 × 4min	Heart rate, blood lactate, VO2, RPE	4.3 km/h
Chollet et al., 2000 [34]	6 males	24.7 ± 1.3	International	Alone	0.4 km	Blood lactate, VO2,	4.8 km/h, 5 km/h, significant different	Drafting contributes to stabilizing the stroke parameters
Delextrat et al., 2003 [35]	8 males	26 ± 6	Interregional/national	Alone	2 × 0.75 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, RPE	4.2 km/h
Delextrat et al., 2005 [36]	8 males	27 ± 6	Interregional/national	Alone	2 × 0.75 km	Heart rate, blood lactate, RPE	4.1 km/h
Janssen et al., 2009 [6]	4 males, 5 females	29.4 ± 11.2	NR	Leading	2 × 4 min	VO2	4.3 km/h	Swim as close as possible to the leader
Puce et al., 2022 [45]	14 males, 4 females	20.1 ± 3.1	Interregional/national	Leading	3 × 0.2 km	EMG	NR	Drafter can profit from an equal level or superior level leader

^#Use alone instead of leading. NR = not registered. Age in years (mean ± SD). Velocity in kilometer per hour.