Please cite this article in press as: Jarraya S, et al. Diurnal variation and weekly pattern on physical performance in Tunisian children. Sci sports (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2014.05.004 ARTICLE IN PRESS +Model SCISPO-2870; No. of Pages 6 Science & Sports (2014) xxx, xxx—xxx Disponible en ligne sur ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com ORIGINAL ARTICLE Diurnal variation and weekly pattern on physical performance in Tunisian children Effets de l’heure de la journée et du jour du test sur les performances physiques d’enfants tunisiens S. Jarraya a,*,b , M. Jarraya a,b , N. Souissi a,c a Research laboratory ‘‘sports performance optimization’’, national center of medicine and science in sports (CNMSS), BP 263, avenue Med Ali Akid, 1004 Tunis, El Menzah, Tunisia b Research unit, high institute of sport and physical education, Sfax university, Sfax, Tunisia c High institute of sport and physical education Ksar Said, Manouba university, Tunis, Tunisia Received 28 July 2013; accepted 17 May 2014 KEYWORDS Time-of-day; Day of test; Tunisian child; Physical performances; School rhythm Summary Aim. — To study was to investigate the effects of the time-of-day and the day-of-test on the physical performances in Tunisian children. Materials and methods. — The protocol involved 132 children (age: 10 ± 0.7 years) who per- formed four physical tasks, i.e., the Push-ball with both hands-test, the Jump long jump-test, the trunk flexion-test, and the Shuttle run-test 10 × 5 m, respectively at 09:00 and 16:00 h, over six days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday), to evaluate respectively the explosive force of arms, explosive leg strength, the flexibility of the trunk, and the speed. Resting oral temperature was measured at the beginning of each test session. Results. — The results showed a significant time-of-day effect on physical performances. All physical performances were better in the afternoon (16:00 h) than the morning (09:00 h). In addition, our results displayed a significant day-of-test effect on all physical tasks with better performances in the middle of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and worst out- comes in the beginning (Monday) and the end of the week (Friday and Saturday). Likewise, core temperature was time-of-day dependent with highest values observed at 16:00 h. However, the profiles of the rhythms of core temperatures and physical performances were not the same. Conclusion. — Therefore, the afternoon is the best time to administrate new physical learn- ing and the afternoons of the middle of the week seems to be the optimal time for physical competition in Tunisian children. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: sonson.j@hotmail.fr (S. Jarraya). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2014.05.004 0765-1597/© 2014 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.