Relationship Between Motor Variability, Accuracy, and Ball Speed in the Tennis Serve

• Authors: Ruperto Antúnez , Francisco Hernández , Juan García , Raúl Vaíllo , Jesús Arroyo
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The main objective of this study was to analyze the motor variability in the performance of the tennis serve and its relationship to performance outcome. Seventeen male tennis players took part in the research, and they performed 20 serves. Linear and non-linear variability during the hand movement was measured by 3D Motion Tracking. Ball speed was recorded with a sports radar gun and the ball bounces were video recorded to calculate accuracy. The results showed a relationship between the amount of variability and its non-linear structure found in performance of movement and the outcome of the serve. The study also found that movement predictability correlates with performance. An increase in the amount of movement variability could affect the tennis serve performance in a negative way by reducing speed and accuracy of the ball.

Keywords

EN

variability; tennis serve; performance

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Journal of Human Kinetics
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 33
• Pages: 45-53

Dates

published

1 - 6 - 2012

online

4 - 7 - 2012

Contributors

author

Ruperto Antúnez

• Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport, San Antonio Catholic University Campus de Los Jerónimos, Guadalupe, Spain

author

Francisco Hernández

• Centro de Investigación del Deporte (CID), Universidad Miguel Hernández Avda. de la Universidad, Elche, Spain

author

Juan García

• Sport Science Faculty, University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain

author

Raúl Vaíllo

• Centro de Investigación del Deporte (CID), Universidad Miguel Hernández Avda. de la Universidad, Elche, Spain

author

Jesús Arroyo

• Sport Science Faculty, University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10078-012-0043-3