Joint angles during successful and unsuccessful tennis serves kinematics of tennis serve

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the joint angle differences in successful and unsuccessful tennis serves of junior tennis players.

Patients and methods: Nine healthy junior tennis players (5 girls, 4 boys; mean age 11.8+/-0.8 years; height 153.6+/-7.2 cm; body mass index 42.3+/-4.1 kg; playing experience 6.2+/-1.5 years) volunteered to participate in this study. They were asked to perform tennis serves as fast as they can as if they were in an actual game. Successful and unsuccessful serves were recorded using two high speed cameras and then analyzed using Pictran software. Angle changes in pre-impact, impact and post-impact phases were compared.

Results: The results of paired sample t-tests revealed nosignificant differences between successful and unsuccessful tennis serves in all three phases.

Conclusion: This study failed to show differences between successful and unsuccessful tennis serves in pre-impact, impact and post-impact phases. However, future research with more detailed analyses would be needed to reveal the possible changes in the joints while serving.