Purpose. Good serving is crucial to succeed in men's world class tennis; however, both chronological and skill-related service game development remain to be elucidated. The study aimed to systematically analyse the development of serving behaviour and serve efficiency in world class men's tennis over a period of 14 years. Methods. Historical data collected from all matches at the Wimbledon Championship between 2002 and 2015 (matches: n = 1772; service games: n = 63,838; serves: n = 401,527) were included for analyses. The analyses focused on 2 comparisons, serve efficiency development over time and possible differences within the world class, i.e. 1st tournament week results (matches: n = 1563; service games: n = 55,989; serves: n = 352,748) and 2nd tournament week results (matches: n = 209; service games: n = 7849; serves: n = 48,779).Results. An increase was observed of the percentages for service games won (p < 0.01), aces served (p < 0.01), and 1 st and 2 nd serve points won (p < 0.01), whereas double faults (p < 0.05) and serve and volley points played (p < 0.01) decreased over time. Direct comparisons of the 1 st and 2 nd tournament week show advantages in favour of the 2 nd tournament week. Players competing in the 2 nd tournament week won higher percentages of service games (p < 0.01) and points on the 1 st (p < 0.01) and 2 nd serve (p < 0.05), and served more aces (p < 0.05) but fewer double faults (p < 0.05). Conclusions. With a particular impact on the 2 nd tournament week, the findings indicate increased serve efficiency in men's world class grass court tennis from 2002 to 2015, which may imply altered practice patterns in tomorrow's training and coaching.Citation: Grambow r, o'Shannessy C, Born P, Meffert D, Vogt T. Serve efficiency development at wimbledon between 2002 and 2015: a longitudinal approach to impact tomorrow's tennis practice. Hum Mov. 2020;21(1):65-72; doi: https://doi.
Tennis comprises specific match situations when winning the next point is crucial. These big points can decide about a win or loss and, thus, reasonably arouse mental stress. Break points (BPs) are considered as big points and the outcome is influenced by, among a variety of other factors, the serve, which is well accepted being one of the dominant strokes in Men's tennis. In this study, we examined the serve behaviour for male players in the Wimbledon tournament 2016 to investigate the possible impacts of presumed mental stress within the situation of BPs, and further, if winning players perform better than losing players. A total of 28.843 points were analysed and divided into BP (n = 2.035) and non-break points - referred to as regular points (RP; n = 26.808).
Sport engagement, including tennis, and physical activity have been shown to have a positive influence on cognition in children. However, age has also been found to have a strong association with cognition in youth athletes. This study examines the threshold hypothesis by investigating the moderating role of age and maturation on the association between tennis experience and cognitive measures in Australian and German junior beginner to intermediate-level tennis players. The demographic information, which includes years of tennis experience, and anthropometrics (e.g. height and weight) was collected for 48 junior tennis players. A comprehensive cognitive testing battery was then completed to assess cognitive performance, with a principle component analysis used to determine an overall cognitive performance score. Multiple regression analyses were then performed to test the relationship between tennis experience and cognitive performance as well as the moderating effects of age and maturation. The results of this study indicate that the age and maturation rather than the exposure to tennis training are related to cognitive performance. Additionally, the positive relations of tennis experience to cognitive performance were stronger in younger participants, specifically those younger than 12 years old. Therefore, tennis may not provide a stimulus large enough for further cognitive improvement once players have developed a high level of cognitive performance. While age and biological maturity will largely dictate cognitive performance in adolescents, tennis experience may play some role in the cognitive performance of children (specifically <12 years of age).
Problem Statement: Teaching videos are well-accepted to benefit sport-specific movement learning and technique performances; however, embedded into a long-term educational concept (i.e. university class setting) this remains to be elucidated. Approach: In a pre-post design, 120 students participated to perform a tennisspecific task, comprising technique assessments (TA) of six coach-evaluated technique attributes (TEA; i.e. correct grip, forward-upward swing, racket acceleration, adapted lateral distance to the ball, vertical racket face, stable wrist) as well as a target zone test (TZT) to assess stroke accuracy. Participants were randomly assigned into a study group (SG; n = 89), exposed to teaching videos in support of movement technique learnings, and into a control group (CG; n = 31) without accessibility of the teaching videos. Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the impact of modern teaching videos (e.g. including slow-motion or freeze-frame features and additional verbal instructions) on learning the tennis forehand and backhand techniques. Results: The backhand technique, improved in SG (p < .05) compared to CG, most pronounced in the TEAs 'lateral distance' and 'stable wrist'. Although the accuracy of the strokes revealed no differences between the two groups, TZT and TA scores for both strokes were positively correlated. Additionally, 88.8% of the participants self-evaluated the use of teaching videos in class as positive or absolutely positive. Conclusion: This study supports the use of teaching videos within university tennis classes to benefit a development of TEAs in the forehand and backhand. However, distinct improvements seem to require modern features to emphasize a TEA in the teaching video (i.e. freeze-frames or additional verbal instructions). With respect to different learning conditions, a wider movement technique test battery may serve future approaches to additionally investigate different age groups (e.g. early learners in schools vs. senior learners in clubs).
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