Applied physiology of tennis performance

Abstract

Competitive tennis play requires a combination of the major physiological variables; however, the specifics of these variables have yet to be determined appropriately. General strength and flexibility training have been suggested as being beneficial for performance and injury prevention, yet specific guidelines are lacking. This paper provides a review of specific studies that relate to competitive tennis, and highlights the need for tennis-specific training as opposed to generalised physical training. It identifies specific studies that support the premise that tennis has physiological requirements which need to be understood when designing training and research programmes.

Effects of Kinesiotaping on Handgrip Isometric Strength in Athletes

“…14,15 Therefore, adequate muscle strength and endurance are needed to perform and keep this specific movement efficiently. 16,17 Thus, the purpose of this study was to measure the KT acute effects on the handgrip maximum isometric strength (MIS) and strength endurance (SE) in healthy subjects who practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu or racquet sports.…”

Automatic camera selection for activity monitoring in a multi-camera system for tennis

“…It has been shown that the amount of strength, speed, agility and flexibility conditioning a player is prepared to undertake is linked to the standard they play at [1]. However, in younger players, technical stroke production appears to influence rankings more than physical ability [2], and as such their training should concentrate on effective and efficient stroke mechanics, improving technique and ball placement, with less emphasis on physical conditioning. Other work has emphasised that a tactical approach to training (emphasising the role of strategy, tactics and decision making) for younger players leads to better game performance [3].…”

Within - and between - Session Reliability of the Spider Drill Test to Assess Change of Direction Speed in Youth Tennis Athletes

“…Both are argued to be suitable and practical methods for the assessment of CODS performance of tennis players due to their emphasis on both linear and lateral movement patterning, acceleration and subsequent deceleration, of which is considered highly important for tennis performance [6,7,11]. Equally, both assessments cover a total distance of 20 m, which may be pertinent to tennis as distances covered tend not to exceed 12 m [23].…”

“…Agility has been identified as key to athletic success within numerous intermittent sports [1][2][3][4][5], with tennis being a prime example [6][7][8]. Within typical tennis match play, literature reports the average point length to last less than 10 seconds, with an average of 4 changes of direction per point [9,10].…”

“…As CODS is considered key to athletic success among tennis players [6][7][8]11], it is within the interest of S&C coaches to select the most appropriate field-based assessment that can mimic the movement patterns of the sport and monitor the effects of training amongst athletes year-round [11,12,21]. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to conduct a direct evaluation of all three previously mentioned CODS assessments (spider drill, modified t-test and pro-agility) in respect to their test retest reliability within elite youth tennis athletes, and to identify the Smallest Detectable Difference (SDD) between testing sessions.…”