Abstract
The competitive performance in tennis practice is determined by the effectiveness of technical tactical action. The main objective of the present study was to design and validate an observational instrument with the aim of analysing the technical-tactical in singles tennis. The instrument uses the stroke as a unit of measure, so that each time a player hits a ball, a total of 23 variables are analyzed. The variables collect information about: (a) matching context; (b) result; and (c) technical-tactical information of the stroke (five variables: sequences of the stroke of the point, kind of technical and tactical stroke, bounce area, hitting, and effectiveness area). The design and validation of the instrument consisted on five different stages: (a) review of the scientific literature and variables definition by experts, (b) pilot observation study, (c) qualitative and quantitative assessment of the instrument by experts, (d) review and confirmation of the instrument by experts (content validity), and (e) observation training and reliability evaluation. From 23 expert judges, divided into three panels, and four observers the instrument went from being composed of 38 variables (eight contextual, seven related to the result and 23 related to the game) to 23 (eight contextual variables, 10 of result and five of game), with minimum Aikens's V values of 0.94 and reliability of 0.81. The results show that the designed instrument allows obtaining valid and objective information about the technical-tactical actions of the players and their performance in singles tennis
Highlights
One of the most determining factors in sports performance is the tactical technical analysis of the competition (Cui et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2018)
Despite the multiple and quick advances in technology (Mateus et al, 2017), observation processes are still a very important instrument when it comes to gathering information in the sports field. Proof of this is that one of the methods most used by researchers in the last decade in the field of match and notational analysis is the observational methodology (Anguera et al, 2011; Maneiro et al, 2018)
After the first two phases, the list of variables that formed the observational instrument consisted of 38, 8 of which corresponded to contextual variables (7 suggested by the scientific literature and 1 by the experts), 7 to variables related to the result of the meeting (3 suggested by the scientific literature, 2 by the experts, and 2 included after the observational pilot study) and 23 to variables related to the game (3 suggested by the scientific literature and 20 by the experts)
Summary
One of the most determining factors in sports performance is the tactical technical analysis of the competition (Cui et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2018). Despite the multiple and quick advances in technology (Mateus et al, 2017), observation processes are still a very important instrument when it comes to gathering information in the sports field. Proof of this is that one of the methods most used by researchers in the last decade in the field of match and notational analysis is the observational methodology (Anguera et al, 2011; Maneiro et al, 2018). The multiple variables that concur and interact in motor competition can be registered, as well as all those related to the context in which they are developed, such as the type of activity (competition or training), the level of expertise (professionals or amateurs) or the different categories that exist in each sport (Anguera and Hernández-Mendo, 2015)
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