Evaluation of Forehand Receiving Quality in Junior- to Senior High School-Level Table Tennis Players

Abstract

The serving and receiving abilities are main factors of anticipating the other initiative to win in a table tennis match. The strength of receiving is directly concerned with bring skill and tactics into a full play. PURPOSE: In the present study, a new procedure to assess forehand receiving performance in simulation condition authentic to junior and senior high school-level table tennis player was evaluated. Method: Thirty-two boys representing two skill levels volunteered in this study. They belonged respectively to junior and senior high school champion teams of 2006 National High School Games. The protocol consisted of 5 tests including basic control, refection, agility, judgment and match-like conditions. Every test was composed of 6 spin types of serving repeated 6 times such as topspin, backspin, left side spin, right side spin, left side downspin and right side downspin. One player totally performed 180 receiving. Every serve was driven by the same table tennis player at national-level. It was reproduced neutral and offensive situation as they occur during game play. Receiving quality was determined from simultaneous record of success rate and accuracy of target area on the table. RESULTS: More experienced senior players scored significantly higher than junior players for accuracy of basic control (30.8±1.9% VS 23.4±2.4%) and match-like conditions (25.7±1.8% VS 17.1±2.2%). The success rate under match-like condition (66.9±2.2%) is weaker than basic control condition (74.5±2.4%) for junior team. Nevertheless, for senior team, the accuracy under agility condition (24.6±1.9%) is weaker than basic condition (30.8±1.9%). On the other hand, we also analyzed the results by different spin types and found that senior team performed well on both of success rate (83.5±1.8% VS 77.2±2.0%) and accuracy (30.5±2.4% VS 18.1±2.3%) of topspin receiving than junior team. Meanwhile, the success rate (81.8±1.8% VS 70.0±1.7%) and accuracy (30.3±2.5% VS 18.9±2.9%) of backspin receiving for senior team were higher than junior team. CONCLUSION: This test is a concise, authentic, reliable and valid instrument for the evaluation of forehand receiving quality. Based upon these test results, the coaches can amend different training programs to improve the receiving ability of individual player.