How is the V Position Applied and Communicated in the Forehand Groundstroke by Elite Players and Coaches Internationally

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to find the prevalence of knee bend at point of contact in the forehand groundstroke and to find the height of the ball when contacted. Both areas are yet to be considered or defined as one. In this thesis, the term is used to describe and identify a playing position when these two areas are considered together. The V Position is defined as the use of knee bend and a height of point of contact that is at/around or below a player's hip height and can be used as a visual reference point for coaches. Using notational analysis, 121,770 individual notations were acquired to determine the prevalence of the V Position over 11 variables, in 123 players, ranked inside the top 200 on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), or Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour. A theoretical framework for the research problem was derived from a broad canvass of learning theory, including Bruner’s (1961) discovery learning, Bandura’s (1962, 1991) social learning, Vygotsky’s (1980) cognition theory and Gagne’s (1984) conditional learning phases. Concepts were also drawn from an analysis of research literature into the application of learning approaches such as Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) (Wu et al., 2012). Survey (n = 46) and interview (n = 9) data were collected, followed by a thematic analysis, to explain how the best coaches in the world communicate the V Position.