Abstract
The aim of this study was to quantify kinematic, kinetic and performance changes that occur in the serve throughout a prolonged tennis match play. Serves of eight male advanced tennis players were recorded with a motion capture system before, at mid-match, and after a 3-hour tennis match. Before and after each match, electromyographic data of 8 upper limb muscles obtained during isometric maximal voluntary contraction were compared to determine the presence of muscular fatigue. Vertical ground reaction forces, rating of perceived exertion, ball speed, and ball impact height were measured. Kinematic and upper limb kinetic variables were computed. The results show decrease in mean power frequency values for several upper limb muscles that is an indicator of local muscular fatigue. Decreases in serve ball speed, ball impact height, maximal angular velocities and an increase in rating of perceived exertion were also observed between the beginning and the end of the match. With fatigue, the majority of the upper limb joint kinetics decreases at the end of the match. No change in timing of maximal angular velocities was observed between the beginning and the end of the match. A prolonged tennis match play may induce fatigue in upper limb muscles, which decrease performance and cause changes in serve maximal angular velocities and joint kinetics. The consistency in timing of maximal angular velocities suggests that advanced tennis players are able to maintain the temporal pattern of their serve technique, in spite of the muscular fatigue development.
Highlights
The typical average tennis match duration is between 1 and 2 hours but in some cases this duration can be prolonged [1] [2]
Because altered serve biomechanics due to muscular fatigue may be detrimental to a tennis player performance and increase injury risk, this study aims to quantify kinematic, kinetic and performance changes that occur in the tennis serve throughout a prolonged match
Between T0 and T180, the results show significant decreases in maximal angular velocity of shoulder internal rotation (-7.5%) (p = 0.003) (ES = 0.46), elbow extension (-6.0%) (p
Summary
The typical average tennis match duration is between 1 and 2 hours but in some cases this duration can be prolonged (from 3 to 6 hours) [1] [2]. In Grand Slam Tournaments, the mean duration of 5-set matches is between 137 and 154 minutes, according to the court surface [3]. Tennis match play is defined by intermittent exercise: short bouts of high intensity (< 10 seconds) are interrupted by short active recovery bouts (10–20 seconds) and passive recovery periods of longer duration (90–120 seconds). Throughout an extreme five set tennis match, players can hit more than 1000 groundstrokes and 400 serves [2] leading to muscular fatigue, which is considered both as a cause of performance impairment and an injury risk factor [4].
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