Kinematics of Forehand Looping Driving for Table Tennis

Abstract

The loop drive is one of the most aggressive skills in table tennis. In general, two kinds of loop drive were often used. One is loop drive which is used against backspin balls; another one is fast loop drive, which is used against topspin balls. The purpose of this study was to assess the kinematics of racket arm in table tennis forehand loop drive and fast loop drive for 6 male advanced table tennis players. In this research the motion analysis system and eight CCD cameras were used to capture three-dimensional motion (240 Hz). MATLAB® was used as tool to compute the kinematics at each joint of racket arm to gain peak angle and velocity. All parameters of this study were compared using Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test. The fast loop drive took less time during the back swing and acceleration phase so that players spent less time to finish the whole action, compared with the other one (p＜.05). The peak value of shoulder flexion, internal rotation, wrist radial deviation and peak flexion angular velocity of shoulder were observed in fast loop drive (p＜.05). The specifics of ball spin have impacts on time of back swing and hit back movement. The difference between fast loop drive and loop drive was shoulder external rotation and trunk right bending angle before impact. We assessed the kinematical difference between loop drive and fast loop drive. Thus results from this study could provide useful information about teaching guide and learning reference for coaches and athletes.