PSYCHOMOTOR AND COGNITIVE SKILLS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TENNIS PLAYERS AT NATIONAL LEVEL

doi:10.35189/dpeskj.2020.59.4.6

Abstract

Tennis has become an extremely complex sport, with tennis players needing a team of specialists to maximise their sports performance. Performance tennis has proven that the difference between the players, in the conditions of similar technical-tactical performances, is made by the physical and mental training. Our paper aimed to investigate the subjective reality of junior tennis players in order to optimise their actions and activities by identifying a psychomotor and cognitive model of athletes ranked in the top area nationally. The research involved 75 tennis players - 40 boys and 35 girls aged between 14 and 16 years. The materials used were represented by the PSISELTEVA psychological testing system developed by the RQ Plus Company and calibrated to the Romanian population, which contains: levers, desk with buttons, pedals. The tests belonging to the computerised battery used in the research are: TRS (simple reaction time), TRD (discrimination reaction time), RCMV (intersegmental coordination), TUD (eye-hand coordination), ANALOGIE (analogical transfer), TAC (attention concentration), MT (topographical memory) and RNE (resistance to mental fatigue). Through the Mann-Whitney (U) test, significant differences were identified between the first tennis players in the national ranking and the players placed in the middle or final zone of the ranking, in terms of different psychomotor and cognitive coordinates (investigated in various environmental conditions). The results obtained are useful both for specialists working in the field of tennis (coaches, sports psychologists, physical trainers), athletes (boys and girls) aspiring on the road to great performance, but also for sports clubs.

Highlights

Achieving sports performance can be, both for athletes and for specialists involved in sports, the main motivation for the development of the instructive-training process, which is sometimes very difficult
Erman et al (2013) showed that the backhand performed with two hands is not more effective than the backhand performed with one hand in terms of aiming in tennis and in the case of the performances recorded for the eye-hand coordination
Preliminary data analysis showed that, in the case of the results recorded by junior tennis players, no excessive values were found

Summary

Introduction

Achieving sports performance can be, both for athletes and for specialists involved in sports, the main motivation for the development of the instructive-training process, which is sometimes very difficult (due to time, energy, and material costs). We can add to the very important aspects that facilitate the achievement of sports success the component related to avoiding the consumption of substances (alcohol and psychoactive substances), since the dysfunctional patterns of behaviour (including at high risk) that are characteristic in such situations are very well known (Piotrowski et al, 2020). In order to obtain the performance, the athlete enters a training process which, if it is characterised by routine, monotonous actions, without perceived stake, carried out in stable environmental conditions, with known people and functional schemes, develops skills which are inoperative in competition. The paradox of sports training consists precisely in the antagonism of routine activities, monotonous, without stakes, with the desire to achieve a performance in conditions of high social and material stakes, as a unique and unrepeatable event (Tüdös, 2000)

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Conclusion