Abstract
For the purpose of determining the overall structure of technical-tactical elements in table tennis and evaluating their role in different playing zones around the table, a new measuring instrument (a questionnaire) was formulated that took advantage of the expert knowledge of top, world class table tennis coaches. The results of the hierarchical taxonomic (cluster) analysis showed that the overall structure of the technical-tactical elements forming the table tennis technique could be divided into three basic groups; a group of technical-tactical elements (A) used in the phase of preparing one’s own and disabling the opponent’s attack; a group of technical-tactical elements (B) used in the phase of attack and counterattack; and a group of technical-tactical elements (C) used in the phase of defense. The differences among the obtained groups of table tennis elements were determined by applying the Kruskal-Wallis test, while relations between the groups and their role in different playing zones around the table were analyzed by comparing the average values of the experts’ scores.
Highlights
Table tennis is considered to be one of the most demanding sports games when viewed in terms of its structural complexity in comparison with other sports disciplines
The results show that the experts had a high level of agreement, with the variable describing the classical racquet grip (RGSCLA) being the only exception
Determining the differences between the obtained groups of technical-tactical elements and the evaluation of their role in different playing zones around the table Since the distribution of the results for all variables describing playing zones around the table differed significantly from values characterizing the normal distribution of the results (Table 2), the differences among the groups obtained by means of taxonomic analysis (Figure 1, Table 3) were determined by applying the Kruskal-Wallis test
Summary
Table tennis is considered to be one of the most demanding sports games when viewed in terms of its structural complexity in comparison with other sports disciplines. In previous research studies conducted in table tennis on the structural characteristics of the game, technical-tactical actions during competition had been evaluated (Méndez Patiño et al, 2010; Pfeifer et al, 2010; Pradas et al, 2010; Zhe et al, 2010), different types of players’ technical-tactical activities in matches had been analyzed (Galina, 1992; Guan et al, 2011; Djokić, 2001, 2007; Dong, 2007; Hao et al, 2007; Zhe et al, 2007; Yu et al, 2008; Wang et al, 2009; Poizat et al, 2012), and the role of certain technical-tactical elements and the characteristics of certain playing styles had been evaluated (Drianovski and Otcheva, 2000; Sun, 2007; Zhao X. et al, 2007; Zhao H. et al, 2007 etc.). The data had primarily been collected by means of video analyses of table tennis matches
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