Ewa Waldzinska¹
PhD Tomasz Waldzinski¹
Dr.Hab., Professor Tomasz Niznikowski^2
1Lomza State University of Applied Sciences
²Jozef Pilsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Department of Physical Education and Health in Biala Podlaska, Poland

Keywords: tennis, 100 balls test, coordination motor abilities.

Introduction. Tennis is regarded as the kind of sport in which, in addition to showing a high level of concentration and anticipation of the opponent's behaviour, technical skills as well as their coordination determinants play a key role.

Finding ways to achieve great results of sport performance is one of the biggest challenges of modern sport. The willingness to meet this challenge makes us constantly search for and deepen our knowledge of the phenomena accompanying the optimization of the training process in sport at different stages of advancement [1,2,3]. Many professionals believe that in the long-term process of training a young player, apart from teaching and learning about techniques and tactics, it is important to develop fundamental and specific conditioning and coordination motor abilities. The development of the latter favours the development of fundamental motor skills, including the basics of technique, which is useful in the subsequent stages of training and makes it possible to achieve a higher level of sports mastery [4,5,6].

There is no doubt that coordination skills are of fundamental value to a tennis player. In the studies on the optimization of the training process, many authors attempted to identify factors determining the level of sports performance in tennis, and they pointed to their diversity. Some of them attribute an important role to such coordinating abilities as body balance, rhythmization, eye-hand coordination, simple and complex reaction time, kinaesthetic differentiation of movements, time of a single movement, frequency of movements and agility [7,8,9,10].

Therefore, it seems useful to search for coordination determinants of technical skills, which will make it possible to bring additional information to the general training technology and to optimize the training process of female tennis players aged 9 and 11 a comprehensive stage.

Material and methods.  The study included female tennis players (n= 60), body height (9 yrs ± 6.1 -137± 5.7 cm; 11 yrs±7.2 - 148± 5.2 cm), body mass (9 yrs - 34± 1.9 kg; 11 yrs 43± 2.3 kg). The players who took part in the study trained tennis three times a week in the clubs of Podlaskie region. The participants were divided according to their age categories.

Technical skills of the female tennis players were evaluated using the test of 100 balls. To control coordination motor abilities, the following tests were applied: some EUROFIT tests (the flamingo test, tapping the discs), the Spalding slalom running test, the shuttle run test, the Spider test, jumps over a skipping rope, jumps in the hexagon, the Starosta test, the eye-hand test, the test of simple reaction and the test of complex reaction. The normality of distributions was evaluated with the Shapiro-Wilk test. As they were normal, parametric tests were applied. Subsequently, correlation analyses were carried out using multivariate linear regression analyses with the stepwise method of inserting predictors into the model. The intention was to find out which coordination model in the two-age groups would be the best to anticipate technical skills. The predictors introduced in the analysis were the results of the subsequent coordination tests, and the dependent variable was the result of the test of 100 balls.

Results. In the group of 9-year-old female tennis players, the simple reaction test result had the best predictive properties (it accounted for 19% of the variance in the test of 100 balls). Adding  the jump measurement results to the model led to the fact that a total percentage of the explained variance was 24% (table 1).

Table 1. Results of the linear regression analysis in the groups of 9- and 11-year-old female tennis players that aimed to find coordination predictors of high-level technical skills (the test of 100 balls)

* - p < 0.05; ** - p < 0.01; *** - p < 0.001

In the group of 11-year-old girls, the result of the shuttle run test accounted for  as much as 38% of the variance of the dependent variable. However, adding the Spalding slalom running test and the test of tapping the discs to the model resulted in a statistically significant increase in the percentage of the explained variance (by 8% and 4%) to the level of 47% of variations explained by the developed model that consisted of three such predictors. It is worth noting that they are all negatively correlated with the dependent variable. The lower the scores in the test of tapping the discs, the Spalding slalom running test and the shuttle run test, the better the scores in the test of 100 balls in this age group.
Conclusion. The effectiveness of performing the test of 100 balls depends on different predictors of coordination motor abilities. It is noteworthy that in the group of 9-year-old female tennis players, 19% of the variance is explained by the test of simple reaction (predictor), and 24% – by the test of simple reaction and jumps in the hexagon. In turn, in the group of 11-year-old female tennis players, the predictors explaining the variance were as follows: the shuttle run test (38%), the shuttle run test and the Spalding slalom running test (44%), the shuttle run test and tapping the discs (47%). The findings confirm the significance of the selected tests and their prognostic value. 

References

1. Fernandez-Fernandez J., Sanz-Rivas D., Kovacs M.S., Moya M. (2015). In-season effect of a combined repeated sprint and explosive strength training program on elite junior tennis players. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 29(2), 351-7.
2. Kovacs M., Mundie E., Eng D., Bramblett J., Kovacs M.J., Hosek R. (2015a). How did the Top 100 Professional Tennis Players (ATP) succeed: An analysis of ranking milestones. Journal of Medical and Science in Tennis, 20(2), 50-57.
3. Kramer T., Huijgen B.C., Elferink-Gemser M.T., Visscher C. (2016). A Longitudinal Study of Physical Fitness in Elite Junior Tennis Players. Pediatric Exercise Science, 5, 1-27.
4. Samoylova M.V., Borodavkina N.L. (2020). Formation of motor skills in junior tennis players based on indicative activities. Teoria i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. 1, 92-94.
5. Kolman N.S., Kramer T., Elferink-Gemser M.T., Huijgen B.C.H., Visscher C. (2019). Technical and tactical skills related to performance levels in tennis: A systematic review. Journal of Sports Sciences, 37(1), 108-121.
6. Sögut M. (2017). A comparison of serve speed and motor coordination between Elite and Club Level Tennis Players. Journal of Human Kinetics, 55,171-176.
7. Meckel Y., Hophy A., Dunsky A., Eliakim A. (2015). Relationships between physical characteristics and ranking of young tennis players. Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine, 10(2), 5-12.
8. Uğur Özer, Cem Sinan Aslan (2018). The Effects of Mini Tennis Training on 8-11 Aged Girls’ Coordination and Reaction Time. Turkish Journal of Sports Medicine. 53(2):76-82.
9. Villaplana J. (2016). Developing balance in 10 & under tennis players. ITF Coaching and Sport Science Review, 69 (24): 16 – 18.
10.  Söğüt M. (2016). Gross motor coordination in junior tennis players. Journal of Sports Science, 25, 1-4.
11. Samoylova M.V., Borodavkina N.L. (2020). Formation of motor skills in junior tennis players based on indicative activities. Teoria i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. 1, 92-94.

Abstract

Objective of this study was to obtain knowledge on coordination determinants of technical skills of female tennis players aged 9 and 11.

Materials and methods.  The study included female tennis players (n= 60), body height (9 yrs ± 6.1 -137± 5.7 cm; 6; 11 yrs±7.2 -148± 5.2 cm), body mass (9 yrs - 34± 1.9 kg; 11 yrs - 43± 2.3 kg).

To assess the female tennis players' technical skills the test of 100 balls was applied. To control coordination motor abilities, the following tests were used: certain EUROFIT tests (the flamingo test, tapping the discs), the Spalding slalom running test, the shuttle run test, the Spider test, jumps over a skipping rope, jumps in the hexagon, the Starosta test, the eye-hand test, the test of simple reaction and the test of complex reaction.

Results. It was discovered that in the group of 9-year-old female tennis players, the simple reaction test result demonstrates the best predictive properties (it accounts for 19% of the variance in the test of 100 balls). In the group of 11-year-old female tennis players, the result of the shuttle run test independently accounts for 38% of the variance of the dependent variable. Conclusion. The effectiveness of performing the test of 100 balls depends on different predictors of coordination motor abilities.