Fleisig, Glenn S. Ph.D.1; Nicholls, Rochelle M.S.2; Escamilla, Rafael F. Ph.D.3; Elliott, Bruce Ph.D.2
One of the keys for success in tennis is a fast serve. In the serving motion a kinetic chain of events is produced throughout the body, somewhat similar to other striking and throwing activities. Several studies have investigated tennis serve biomechanics, but none of these studies included calculation of joint kinetics. Furthermore, only one of these studies used a relatively large sample (n = 11) of high performance players (Elliott et al., 1995). The purpose of this study was to quantify the kinematics and kinetics of first-serve motions for elite tennis players. In addition, differences between male and female players and between players with different styles were identified.
Tennis serves of elite players were videotaped during the 2000 Olympic tennis singles competition in Sydney, Australia. Videotaping was collected for one end of Centre Court, from two 200 Hz cameras mounted at the edge of the court. For each serve, ball velocity displayed from the stadium's radar gun and the result of the serve were recorded. High-quality electronically synchronized video images were successfully captured for 24 of the players (11 male, 13 female), who were therefore chosen as the subjects for the study. Four of these subjects were recorded during multiple matches. Based upon qualitative review of the video, the serves of 18 of the24 subjects were categorized as a strong leg drive style, while the remaining six subjects used minimal leg drive. The three fastest serves that landed in the serve box were manually digitized for each subject with a Peak Performance (Englewood, CO, USA) Motus system. Twenty landmarks on the player and racquet were digitized in each frame, from a few frames before the ball is released out of the hand to a few frames after the ball leaves the racquet. Three-dimensional kinematics were calculated with the modification of an algorithm previously developed for throwing (Fleisig et al., 1996). Kinetics of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder were calculated using inverse dynamics (Fleisig et al., 1996). Because of the dynamic effect of impact on the racquet, kinetic analysis was limited to data before ball impact. Data for each subject's three trials were averaged, following normalization in time by percentage of serve complete (0% was defined as the time of ball release and 100% was defined as the time the ball contacts the racquet). Mean and standard deviation of each parameter were calculated among all subjects. Significant differences (p < 0.05) between genders and styles were identified using a two-way analysis of variance. Significant variations (p < 0.05) between matches were assessed with a repeated measures analysis of variance for each of the four players who were studied in multiple matches.
Specific data were presented at the IOC World Congress. In general, large values were found for kinematic parameters (angular displacements and velocities) and kinetic parameters (joint resultant force and torque). Thus, flexibility, technique, strength, and physical conditioning are essential for the elite tennis player. Comparison of serve kinematics and kinetics to the biomechanics of other tennis strokes and other activities (such as baseball pitching) provide useful insight into injury potential. Further investigation should focus on biomechanical changes with fatigue, and correlation between serve biomechanics and ball velocity within and among different players.
This study was funded by a grant from the Medical Commission of the International Olympic Committee.
Elliott, B.C., Marshall, R.N., Noffal, G.J., 1995. Contributions of the upper limb segment rotations during the power serve in tennis, Journal of Applied Biomechanics 11(4), 433–442. [Context Link]
Fleisig, G.S., Escamilla, R.F., Andrews, J.R., Matsuo, T., Satterwhite, Y., Barrentine, S.W., 1996. [Context Link]
Kinematic and kinetic comparison between baseball pitching and football passing. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 12(2), 207–224.