Identifying a Connection Between Mobility Degree, Balance, Strength, and Tennis Serve: a Pilot Study

Abstract

Tennis serve is the only hit that depends exclusively on the hitter. This aspect leads to the necessity of identification and understanding of the importance of all the elements. The hypothesis is that serve speed is predictable by force of upper and lower limbs. A group of 24 amateur young tennis players, (age of 14 ±2) was subjected to a series of mobility, balance, strength and serve speed testing. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to identify connections between serve speed, considered as a dependent variable, and mobility, balance, and strength, as independent variables. The hip external rotation angle of the non-dominant arm, one-leg jumps, and one arm ball throws have shown strong positive associations with serve speed (p < 0.05). The anticipation of serve speed had an 81% variance of precision. A combination of body mobility and force may lead to the reasonable expectation the serve speed individual capacity.