INTRODUCTION:Tennis is an intermittent physically demanding sport with many high-intensity acceleration, and deceleration actions with four directional changes in an average point, where a player runs an average of 3 m per shot [1]. Players have to react rapidly to the opponent’s shots and efficiently change their position in all directions to reach and return the ball [2]. Therefore, successful performance in tennis requires well-developed change-of-direction speed (CODS) and reaction agility (RAG) that is dependent on perceptual and decision-making skills [1,2]. However, there is an evident lack of tennis-specific agility tests. Recently, tennis-specific RAG test was developed, but it enabled only testing in two directions, left (L) and right (R), without sprinting forward (F) [3]. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of newly developed tennis-specific test (T-RAG) with three movement options (L, R and F).METHODS:The study included 18 regional-level, male and female youth tennis players (age: 14.5 ± 1.5 years; body height: 1.69 ± 0.08m; body mass: 57.8 ± 10,9kg). Variables included pre-planned T-CODS, and three protocols of non-planned T-RAG (e.g. F, L, R, F). For the T-RAG test, the participants had to execute “split step” across the infrared (IR) line, which initiates the timing and lit one of the three LEDs placed inside the cones (L, F, R). Then players had to assess which cone was lit, run towards it, hit the hanging ball with the racquet. The ball was placed at the specially constructed stand 1.2m above the respective cone and 4m distant from the starting line. Afterwards they sprinted back across the IR line. For the T-CODS, the participants did the test in pre-planned regime (e.g. L, F, R, L). Each test was performed three times.RESULTS:Both the relative and absolute reliability were good for the T-CODS (ICC = 0.80; CV = 5.8%) and T-RAG (ICC = 0.92 to 0.94; CV = 6.7 – 7.0%). The T-CODS and T-RAG shared 52–66% of the common variance.CONCLUSION:This study confirmed the high reliability of the three-directional tennis-specific tests of RAG and CODS in youth players which is in line with previous studies [2,3]. However, T-RAG showed better relative reliability compared to T-CODS, which can be explained by larger between-participants variability in T-RAG than in the T-CODS. When the variability is high, it is easier to maintain consistently the ranking order in test-retest measurements [4]. The percentage of shared common variance between T-RAG and T-CODS was higher than in the previous studies, which can be attributed to the lower playing level of participants who could lack movement proficiency when rapidly changing direction in response to external stimuli compared to their older counterparts. The tennis coaches should be aware that the development of RAG, perceptual and decision making abilities is warranted in youth players. Reference: 1.Fernandez et al. (2006) 2.Sekulic et al. (2017) 3. Sinkovic et al. (2022) 4.Pojskic et al. (2020)
Cologne, 2023. article id 3327