THE EFFECT OF GENDER ON MOVEMENT PATTERNS IN TENNIS IN RELATION TO INJURY RISK

Abstract

This study looked at movement patterns in elite tennis in relation to injury risk and gender difference at the US Open grand slam tennis event. The aim of the study was to identify what movement patterns that were deemed to have an injury risk occur most frequently in tennis and to see if there is a gender difference between movement patterns. A pilot study was conducted to look at what types of turns could be identified by observation. The results from the pilot study were compared to the previous literature to identify what movement patterns had high risk of injury. Studiocode was used to develop a data collection system that allowed the operator to watch pre recorded matches and code when an event/movement pattern was made. Clips of the event were recorded that could then be labelled to describe the following; type of event, direction of movement before the event, direction of turn, angle of turn and movement direction after. Once all the events were recorded and labelled the data was exported into an excel spreadsheet to be analysed. A chi squared test was used to find the significant difference. A significant difference was found between type of turn (p<0.001), events (p<0.001), angle of turn (p<0.001) and the angle turned during sharp turns to the right (p<0.001). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between direction of sharp turn or sharp turns to the left. Sharp turns were the most frequent type of turn(F=19.87, M=26.72 per set) , sharp turns were also deemed to have a higher injury risk, no significant difference was found between genders in relation to sharp turns. 45-90 ˚ was the most frequent angle of turn (F=16.25, M=16.85 per set) found for both overall angle of turn and angle of turn during sharp turns. The statistical data shows that there is little gender difference in the frequency of turns for males and females. Male players make more braking movements and female players make more accelerating movements. The appeared to be a clear overall movement pattern where players moving in a forward direction, making a sharp turn in either direction about 45-90 ˚ and then moving sideways towards the centre of the court. The results showed little gender difference in terms of frequency however from observation it was clear there was a difference in technique. The findings from this study can be used when developing strength and conditioning programmes from players. The method used can also be used for future research and this study has opened up the opportunity for movement patterns in tennis to be researched in much more detail.