Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-245).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-106).

No description available.

Elite tennis players are required to perform on a variety of tennis court surfaces which differ in mechanical characteristics, such as friction and hardness, influencing their performance and risk of injury. To understand the influence of surfaces on performance and injury risk, three studies were conducted to investigate tennis players' perceptions and biomechanical responses during tennis-specific movements on different court surfaces. In study 1, tennis players perceptions of acrylic and clay courts were identified following a thematic inductive analysis of semi-structured interviews (n = 7) to develop a series of visual analogue scales (VAS) to quantify perceptions during studies 2 and 3. Perceptions of predictability of the surface and players' ability to slide and change direction emerged, in addition to anticipated perceptions of grip and hardness. Study 2 aimed to examine the influence of court surfaces and prior clay court experience on perceptions and biomechanical characteristics of tennis-specific skills. Perception, kinematic, insole pressure and mechanical data were collected on an acrylic and a clay court. In agreement with findings reported in study 1, lower mechanical friction and hardness on the clay court were perceived and accompanied by less predictability and greater difficulty to change direction whilst being easier to slide. As result of sliding, players' adopted an altered technique on the clay court compared to the acrylic leading to reductions in loading provide evidence to explain lower injury risks previously reported on clay courts. Prior clay court experience did not influence players' perceptions. However, biomechanical response to the clay surface differed, such that players with high clay court experiences contacted the ground with an everted foot, believed to contribute to controlling sliding. Differences in perception-response relationships were reported between experience groups suggesting players with greater clay court experience are better able to choose an appropriate response to improve their performance. Friction properties of the surface may change during play on clay courts due to player movements and sliding on the court. Therefore there may be areas of expected and unexpected changes to friction to which players must respond to. Study 3 aimed to examine the influence of changes in friction and players awareness of these changes on perceptions and biomechanical response. Compared with study 1 and 2, players found it more difficult to identify differences in perceived grip during study 3, possibly due the smaller mechanical friction differences reported. Unexpected reductions in friction produced greater initial ankle inversion angles compared to the expected decreases in friction, increasing players' risk of injury. Lower horizontal and vertical loading rates were reported on the lower friction conditions where further sliding was reported; suggesting a reduced injury risk by allowing longer time spent applying the forces. This thesis has identified key perception variables that enabled a holistic understanding of perceptions and their interaction with biomechanical response. Mechanical friction was an important factor influencing players' ability to slide. Sliding on clay resulted in altered loading characteristics, pressure distributions and kinematics potentially reducing players' injury risk. Tennis players' experience of clay courts does not influence their perceptions of the surface but the response that players adopt, which lower their risk of injury and increase performance. It is important when playing on a clay court that friction properties are maintained across the court during a tennis match as much as possible to reduce injury risks, due to the influence of unexpected changes to friction on perceptions and response.

A produção científica referente ao treinamento técnico de tenistas adultos não tem sido realizada na mesma proporção em que cresce a dedicação destes sujeitos pela modalidade. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo central descrever e explorar a freqüência de execução dos Golpes de Preparação (GP) e dos Golpes de Definição (GD) durante o treinamento técnico-desportivo de tenistas adultos federados em três categorias da mesma faixa etária: "Livre; Maiores A; e Maiores B". Mais especificamente, o estudo procura verificar se há diferenças estatisticamente significativas na freqüência de execução de GP e GD segundo as variáveis controladas: Categorias (Livre, Maiores A e Maiores B) e Ranking (Posição entre 10 e 150 (R1) e 160 e 330 (R2) oferecendo à comunidade tenística informações sobre os treinos dos tenistas com maior destaque desta amostra. Para tanto, aplicou-se o Inventário do Treino Técnico-desportivo do Tenista (ITTT-12; Balbinotti, 2003). O ITTT-12 é respondido numa escala do tipo Likert de cinco pontos (1 - pouquíssima freqüência a 5 - muitíssima freqüência) para verificar, em valores nominais, a dimensão com maior freqüência de prática pelos tenistas. O ITTT-12 foi aplicado em 99 tenistas do sexo masculino. Todos os tenistas participam das competições promovidas pela Federação Gaúcha de Tênis. Constatou-se que a dimensão praticada com maior freqüência foi os GP. Avaliando as freqüências de treino técnico dos tenistas com as variáveis controladas, percebe-se que os GP são mais praticados em todas as análises, com a exceção da comparação dos tenistas R1 e R2 da categoria "Maiores B". Os tenistas R2 desta categoria revelaram praticar com maior freqüência os GD. Os resultados deste estudo sugerem a importância da prática dos GP na busca pela evolução técnica dos tenistas participantes das referidas categorias. Recomendamos que novos estudos com tenistas de outras categorias sejam realizados para aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre o treinamento técnico nesta modalidade. / Researches about technical practice of adult tennis players have not been performed in the same proportion that increases their dedication to this sport modality. The present thesis has as central aim to describe and explore the frequency of Preparation Strokes (PS) and Definition Strokes (DS) execution, during the technical training of adult tennis players, associated to the related sport federation into three categories embracing the same age group: "Free , Adults A and Adults B". More specifically, the study looked forward to verify potential significant statistical differences in the execution frequency of PS and DS, according controlled variables: Categories (Free, Adults A and Adults B) and Ranking (Ranked 1º to 15º - R1 ; Ranked 16º to 33º - R2 ) offering to the tennis community information regarding practices of the higher level tennis players, out of this universe. In order to do that, the "Inventário do Treino Técnico-desportivo do Tenista (ITTT-12; Balbinotti, 2003)", was applied. The ITTT-12 is a test that rates the answers in a Likert scale form of 5 points (1 - hardly frequent to 5 - highest frequent) verifying in nominal values, the dimension most practiced by the tennis players. The ITTT-12 surveyed a sample of 99 adult male tennis players. All participants compete in events promoted by the Gaucha Tennis Federation (Rio Grande do Sul State Tennis Federation, Brazil). The research appointed that the most frequent practiced dimension was the PS. Evaluating the frequency of player's practice training with controlled variables, it is perceived that PS, in all analysis, are most practiced, except when comparing tennis players R1 and R2 , of "Adults B" category. R2 tennis players of this category performed most frequently DS. The results of this study suggest the importance of PS practice on searching higher technical level for the participants of these categories. We recommend that additional studies are directed with participants of other categories in order to deep the knowledge about tennis technical training.

Full-body three-dimensional kinematic characteristics were determined for the badminton jump smash and the tennis serve in order to investigate contributions to pace and variability. Kinematic (400 Hz) data were collected for a group of badminton and tennis players, using an 18 camera Vicon Motion Analysis System. Each participant performed 24 jump smashes or tennis serves. The best trials - maximal velocity with minimal marker loss - were analysed for each participant using a 18 segment rigid body model customised for each participant using subject-specific segmental properties. Parameters were calculated describing elements of the badminton jump smash and tennis serve technique as well as variability. The effect of these technique parameters on: speed were addressed using stepwise linear regression and on variability using one-way ANOVA. The results suggest that the fastest badminton players had a smaller elbow extension angle at the end of retraction, a larger wrist extension angle at shuttle contact, and a larger time between preparation and shuttle contact; that accounted for 84% of variation in shuttle speed. The results also showed that variability in the badminton smash was caused by differences in body placement, shuttle location on the racket at impact and movement timings. In the tennis serve, linear regressions showed that there were no variables significant to speed when players hit to the right and left centre court lines. When players hit in the advantage court trunk rotation at the racket lowest point key instant could explain 35.2% of the variation in speed, and when hitting towards the deuce court timing from the end of retraction to ball contact explained 33.6% of ball speed. The results show that there are differences in technique between the badminton jump smash and the tennis serves especially in the first half of the sporting actions.

Return temporal anticipation on the basis of the ball trajectory estimation Abstract Ball-hitting in tennis involves spatio-temporal information about the ball's flight trajectory. We have focused on the temporal part of the information during returning a tennis serve that was simulated by a ball machine. The tested people had occlusion glasses placed on their head, which occluded their vision at the exact time, when the ball was being sent from the ball machine. The tested person did not know which part of the ball flight trajectory would be occluded, nor the ball speed. We examined the effect of part ball flight trajectory occlusion on the correct return timing of the ball. The analysis revealed that the greatest problems occurred while the second third of the ball flight trajectory had been occluded and reached most temporal errors at that time. Keywords: tennis, anticipation, ball flight trajectory, return stroke, occlusion glasses

Title: Compentency profile of tennis coach from the point of player's view Objectives: The main objective of my diploma thesis is to create competency profile of tennis coach from the point of players view showing from the list of the competencies and compare player's opinion with the differences beween the ages and sex. I focus on mladší žactvo, starší žactvo, dorost and dospělí. Another part of my diploma thesis is the Comparison of the newly acquired competency profile from the view of players with compentency profit of tennis coach from the view of independent coaches made like a part of different work. Methods: The research was done base on judging the importance of the individual competences. The people that were asked made their decisions based on the four levels of Likert's scale without a middle value. The list of competency has been made according to previous resources, literature, interviews with the tennis specialics, coaches, and player. For clarity, the individual competencies were splitted into three categories (characters, skills and another profesíonal atribution). Results: The results of this work shows the top twenty compentencies of tennis coaches from the view of individual players. It also shows the difference between importance of individual categories. At work, it shows...

A produção científica referente ao treinamento técnico de tenistas adultos não tem sido realizada na mesma proporção em que cresce a dedicação destes sujeitos pela modalidade. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo central descrever e explorar a freqüência de execução dos Golpes de Preparação (GP) e dos Golpes de Definição (GD) durante o treinamento técnico-desportivo de tenistas adultos federados em três categorias da mesma faixa etária: "Livre; Maiores A; e Maiores B". Mais especificamente, o estudo procura verificar se há diferenças estatisticamente significativas na freqüência de execução de GP e GD segundo as variáveis controladas: Categorias (Livre, Maiores A e Maiores B) e Ranking (Posição entre 10 e 150 (R1) e 160 e 330 (R2) oferecendo à comunidade tenística informações sobre os treinos dos tenistas com maior destaque desta amostra. Para tanto, aplicou-se o Inventário do Treino Técnico-desportivo do Tenista (ITTT-12; Balbinotti, 2003). O ITTT-12 é respondido numa escala do tipo Likert de cinco pontos (1 - pouquíssima freqüência a 5 - muitíssima freqüência) para verificar, em valores nominais, a dimensão com maior freqüência de prática pelos tenistas. O ITTT-12 foi aplicado em 99 tenistas do sexo masculino. Todos os tenistas participam das competições promovidas pela Federação Gaúcha de Tênis. Constatou-se que a dimensão praticada com maior freqüência foi os GP. Avaliando as freqüências de treino técnico dos tenistas com as variáveis controladas, percebe-se que os GP são mais praticados em todas as análises, com a exceção da comparação dos tenistas R1 e R2 da categoria "Maiores B". Os tenistas R2 desta categoria revelaram praticar com maior freqüência os GD. Os resultados deste estudo sugerem a importância da prática dos GP na busca pela evolução técnica dos tenistas participantes das referidas categorias. Recomendamos que novos estudos com tenistas de outras categorias sejam realizados para aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre o treinamento técnico nesta modalidade. / Researches about technical practice of adult tennis players have not been performed in the same proportion that increases their dedication to this sport modality. The present thesis has as central aim to describe and explore the frequency of Preparation Strokes (PS) and Definition Strokes (DS) execution, during the technical training of adult tennis players, associated to the related sport federation into three categories embracing the same age group: "Free , Adults A and Adults B". More specifically, the study looked forward to verify potential significant statistical differences in the execution frequency of PS and DS, according controlled variables: Categories (Free, Adults A and Adults B) and Ranking (Ranked 1º to 15º - R1 ; Ranked 16º to 33º - R2 ) offering to the tennis community information regarding practices of the higher level tennis players, out of this universe. In order to do that, the "Inventário do Treino Técnico-desportivo do Tenista (ITTT-12; Balbinotti, 2003)", was applied. The ITTT-12 is a test that rates the answers in a Likert scale form of 5 points (1 - hardly frequent to 5 - highest frequent) verifying in nominal values, the dimension most practiced by the tennis players. The ITTT-12 surveyed a sample of 99 adult male tennis players. All participants compete in events promoted by the Gaucha Tennis Federation (Rio Grande do Sul State Tennis Federation, Brazil). The research appointed that the most frequent practiced dimension was the PS. Evaluating the frequency of player's practice training with controlled variables, it is perceived that PS, in all analysis, are most practiced, except when comparing tennis players R1 and R2 , of "Adults B" category. R2 tennis players of this category performed most frequently DS. The results of this study suggest the importance of PS practice on searching higher technical level for the participants of these categories. We recommend that additional studies are directed with participants of other categories in order to deep the knowledge about tennis technical training.

My thesis is focused on the observation of possible reasons why tennis has not been included in education at elementary schools so far. The research work was performed using questionnaires at elementary schools in regions Vysocina and South Bohemia (December 2007 {--} February 2008). Theoretical {--} didactic part of thesis is focused on tennis history, physical and psychological severity of this sport, but mostly on availability of tennis in wide surroundings (in the view of number of tennis courts and costs for tennis equipment). There are compared particular regions in the research part of the thesis and their results are demonstrated in charts. The conclusions are summarised in discussion and in final part of thesis.