sport activities may be perceived as masculine, feminine, or neutral based on the highly shared stereotypes and gender roles associated with sports ( Hardin & Greer, 2009 ). Expressive activities (e.g., dancing, gymnastics) are consistently categorized as feminine, tennis or swimming as gender
Search Results
Maria Grazia Monaci and Francesca Veronesi
Amity Campbell, Leon Straker, David Whiteside, Peter O’Sullivan, Bruce Elliott, and Machar Reid
Adolescent tennis players are at risk for low back pain (LBP). Recent research has demonstrated a potential mechanical etiology during serves; however, groundstrokes have also been suggested to load this region. Therefore, this study compared lumbar mechanics between players with and without a history of LBP during open and square stance tennis forehands and backhands. Nineteen elite, adolescent, male tennis players participated, 7 with a history of recurrent disabling LBP and 12 without. Differences in three-dimensional lumbar kinetics and kinematics were compared between pain/no pain groups and groundstrokes using linear mixed models (P < .01). There were no significant differences between pain/no pain groups. Relative to a right-handed player, groundstroke comparisons revealed that forehands had greater racquet velocity, greater lumbar right lateral flexion force, as well as upper lumbar extension/rightward rotation and lower lumbar right rotation/lateral flexion movements that were closer to or further beyond end of range than backhands. Backhands required upper lumbar leftward rotation that was beyond end range, while forehands did not. Given that players typically rotated near to their end of range during the backswing of both forehands and backhands, independent of pain, groundstrokes may contribute to the cumulative strain linked to LBP in tennis players.
Hirofumi Ida, Seiji Kusubori, and Motonobu Ishii
The purposes of this study were to (a) describe the racket-arm kinematics and kinetics of the soft-tennis smash during match rallies, and (b) assess the characteristics of this smash vs. the laboratory-simulated smash of our previous study. In the current study we recorded soft-tennis smash motions during match play of the 3rd East Asian Games. Racket-arm anatomical joint angular velocity and anatomical joint torque were calculated from 3-D coordinate data of 13 collected motions obtained using the direct linear transformation procedure. The results showed that most of the maximum values of the anatomical joint torques were qualitatively smaller than those of the tennis serve. Peak elbow extension, shoulder internal rotation, and elbow varus torques in match play were significantly greater than values reported for laboratory-simulated conditions. The greater forward swing torques did not result in significantly different racket head velocity, possibly because there was a significantly shorter forward swing phase in match conditions. In particular, a clear peak of the elbow extension torque during the forward swing phase was the most characteristic pattern in the smashes under match conditions, for it was 160% greater than laboratory-simulated conditions. These results supported our hypothesis that racket-arm kinematic and kinetic characteristics of the smash under match conditions differ from those under laboratory-simulated conditions. Possible explanations include the time-pressure conditions of the competitive situation in a match, and the Hawthorne effect (Hudson et al., 1986), both of which alter performance between match conditions and laboratory-simulated conditions.
Olivier N. Schmid, Malayna Bernstein, Vanessa R. Shannon, Catherine Rishell, and Catherine Griffith
Tennis has been identified as an ideal context for examining the dynamics of parenting and coaching relationships (Gould et al., 2008) but coaching dual-role relationships remain unexplored in this sport and related investigations only included volunteer coaches (Jowett, 2008; Harwood & Knight, 2012). An open-ended interview approach was used to examine how female tennis players previously coached by their fathers (professional coaches) before competing in college tennis perceived their experiences with the dual-role relationship and the coaching transition. A holistic narrative approach was used to reconstruct retrospectively the stories of the participants’ experiences and understand their development. Despite some beneficial aspects, a majority of participants emphasized their challenging experiences with regards to their needs to manage blurred boundaries, receive paternal approval, and endure their fathers’ controlling and abusive behaviors. Coaching transitions helped normalize father-daughter relationships and provided insight into the respective needs that were fulfilled through the dual-role relationships.
M. M. Reid, Amity C. Campbell, and B. C. Elliott
Tennis stroke mechanics have attracted considerable biomechanical analysis, yet current filtering practice may lead to erroneous reporting of data near the impact of racket and ball. This research had three aims: (1) to identify the best method of estimating the displacement and velocity of the racket at impact during the tennis serve, (2) to demonstrate the effect of different methods on upper limb kinematics and kinetics and (3) to report the effect of increased noise on the most appropriate treatment method. The tennis serves of one tennis player, fit with upper limb and racket retro-reflective markers, were captured with a Vicon motion analysis system recording at 500 Hz. The raw racket tip marker displacement and velocity were used as criterion data to compare three different endpoint treatments and two different filters. The 2nd-order polynomial proved to be the least erroneous extrapolation technique and the quintic spline filter was the most appropriate filter. The previously performed “smoothing through impact” method, using a quintic spline filter, underestimated the racket velocity (9.1%) at the time of impact. The polynomial extrapolation method remained effective when noise was added to the marker trajectories.
Nels Popp, Jason Miller, and Marion Hambrick
The United States Tennis Association is the National Governing Body for tennis in the U.S. and is comprised of three major divisions: (a) professional tennis, (b) player development, and (c) community tennis. The USTA’s signature event and primary source of income is the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The organization currently faces several challenges, including two issues which have received significant media attention. The USTA currently lags behind several other nations in developing elite young players, despite the U.S. having large participant numbers. Also, financially-speaking, the U.S. Open is a highly successful event, but its largest show court lacks a roof, which has proven costly as several championship events have been postponed due to weather. The challenge of this case study is for students to develop a strategic plan for how the USTA can best use their resources to grow tennis in the United States.
Edith Filaire, Alain Massart, Jiewen Hua, and Christine Le Scanff
Purpose:
The aims of study were to examine the eating behaviors among 26 professional female tennis players and to assess the diurnal patterns of stress hormones through the measurement of awakening and diurnal profiles of salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and cortisol concentrations.
Methods:
Eating behaviors were assessed through three questionnaires (Eating Attitudes Test-26; Eating Disorders Inventory 2; and Body Shape Questionnaire), food intake by a 7-day diet record, and menstrual status by questionnaire. Perceived stress scale and anxiety state were also evaluated. Saliva samples were collected at awakening, 30 min, 60 min, and 12 hr post awakening after 6-days’ rest.
Results:
Forty-six percent of tennis players presented Disordered Eating attitudes (DE) (n = 12) with a lower body mass index, and higher state anxiety as compared with the group without DE. No differences in the Perceived Stress Scale scores were noted. Mean energy intake, protein and carbohydrates intakes were lower (p > .05) in the DE group as compared with the group without DE. Although in both groups, sAA concentrations presented a decrease in the first 30 min after awakening, and then progressively rose toward the afternoon, DE players exhibited reduced concentrations of the sAA with a decrease in its overall day secretion. Moreover, they showed a higher overall day secretion of salivary cortisol and a higher Cortisol Awakening Response.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that the activity of the sympathetic nervous system is impaired whereas the cortisol awakening response is enhanced. The long-term consequences of these modifications on health remain to be elucidated.
Melissa Hunfalvay and Nicholas Murray
good at one task does not mean you will have an appropriate VS pattern for other tasks. Experts in racquet sports, such as badminton, tennis, and squash, have some broad similarities in VS patterns ( Cauraugh & Janelle, 2002 ). For instance, arm, racquet, and ball toss regions have been shown to be
John Vincent and Jane Crossman
This study compared the narratives of 3 broadsheet newspapers of selected female and male tennis players competing in the Wimbledon Championships. From Canada, The Globe and Mail; from Great Britain, The Times; and from the United States, The New York Times were examined. Dominant narratives were identified from 161 articles taken from 44 newspaper editions during the 16-day period coinciding with the Wimbledon Championships fortnight. Drawing on Connell’s (1987, 1993, 2005) theory of gender power relations, textual analysis was used to examine the gendered narratives and, where it was applicable, how the gendered narratives intersected with race, age, and nationality. The results revealed that although the gendered narratives were at times complex and contradictory, they were generally consistent with dominant cultural patriarchal ideology and served to reiterate and legitimize the gender order.
Jessica Love and Lindsey Conlin Maxwell
athletes in sport history, plays every tennis match she enters at this intersection. Her career has spanned more than 2 decades, and she has been ranked number 1 in the world eight times between 2002 and 2017. In 2018, Williams was the subject of two internationally covered news stories: She faced
