Investigating the effect of ball impact location on the overhead motion in tennis during game play
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Ainhoa Iglesias Diaz (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Martin Tanaka
Abstract: Tennis is a competitive sport played by millions of people worldwide. The
characteristics of the game of tennis produce stress on the musculoskeletal system,
especially in the upper extremity. Upper extremity injuries often occur when the arm
is highly accelerated, as happens in tennis. These high accelerations require large
forces to be applied to the wrist, elbow and shoulder. Upon ball impact, a large
amount of force is transferred to the ball from the tennis racket. However, depend-
ing on the impact location, large reaction forces can also be produced in the body.
These large reaction forces must pass through the kinematic chain from the hand to
the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints and into the torso. As a result, wrist, elbow
and shoulder joint injuries are common. Motion capture has been used to study the
biomechanics of the overhead motion in tennis; yet, this method measures pre- and
post-impact dynamics not the actual instant at which the interaction between the ball
and the racket occurs. Therefore, to make a more accurate representation, the impact
itself needs to be studied. Investigating the impact itself will provide more insight
into what is happening at the exact moment of the collision and how the kinematic
chain is a ected.
A commercial racket was purchased and customized by substituting the orig-
inal handle by a one inch diameter acetyl rod, and adding unidirectional and triaxial
strain gauges to it. A custom electrical circuit was designed and built to measure
the strain in the racket handle during ball impact. Two participants used the instrumented racket to each hit a total of 20 regular serves divided into 4 di erent sets.
Participants were photographed during the serve using a high speed camera at 120
frames per second. These photographs were used to identify the ball impact location
of each serve. Strain waveforms collected using a custom electrical circuit were ana-
lyzed to determine the peak ball impact force, the wrist reaction forces, and torques
from the bending moments developed in the racket handle during impact.
Results showed that the instrumented tennis racket was able to evaluate the
e ect of ball impact location of the overhead motion in tennis during game play. The
instrumented racket was able to measure ball forces, wrist reaction forces (equal in
magnitude to ball forces but opposite in direction as a result of not taking into ac-
count the transfer of linear and angular momentums) and torques generated by the
bending moments at the hand during ball impact.
This device or an improved version may be useful to get a better understanding
of the forces and moments created with di erent types of movements during tennis
play. It would be especially useful when employed in collaboration with a motion cap-
ture system. A more complete understanding of tennis biomechanics can be gained by
including racket impact forces and bending moments with motion capture to quantify
the e ect that ball impact location has on the transfer of forces to the joints passing
through the kinematic chain.
Investigating the effect of ball impact location on the overhead motion in tennis during game play
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Created on 4/1/2014
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2014
- Subjects
- Tennis -- Physiological aspects -- Research -- Technological innovations
- Impact -- Physiological effect -- Research -- Technological innovations