THE DEVELOPMENT OF TENNIS SERVING SKILLS WITH STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY TRAINING OF LOEI RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the development of tennis serving skills with strength and flexibility training. The individuals were 48 male students aged 19-22 of Loei Rajabhat University, divided by randomly assignment into 4 groups of 12 students and trained according to the following programs. The experimental group 1 (GR1) had been trained with only one serving program. The experimental group 2 (GR2) had been trained with serving and flexibility training program. The experimental group 3 (GR3) had been trained with serving and strength training program. The experimental group 4 (GR4) had been trained with serving, strength and flexibility training program. The average of tennis serving accuracy, the value of flexibility, and the strength of muscle had been recorded before training and after training of four weeks and after eight weeks. The frequency of training was 3 days a week. The whole duration of training was 8 weeks. The data was statistically analyzed to get means and standard deviation by using the analysis of variance, both one-way and two-way repeated measurement, before training and after training of four weeks and after eight weeks with the expected result at the 0.05 level of significance.

The result of this study indicated that before and after 4 weeks of training, the means of tennis serving of GR1 and GR2 were significantly different from GR4 at the level of 0.05. After 8 weeks, it was found that the means of tennis serving of GR1 and GR2 were significantly different from GR3 and GR4 at the level of 0.05 while there was no significant difference of the means of tennis serving of GR3 and GR4. Moreover, it was found that the result of 8 week training affected to the physical fitness of the trained athletes as the value of flexibility and the strength of muscle were increased.

According to this study, it can be summarized that this training program is useful to develop the skills for tennis serving effectively. It also indicated that these training programs were suitable for Loei Rajabhat University students and their serving ability. And the serving ability can be developed with strength training combine with flexibility training greater than strength training or flexibility training only.

(J. Sports Sci. Technol 2011; 11 (2): 13–31)