Analysis of Superior Extremity Strength on the Groundstroke Attack Skills of Tennis Athletes

Abstract

A tennis player must be able to produce groundstroke attacks effectively because these strokes have an important strategic role in controlling and dominating the course of the match. To produce a groundstroke attack, a tennis player must have muscle strength in the superior extremities, because the superior extremities are the primary source of kinetic energy required to transfer momentum to the racket. Apart from that, good coordination between the muscles of the arms, shoulders, and back is also important to achieve optimality in groundstroke attacks. In a coordinated movement, energy from the tennis player's body is transferred through the arms to the tip of the racket when the racket makes contact with the ball. The aim of this study was to determine how much influence superior extremity strength has on forehand groundstroke skills. The type of research used is a correlational description, involving the independent variable being superior extremity muscle strength while the dependent variable is forehand groundstroke attack skill. The research sample was 20 POMNAS South Sulawesi tennis athletes taken by purposive sampling. The instruments used were the Bouncing Medicine Ball Test and the Hewitt Tennis Performance Test. Analysis through a correlation regression test. The results concluded that the ability to groundstroke attack was influenced by upper limb muscle strength by 59.3%.

Keywords

• groundstroke attack skills
• superior extremity strength
• tennis