0000000000400609
AUTHOR
Santiago Micó Salvador
Challenging serve myths in doubles tennis
Doubles tennis has received little interest from quantitative research to date. Coach-led anecdotes therefore abound. The aims of this study were therefore to evaluate the veracity of the following common anecdotes: (a) serving teams have an advantage regardless of the length of the point; (b) serving teams have a greater advantage with new balls; (c) regular teams perform better when serving than new teams and (d) serving teams decrease their performance during break points. Data from doubles hard-court and clay-court tennis were collated for 52 doubles teams during 2018 ATP tournaments. Results revealed that the advantage of serving teams was evident on the points lasting up to 4 shots. …
The development of perception in tennis
This article provides coaches with a background to the concept of perception, defining it and linking it to the different components involved in certain specific motor tasks. The article then discusses theories that provide a framework to develop this aspect. Finally, it provides a practical set of specific exercises tennis players who want to improve their perceptive capacities, one of the keys to improving player performance.