Lumbar and pelvis movement comparison between cross-court and long-line topspin forehand in table tennis: based on musculoskeletal model

Yuqi He; Minjun Liang; Yufei Fang; Gusztáv Fekete; Julien S Baker; Yaodong Gu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1185177

Lumbar and pelvis movement comparison between cross-court and long-line topspin forehand in table tennis: based on musculoskeletal model

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Jun 19:11:1185177. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1185177. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yuqi He^{1

2

3}, Minjun Liang^{1

4}, Yufei Fang¹, Gusztáv Fekete³, Julien S Baker⁵, Yaodong Gu^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Research Academy of Medicine Combining Sports, Ningbo No.2 Hospital, Ningbo, China.
² Faculty of Engineering, University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary.
³ Savaria Institute of Technology, Eötvös Loránd University, Szombathely, Hungary.
⁴ Faculty of Sports Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
⁵ Department of Sport, Physical Education and Health, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Cross-court and the long-line topspin forehand is the common and basic stroke skill in table tennis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in lumbar and pelvis movements between cross-court and long-line topspin forehand strokes in table tennis based on musculoskeletal demands using OpenSim. Materials and Methods: The eight-camera Vicon system and Kistler force platform were used to measure kinematics and kinetics in the lumbar and pelvis movement of sixteen participants (Weight: 69.89 ± 1.58 kg; Height: 1.73 ± 0.03 m; Age: 22.89 ± 2.03 years; BMI: 23.45 ± 0.69 kg/m²; Experience: 8.33 ± 0.71 years) during cross-court and long-line topspin forehand play. The data was imputed into OpenSim providing the establishment of the Giat2392 musculoskeletal model for simulation. One-dimensional statistical parametric mapping and independent samples t-test was performed in MATLAB and SPSS to analyze the kinematics and kinetics. Results: The results show that the range of motion, peak moment, and maximum angle of the lumbar and pelvis movement in cross-court play were significantly higher than in the long-line stroke play. The moment of long-line in the sagittal and frontal plane was significantly higher than cross-court play in the early stroke phase. Conclusion: The lumbar and pelvis embody greater weight transfer and greater energy production mechanisms when players performed cross-court compared to long-line topspin forehand. Beginners could enhance their motor control strategies in forehand topspin skills and master this skill more easily based on the results of this study.

Keywords: lumbar movement; musculoskeletal model; opensim; pelvis rotation; table tennis; topspin forehand; trunk rotation.

Grants and funding

This study was sponsored by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (LR22A020002), Zhejiang Provincial Key Research and Development Program of China (2021C03130), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (LTGY23H040003), János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BO/00047/21/6), Research Academy of Medicine Combining Sports, Ningbo (No. 2023001), the Project of NINGBO Leading Medical and Health Discipline (No. 2022-F15 and No. 2022-F22), Ningbo Natural Science Foundation (20221JCGY010532 and 20221JCGY010607), Public Welfare Science and Technology Project of Ningbo, China (2021S134), and K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.