There is no rush to upgrade the tennis racket in young intermediate competitive players: The effects of scaling racket on serve biomechanics and performance

Pierre Touzard; Chloé Lecomte; Benoit Bideau; Richard Kulpa; Loïc Fourel; Maxime Fadier; Nicolas Cantin; Caroline Martin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104146

There is no rush to upgrade the tennis racket in young intermediate competitive players: The effects of scaling racket on serve biomechanics and performance

Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 10:14:1104146. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104146. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Pierre Touzard¹, Chloé Lecomte¹, Benoit Bideau², Richard Kulpa², Loïc Fourel¹, Maxime Fadier¹, Nicolas Cantin³, Caroline Martin¹

Affiliations

¹ M2S Laboratory, University Rennes, Rennes, France.
² M2S Laboratory, Inria, University Rennes, Rennes, France.
³ Ille-et-Vilaine Tennis Departmental Committee, Maison Départementale des Sports, French Tennis Federation, Rennes, France.

Abstract

Introduction: Scaling the equipment of young athletes is justified by the constraints-led approach introduced in motor learning. The aim of the present study is to analyze the effect of racket scaling on the serve biomechanics and performance parameters for young tennis players (between 8 and 11 years-old).

Methods: Nine young intermediate competitive tennis players (age: 9.9 ± 1.0 years) performed maximal effort flat serves with three different rackets (scaled 23 inches, scaled 25 inches and full-size 27 inches) in a randomized order. A radar measured ball speed while shoulder and elbow kinetics and upper and lower limb kinematics were calculated with a 20-camera optical motion capture system. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to analyze the effect of the three rackets on ball speed, percentage of serve in, serve kinematics and kinetics.

Results: No significant differences in ball speed, maximal racket head velocity and percentage of serve in were observed between the three rackets. The lowest maximal upper limb kinetics and the highest upper limb maximal angular velocities were obtained with the scaled 23 inches racket.

Discussion: Using scaled rackets has the advantage to decrease shoulder and elbow loadings without reducing serve performance. Consequently, the present results incite tennis coaches and parents to not upgrade too soon the size of the racket in young intermediate tennis players to avoid overuse injury risks in the long term. Our results showed that the full-size 27 inches racket induced higher lower limb kinematics. As a consequence, occasionally serving with a fullsize racket can be a sparingly interesting intervention to help young tennis players to intuitively and immediately increase their leg drive action, allowing a more functional representation of the elite junior serve.

Keywords: children’s sport; constraints-led approach; ecological dynamic approach; injury risks; joint loadings; modified sport; performance analysis; scaling equipment.