Lower Limb and Trunk Function in the High Performance Tennis Serve

The The kinematic interrelationships between the lower limbs, pelvis, trunk, and racquet in the performance of the high velocity tennis serve were investigated for 10 participants using a 12 camera opto-reflective Vicon MX system, operating at 250Hz. The average absolute peak racquet centre velocity was 34.0m∙s-1, which is comparable to previous studies using high performance players. Peak vertical linear velocity of the right shoulder was highly correlated with this maximum pre-impact racquet resultant velocity (MRV: r = 0.808, p < .001), yet horizontal velocity of the same shoulder shared no relationship with MRV. The vertical drive of the hitting shoulder was strongly associated with drive from both trunk and lower limbs, in particular on the hitting side. The results highlighted the importance of creating a large upward drive of the hitting shoulder in the high performance tennis serve with contributions from both the trunk and the lower limbs playing key roles.