Title: The analysis of foot loadings in high-level table tennis athletes during short topspin ball between forehand and backhand serve

Authors: Changxiao Yu; Shirui Shao; Yaodong Gu

Addresses: Human Movement Research Center, Faculty of Sports Science, Ningbo University, Zhejiang 315211, China ' Human Movement Research Center, Faculty of Sports Science, Ningbo University, Zhejiang 315211, China ' Human Movement Research Center, Faculty of Sports Science, Ningbo University, Zhejiang 315211, China

Abstract: The quality of backswing has a close relationship with forward swing. The purpose of this study is to help coaches to improve understanding of backswing motion and as a guidance to improve athletic performance in practice. Twelve high-level male table tennis athletes have been selected, and their foot loadings during short topspin ball were measured by Emed force plate. Anterior-posterior centre of pressure (COP) displacement in backhand serve showed significantly shorter compared with forehand at backward-end stage. Otherwise, for backhand serves, the COP velocity was much faster than forehand during backswing. Compared with backhand serves, our results showed that the forehand serve at backward-end has more sufficient preparation that can accumulate more power for improving the racket speed for forward swing. Results indicated that forehand serves of short topspin ball showed stronger and more stable than backhand.

Keywords: foot loading; pressure distribution; service stance style; cop velocity ratio.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2019.103252

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2019 Vol.31 No.4, pp.375 - 387

Received: 11 Feb 2017
Accepted: 17 May 2017
Published online: 23 Oct 2019 *

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