Tennis
Biomechanics research into tennis at Loughborough started by focusing on improving our understanding of factors that influence loading at the elbow in one handed backhand groundstrokes. This research was carried out in collaboration with Sean Mitchell from Sports Technology Institute at Loughborough, with funding from Head Rackets and EPSRC. The PhD students working on this project were Andy Statham, Jonathan Glynn and Behzat Kentel. The main findings of this research were that off centre impacts and a tight grip resulted in the largest loading at the elbow and were therefore likely to be most important contributing factors to tennis elbow injuries.
More recently we have investigated the tennis serve and in particular speed and variability. The PhD student working on this research is Romanda Miller, with the data collected on Loughborough students and also professional players at Gosling Tennis Club.
Publications
- King, M.A., Hau, A. and Blenkinsop, G.M., 2016. The effect of ball impact location on racket and forearm joint angle changes for one-handed tennis backhand groundstrokes. Journal of Sports Sciences, forthcoming.
- King, M.A., Kentel, B.B., and Mitchell, S.R. 2012. The effects of ball impact location and grip tightness on the arm, racquet and ball for one-handed tennis backhand groundstrokes. Journal of Biomechanics 45, 1048-1052.
- King, M.A., Glynn, J.A. and Mitchell, S.R., 2011. Subject-specific computer simulation model for determining elbow loading in one-handed tennis backhand groundstrokes. Sports Biomechanics, 10 (4), 391-406.
- Kentel, B.B., King, M.A. and Mitchell, S.R., 2011. Evaluation of a subject-specific, torque-driven computer simulation model of one-handed tennis backhand ground strokes. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 27(4), 345-354.
- Glynn, J.A., King, M.A. and Mitchell, S.R. 2011. A computer simulation model of tennis racket/ball impacts. Sports Engineering 13, 65-72.
- Glynn, J.A., Kentel, B.B., King, M.A. and Mitchell, S.R. 2007. Comparison of wrist angular kinematics and forearm EMG data for an elite, intermediate and novice standard tennis player performing a one-handed backhand groundstroke. International Journal of Sports Science and Engineering 1, 157-164.
- Mitchell, S.R., Jones, R., King, M.A. and Kotze, J., 2001, ''The Influence of Racket Inertia Properties on the Tennis Serve: A 3-Dimensional Analysis'',Medicine & Science in Tennis (Joint Newsletter of the STMS, ITF, ATP and Sanex WTA Tour), 6(1), 7.
- Mitchell, S.R., Jones, R. and King, M.A., 2000, ''Head Speed vs Racket Inertia in the Tennis Serve'', Sports Engineering, 3(2), 99-110, ISSN 1369-7072.