Movement Analysis Of Tennis Serve

The art of tennis had its birth in the late 19th century. The game was first created by European monks, purely for entertainment purposes during religious ceremonies (historyoftennis.net). Once it became recognized more popular with the upper-class population of the United Kingdom. Today, the sport has spread all around the world, including all levels of society. There are four major tournaments played every year in the professional circuit: the Australian Open (played in January), French Open (May to June), U.S. Open (June to July), and Wimbledon (August to September). Since the beginning of the sport, the foundation of the rules has consistently been the same with a few exceptions, one of which is the topic for this paper: the serve of the
All sport movements can be broken down into various phases. The number of phases, usually three to five, will vary, depending on the skill (Floyd). The tennis serve has been broken down into five phases. The first of these phases is the stance phase. This phase allows the athlete to prepare to get ready to perform the action by being in the appropriate stance with proper foot placement and body alignment. The second stage is the toss stage. In this phase, the athlete will be performing the first actions of the movement, in which include a change in the posture and alignment. The third stage is the preparatory phase in which the athlete will be performing the actions necessary to allow for a proper connection between the racket and the ball in the next phase. The fourth phase is considered the swing or swinging phase. This phase occurs when the athlete initiates contact between the racket and the ball at just the right time to be able to serve the ball over the net. The fifth and final stage of the serve is the follow-through phase. In this stage, the athlete will be returning to a relaxed or defensive stance, depending on if they score off the serve or if the opponent returned the serve back over the net. For the purposes of this paper, the athlete will be returning to a relaxed stance or