| Description |
A high level of fitness skills has been a sign of successful tennis players in recent years and its systematic training has become an integral part of the training process. Speed and its manifestations in modern tennis, where the trend is towards fast and powerful game, are the inherent attributes of successful tennis performance. The aim of this paper is to analyse the level of basic anthropometric and speed characteristics among young Czech tennis players, to assess inter-gender differences and to determine the correlation between individual variables. The research sample consists of Czech junior male tennis players (n=221) and female players (n=193) between the ages of 11.0 and 12.9 years. The data for this research was gathered specific agility speed test within a Czech tennis association project during the period of 2000-2015. Analysis of the acquired data shows normal distribution characteristics (verified by Chi-quadrate test). The anthropometric and speed variables were characterized by the basic statistical variables of the TEN-M set (male, n=221, body height: H=155.10±7.62 cm, body weight: W=43.50±6.68 kg, speed agility: SA=14.90±0.77 sec) and the TEN-F set (female, n=193, body height: H=154.60±6.94 cm, weight: W=43.49±17.17 kg, speed agility: SA=15.23±0.78 sec). Substantive significance assessment of differences between male and female tennis players using Cohen’s d values showed a factually insignificant difference in basic anthropometric features (height, d=0.07, weight, d=0.00). A small level of substantive significance of the inter-gender difference, in favour of male tennis players, was found in the speed agility test (d=0.42, small). A sizeable substantive significance dependence between body height and weight was demonstrated for the TEN-M (male, r=0.71, large), the substantive significance of the dependence between speed agility, and height and weight, respectively, is small (r=0.15 or r=0.06, small), which means insignificant. In the case of the TEN-F there was again large substantive significance (female, r=0.75, large) between body height and weight, the relative significance of the relationship between speed agility and body height is medium (r=0.33, medium), between speed agility and weight is small (r=0.29, small) but, in both cases, it is higher than among the set of male tennis players. Among male tennis players and female tennis players between the ages of 11 and 12 years, the inherently insignificant inter-gender differences of anthropometric 875 characters and better results of the male tennis players in the speed agility test have been demonstrated. Substantive dependencies between body height and weight were established for both male and female tennis players, the dependence between the results of the speed agility test and the anthropometric features are insignificant in both sets (except for the dependence between speed agility and tennis height).
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