A Motion Analysis in the Volleyball Spike - Part 1: Three-dimensional Kinematics and Performance

Abstract

In this study, three-dimensional kinematics and performance were analyzed for male and female top level and junior elite volleyball players in a spike, which is an essential offensive volleyball action. Top level players had higher impact speeds and jumping height than junior elite players for both genders and the male players had higher impact speeds and jumping height than the female players for both levels of expertise. For the analysis of the three-dimensional kinematics of the pelvis, trunk, shoulder and elbow angles and angular velocities, Statistical Parametric Mapping was used. No differences were observed for the orientation angles of pelvis and trunk, indicating a set of invariant kinematics. The pelvis and trunk angular velocities on the other hand did show many interesting differences throughout the approach, cocking and acceleration phase of the spike. The shoulder and elbow angles and angular velocities also illustrated the different strategies used for generating high impact speeds. An important conclusion was that interaction effects between gender and level of expertise were mostly observed in variables from the shoulder and elbow, whereas pelvis and trunk velocities only presented significant main effects. These differences suggest how the motion pattern of the young elite athletes will change over the following years when they gradually make the change towards the highest competitive levels.

Spiking Kinematics in Volleyball Players With Shoulder Pain

“…8,10,16 Therefore, our laboratory-simulated spiking movement was a reasonable representation of these participants' court performance. The shoulder internal rotation speed demonstrated at ball contact was nevertheless lower than that reported by Reeser et al 8 and Serrien et al 15 This might have been the result of our setting, which did not allow any running acceleration, compared with the spiking movement performed on the volleyball court. The physiological variations (female versus mixed sex) 8 and the playing level of the participants (elite versus subelite) 15 might also have accounted for these differences.…”

“…9 Various researchers 7,[10][11][12][13][14] have identified differences in joint angle, muscle-strength ratios, or scapular positions in volleyball players with or without shoulder dysfunction. To date, only a few investigators 8,15,16 have examined volleyball kinematics. Reeser et al 8 measured shoulder and elbow kinetic and kinematic data during serving and spiking motions in female collegiate volleyball players and found similar kinetic and kinematic characteristics for cross-body and straight-ahead spikes.…”

“…In addition, a greater shoulder-abduction angle (1308) was identified at the instant of ball contact as compared with tennis serves or baseball pitches. 8 Serrien et al 15 analyzed the 3-dimensional kinematics of the pelvis, trunk, shoulder, and elbow and linked sex and level of expertise with differences in shoulder and elbow kinematics. Only Mitchinson et al 16 examined the effect of shoulder injury on upper arm kinematics, but they identified no group differences in spiking kinematics between players with and those without a history of shoulder injury.…”

Issues in Using Self-Organizing Maps in Human Movement and Sport Science

“…These data have been published before (Serrien, Ooijen, Goossens, & Baeyens, 2016a;Serrien, Ooijen, et al, 2016b) and more details can be found there. The kinematics are time series of joint/segment angles and angular velocities of pelvis (sagittal plane tilt, lateral tilt, rotation), trunk (sagittal plane tilt, lateral tilt, rotation), shoulder (in/external rotation, ab/adduction, horizontal ab/adduction) and elbow (flexion/extension) of the spike arm ( = 20 variables), centralized around the point of ball impact (400 ms before until 80 ms after, 121 time samples).…”

A systematic review of volleyball spike kinematics: Implications for practice and research

“…The success in performing the spike depends on physical 7,8 and psychological 9 attributes that may be captured by a number of kinematic variables of the movement 2,4,10 and the ball speed after the impact. 2,11–13 Three-dimensional kinematic studies have provided relevant information on spike performance regarding sex, 14–16 level of experience, 10,14,17 technique 18,19 and injury prevention. 5,10,18,20 Nevertheless, no consensus has been reached regarding technique differences between men and women and the experience level.…”