Biomechanical Comparison between Down-the-Line and Cross-Court Topspin Backhand in Competitive Table Tennis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the kinematic and kinetic differences of the racket arm when balls were hit cross-court (CC) and down the line (DL) by topspin backhand. Eight elite female players participated and were instructed to hit the ball down the line and cross-court using a topspin backhand. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected. The results show that at the impact, participants had a greater wrist flexion angle in DL than CC (p = 0.017). The angular velocity of shoulder flexion (p = 0.038), shoulder abduction (p = 0.006) and thorax–pelvis internal rotation (p = 0.017) was faster when participants impacted the ball DL than CC. As for the joint kinetics, the shoulder external rotation moment was greater in CC than DL (p = 0.043). For a high-quality DL technique, it is important to exhibit a greater wrist flexion and have faster adduction and flexion in the shoulder, as well as faster internal rotation in thorax–pelvis, while having a smaller wrist flexion and more external rotation power in the shoulder are important to perform a CC at the impact. If these key and different factors of hitting CC and DL are ignored, it may lead to failure to complete a high-quality shot.

Lumbar and pelvis movement comparison between cross-court and long-line topspin forehand in table tennis: based on musculoskeletal model

“…The moment of LL in the LF and LLB was significantly higher than CC in the early stroke phase. This result could support the hypothesis of Xing et al (2022) in the discussion section. Furthermore, this could probably be explained that LL has a shorter trajectory ( Malagoli Lanzoni et al, 2018 ) and less forward swing time compared with CC ( Xing et al, 2022 ), which results in the players having to pull their muscles as soon as possible in a limited time to gain more elastic energy to complete an attractive stroke.…”

“…This result could support the hypothesis of Xing et al (2022) in the discussion section. Furthermore, this could probably be explained that LL has a shorter trajectory ( Malagoli Lanzoni et al, 2018 ) and less forward swing time compared with CC ( Xing et al, 2022 ), which results in the players having to pull their muscles as soon as possible in a limited time to gain more elastic energy to complete an attractive stroke. On the other hand, a shorter running trajectory of the ball in LL means a shorter reaction time for the player, which further requires the player to return to the ready position for the next stroke.…”

“…To achieve tactical goals, athletes need to perform specific skills ( Kolman et al, 2019 ). The importance of the cross-court (CC) topspin forehand is reflected in the fact that the CC has always been the object or vehicle of study in previous studies on the biomechanics of table tennis ( Iino and Kojima, 2011 ; Malagoli Lanzoni et al, 2018 ; He et al, 2020 ; He et al, 2021a ; Xing et al, 2022 ). Besides, the long-line (LL) topspin forehand, as one of the basic strokes in racket sports, has been widely studied not only in table tennis but also in tennis ( Landlinger et al, 2010 ; Pedro et al, 2022 ).…”

Assessing Table Tennis Technical Proficiency in Individuals with Disabilities: A Scoping Review

“…For example, previous work has examined polymer coatings of the racket [3], the kinematics of the racket [4], and how ball size, ball weight, and net height [5] could impact the success of the strokes. Pertaining to the human body, there are studies on players' anthropometric profiles [6] and footwork [7][8][9] and the biomechanics of various table tennis strokes [10,11]. The rapid advancement in technology also facilitates heatmap analysis of players' positional behaviour [12] and pose estimation based on computer vision [13].…”

A Comparative Biomechanical Analysis of Topspin Forehand against Topspin and Backspin in Table Tennis

“…In addition, the kinematic parameters of the racket are also important for the topspin forehand. However, the racket speed has been widely examined [14][15][16]. More recently, Lanzoni and his colleagues accessed the racket position during the topspin forehand drive [9].…”