Journal of Novel Physiotherapies
Open Access

Abstract

Improving tennis performance is part of the primary goal of every tennis scientist, coaches and athletes. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of kinesio tape (KT) on grip strength and tennis performance. This study used a true experimental, multipletime series research design. 7 competitive tennis players were chosen purposively and assigned randomly to therapeutic kinesio tape (KG) or neutral tape group (NG). Electronic Hand Dynamometer CAMRY�® EH101 was used to measure the grip strength; sport radar multi-speed sport detection to determine the ball speed; and International Tennis Federation (ITF) scoring for serve accuracy. Pearson and Spearman correlation were used to identify the relationship between the grip strength with the confounding variables, ball speed and serve accuracy while t-test was used to test the hypothesis. A high to very high positive correlation between grip strength and wrist circumference (r=0.930; p=0.002), sex (r=0.866; p=0.012) and height (r=0.780; p=0.039) was noted. Therapeutic KT produced minimal improvement on grip strength and ball speed, but a decrease in serve accuracy. All results, however, were not statistically significant (p>0.05).

Biography

Angelica L Tiongco teaches in the College of Physical Therapy at Our Lady of Fatima University where she academically finished her Master’s degree at the same school. She is currently the Program Coordinator of the Department of Physical Therapy at De Los Santos–STI College. She also co-authored several papers presented in different Philippine national conventions.

Email: annie27tiongco@gmail.com