Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to examine the changes of young male tennis players'
agility and explosive power after a short-term in-season plyometric training
program. Eighteen elite national level young tennis players who voluntarily
participated in the study (age 16.44 ± 0.51 years; height 1.68 ± 0.06 m; weight 62.78
± 5.78 kg) were allocated into two groups at random: the plyometric training group
(PG; n = 10) and the control group (CG; n = 08). Regular tennis practice and
plyometric training additionally added to PG group as three days a week for six
weeks, consisting of sets of 2 to 5 and 4 to 16 repetitions, with 2 to 5 minutes of rest
between each plyometric exercise. Before and after the training session, power was
tested using the vertical jump (VJ) and the standing long jump (SLJ) tests, while
agility was evaluated using the agility t-test (ATT) and the 505-agility test (505AT).
Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to find significant group
differences. It was identified the PG group significantly improved (P < 0.05) in
agility, with improvements in ATT and 505AT from 11.34 ± 0.21 s to 10.53 ± 0.34 s
and 3.33 ± 0.11 s to 2.84 ± 0.14 s (7.14% and 14.71%) respectively and explosive
power, with VJ rising from 30.2 ± 2.97 cm to 35.4 ± 3.86 cm (17.21%) and SLJ rising
from 2.19 ± 0.06 m to 2.40 ± 0.07 m (9.58%). Taken together, the findings conclude
that a change of direction deficit can be significantly improved through a shortterm
plyometric training programme. This training approach assists for tennis
players and coaches to improve overall athletic prowess throughout the
competition phase.
