The effect of one and two-handed backhand strokes on hand-eye coordination in tennis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of one and two handed backhand tennis practice on hand-eye coordination in tennis. Twenty three subjects (21.51 +/- 1.36 years old) voluntarily participated in study and assigned into two tennis training conditions in random order: training with one-handed (OH) backhand strokes (n=11) and training with two-handed (TH) backhand strokes (n=12). Tennis technical practices were given to all subjects during four weeks (twice a week, 2 hours per day). The subjects were evaluated with Two Hand-Eye Coordination Test (THECT) and Tennis Ability Test (TAT). The tests were carried out at the beginning (4th hour) and the end of the study (16th hour). As a results, there were no significant differences between OH and TH groups in TAT at pre (OH=41.56 +/- 19.18; TH=39.61 +/- 16.95 % points; p=0.84) and post (OH=70.46 +/- 14.25; TH= 62.73 +/- 20.53; p=0,34) tests. Moreover, in THECT there were no significant differences between OH and TH groups at pre (OH=42.45 +/- 8.44; TH=42.90 +/- 11.28; p=0.92) and post (OH=29.34 +/- 5.31; TH=33.39 +/- 11.61, p=0.33) tests. Although there were significant differences between pre and post test of OH group in TAT (p=0.01), there were no similar significance in TH group (p=0.11). There were significant differences in THECT between pre and post tests in OH (p=0.00) and TH (p=0.00) groups. According to these results, two handed backhand stroke does not more effective than one handed back hand stroke, considered of targeting in tennis and two hand-eye coordination abilities. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.