THE COMPARISON OF ELBOW ACCELERATION BY WEARING DIFFERENT TENNIS ELBOW BRACES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the discrepancy of impact between forehand and backhand strike and compare the difference of elbow impact acceleration among various elbow braces. Eight elite tennis players and eight amateur players were served as the subjects to conduct the test of forehand and single backhand strikes. Three accelerometers were used to acquire the acceleration signals. The subject was asked to perform forehand and backhand strikes with 3 brace situations (no brace, aircast brace and counterforce brace). Two-way ANOVA was performed to determine the discrepancy among the tennis players of different skill level with three different brace conditions. When forehand striking, the acceleration signal had significant differences between elite and amateur groups whether wearing brace or not at racket and elbow area. When backhand striking, the acceleration signal had significant difference between elite and amateur groups whether wearing brace or not at racket and elbow area. It seems that the elite players could strike the ball at center of racket (sweet spot) result in the energy transfer return to ball and reduce the vibration of racket. It had no significant difference between three bracing condition. It means that wearing brace can not reduce impact, it only change the pulling direction of the wrist extensor muscle when wrist action.