SLIDING ON HARDCOURT SURFACE WITH SPECIFIC SHOES, PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the sliding characteristics of a new shoe (NSh) concept. The NSh has been developed with the specific aim of facilitating sliding on hard surface such as tennis players can do on clay or synthetic turf. Five young tennis players performed several trials on a walkway instrumented with seven force platforms synchronized with a motion capture system. Results revealed that the coefficient of friction was still higher for the NSh-hard surface condition than for the regular shoesynthetic turf condition but the players were able to obtain the same sliding length provided that approach velocity was higher.