IMPACTS OF MEDICINE BALL TRAINING ON EXPLOSIVE STRENGTH IN TENNIS PLAYERS’ UPPER BODIES

ABSTRACT Introduction: Medicine Ball training has a long history as a training to strengthen the musculature of athletes, and tennis requires high explosive muscle strength in the upper limbs of its athletes. Objective: Explore whether medicine ball training can significantly improve explosive forearm strength in tennis players. Methods: 100 professional tennis players with a mean age of 21 years were selected and randomly divided between the experimental and control groups. During 12 weeks of conventional tennis training, an extra training protocol, with Medicine Ball, was added to the experimental group. Results: After the experiment, the performance of the experimental group showed expressive signs of evolution: the forward throwing distance increased by 13.23%, the backward throwing distance increased by 11.96%, the solid ball throwing distance increased by 18.93%, and the touch distance with vertical jump increased by 1.98%. An increase in the experimental group’s overall velocity was also observed, by 18.37%. While the control group did not show expressive changes. Conclusion: The explosive strength of the tennis players’ upper limbs can be effectively improved through the Medicine Ball training presented. The tennis players’ overall speed also benefited, reflecting the improvement of the tennis players’ specific performance. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.