INTRODUCTION

Table tennis, due to the small dimensions of the court and the high speed of the ball, along with the small size of the racket, requires high level technique quality and accuracy of movements (Fayt et al., 2003).

Match analysis provides coaches and athletes with useful information, which can determine to a considerable extent the result of a match (Wu Xiao, Z., & Escobar, 2007). In racket sports and especially in table tennis, the serve and receiving the ball are the most significant factors affecting the outcome of a match. Learning how to serve requires many hours of practice and is characterized as a special indicator of performance, which is related to technical and tactical parameters (Bahamonde, 2000).

The winning outcome in table tennis matches is related to successful the serve and receiving the ball activities (Djokic, Malagoli-Lanzoni, Katsikadelis & Straub, 2020). Also, the quality of serve activities is an important differentiator between winners and losers in table tennis (Djokic, Malagoli-Lanzoni, Katsikadelis & Straub, 2020). Winning athletes score more points when serving, in comparison with the defeated athletes (Djokic et al., 2017; Djokic, 2002; Katsikadelis et al., 2013) and according to Yu et al. (2015), when an athlete serves and then attacks earns higher rate of points, compared to the case where he/she attacks after receiving the opponent’s serve. As it is noticed by Liu et al. (2015) and Tong & Xiao (2015), rallies are also important and the winners are more accurate. Although Μalagoli-Lanzoni et al. (2010), reported that the most common stroke during serving is the Forehand, followed by the Topspin, it varies depending on the type of the racket grip, the direction of the ball, the type of spin and length, and the strategy followed is a determinant factor for the outcome of the match (Drianovski & Otcheva, 2002).

Yet, although the technical and tactical charac-teristics of top level table tennis athletes have been examined in the past, there is a lack of relevant data regarding young table tennis athletes (Mulloy, Glynn, Rusga, Moore, Hartley, Williams & Irvin, 2014). Due to the fact that, the athletes’ technique is developed during the early years of training and is essential for their evolution (Malagoli-Lanzoni et al., 2013), the aim of the current study was to record and compare the technical and tactical elements of the strokes during serve, receiving the ball and winning shots between winning and defeated female table tennis athletes belonging to the cadet leagues and to study their relation with the outcome of the match. In general, research on female table tennis athletes is limited, especially for young female athletes. Also, the technique and tactics of young athletes play a very important role in their subsequent development. It was hypothesized that the winners would be superior in all the technical and tactical elements assessed in the current study.

METHODS

Participants

A total of 36 table tennis matches (2487 stages) of cadet Greek female athletes, were recorded and analyzed. These matches were quarter-finals, semi-finals and final games of the official cadet leagues, but also from the pan-Hellenic championship of the season 2016-17. The participants were 24 young female table tennis players (20 right-handed, 4 left-handed, 19 pimple-in rubber, 5 pimple-out BH-rubber, all of them offensive) with an average age of 14 ± 1.48 years, who belonged to the 26 best athletes of the official ranking list of the Hellenic Table Tennis Federation.

Measuring Instruments

All matches were recorded by the researcher with a Nikon Coolpix B500 camera and a professional tripod. The video was recorded at 120fps, with a resolution 640 x 480. The shooting angle was such that the search variables were clearly visible throughout the matches. In order to achieve the reliability of the research, two very experienced table tennis coaches took part in the recording and analysis of the research data. The researcher then watched the videos and registered the analysis data (point-to-point) in the Spss 20 program where the analyzes were performed.

Process

Video recordings started immediately after athletes’ warm-up and ended when the final point was won. The observed parameters regarding the serve and the receiving of the ball were categorized as follows: a) female athlete serving: winner - defeated athlete, b) serve grip: forehand (FH), backhand (BH), c) area where serve was executed: backhand-short, middle-short, forehand-short, back-hand-inside/out, middle-inside/out, forehand-inside/out, backhand-long (BH-Long), middle-long, forehand-long, d) result of the point made by the serving athlete: point won-point lost, e) female athlete receiving: winner-defeated athlete, f) outcome of the serve and the receiving of the ball: successful, unsuccessful, g) way of receive: backhand-push, forehand-push, backhand-flick, forehand-flick, backhand-topspin, forehand-topspin, backhand-drive, h) final shot: successful, missed.

Statistical Analysis

For the statistical treatment of the data the non-parametric chi-square (χ) test was used for each categorical dependent variable to identify statistically significant differences between the classifications within each variable. For selected pairs of the categorical dependent variables chi-square (χ) test of independence was also applied to examine statistically significant relationships between them. The level of significance was set as p< 0.05.

RESULTS

Regarding the grip used for the execution of the serve, the chi-square (χ) test of independence revealed that both winning and defeated young female athletes executed more serves using the FH in comparison with the ΒΗ grip [χ (1)= 0.009 p= 0.926], without significant differences between them (Table 1).

Table 1. Racket grips for the execution of a serve.

Moreover, both winning and defeated young female athletes execute statistically significant more serves in the area of BH-Long [χ (8)= 27.116; p< 0.05], while for both groups, the second choice was the FH-short area (Table 2).

Source: Luini, Fuchs, Djokic, Malagoli-Lanzoni & Munivrana (2021)

Figure 1. Service areas.

As far as the final outcome of the match in relation to the point earned or the point lost after serving is concerned, there was found a statistically significant difference between winning and defeated female athletes [χ (1)= 84.819; p< 0.05]. The winning athletes earned points on two of the three serves they had executed, while, on the contrary, the defeated athletes won less than half of the executed serves (Table 3).

Concerning the first return of the ball after the execution of a serve, it was observed that winning athletes showed statistically significant higher rates of successfull return of the ball [χ (1) =27.179;p< 0.05], compared to the defeated athletes (Table 4).

Statistically significant differences [χ (6) = 69.281; for p< 0.05] were also found between winning and defeated female athletes concerning the first return of the ball after the execution of the serve, where both showed greater percentages of the BH-Push, but the winners showed in addition greater values for the FH-push, the BH-Topspin and the FH-Topspin. (Table 5).

Concerning the final ball, the winners showed statistically significant [χ(1)=57,098 p<.05] more successful shots compared to the defeated young female players (Table 6).