Effect of 12-week basic tennis training on tennis skills, strength and simple reaction time of children

The aim of this study was to investigate effect of 12-week basic tennis training on tennis skills, strength, and simple reaction time of children. Twenty four male children that were 12 aged participated in the study as volunteer. Volunteers were divided two equal groups as experimental and control. 12-week tennis training program included basic tennis skills was applied on experimental group. The control group was not participate a training program. The measurements were done a day before and after of 12-week period. Hand grip strength, back and leg strength, Wall squat tests for strength parameters; ITN forehand, backhand and service tests for tennis skills; visual and auditory simple reaction time tests for reaction time parameters were applied. Paired and independent samples t tests on SPSS 22.0 program were used for statistical analysis. There were significant differences between pre- and post-tests of experimental group (p<0.05), but not in control group (p>0.05). When compare the experimental and control groups as percent change between pre- and post-tests, significant differences were observed in terms of experimental group (p<0.05). As a result, it could be said that 12-week basic tennis training could affect strength, tennis skills, and reaction time.