Releationship between core stability and upper-extremity functional performance tests in the tennis players

The sample of the study consists of 40 athletes between 18-50 years old who have been playing tennis actively for at least 1 year at Enka Sports Club in İstanbul and have been training more than 2 hours per week. All participants were evaluated by three upper extremity performance tests (Y balance upper extremity test, seated medicine ball throw test, closed kinetic chain upper extremity stabilization test) and core stabilization measurement and voluntarily participated in the study. The sociodemographic characteristics of the participants were obtained by a questionnaire specially designed for the study. The questionnaire includes not only sociodemographic characteristics, but also questions about the occupation, education level, marital status, chronic diseases, family history, medication use or smoking habits. All data were analyzed by statistical method. The results showed a significant difference between core stabilization and CKCUES and SMBT tests (p <0.05). However, there was no significant relationship between core stabilization and YBT-UQ test for each of the right / left arm, IL / M extension directions. In conclusion, we found in this study that tennis players needed strong core stabilization to improve upper extremity performances. However, further studies are needed regarding the relationship between upper extremity performance components and core stabilization. Key Words: core, core stability, tennis, performance, upper extremity