The acute effect of expert video modelling on tennis serve performance in 7- to 9-year-old players
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to determine the acute impact of employing expert modelling on tennis serve performance in 7- to 9-year old boys.
Methods
Seventeen players undertook three conditions sequentially: control condition (traditional training), video modelling condition 1, and condition 2. Each participant performed 16 serves per condition (8 per diagonal), with 1 week between each condition. Serve performance outcomes were evaluated under each condition.
Results
Repeated-measure analyses of variance revealed significant main effects for conditions (F (2, 32) = 85.61, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.843) and point areas (F (2, 32) = 274.76, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.945), with a significant interaction (F (4, 64) = 7.08, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.307). Both video modelling conditions outperformed the control condition, with VMC2 showing the greatest benefits for successful serve (F (2, 32) = 85.61, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.843) and ball impact (F (2, 32) = 70.29, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.815), while no effect was observed for ball speed (p = 0.116–0.458). Significant condition × test interactions were observed for point areas 1, 3, and 5 (p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.614–0.720). Pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction revealed significant differences between all conditions (p < 0.001), with VMC2 producing the largest gains across all point areas.
Conclusion
Our findings support that the adoption of expert video modelling for coaching/learning tennis serves to expedite the process of technique refinement and facilitate performance enhancement.
© 2026 Eya Kachouri, Ghaith Ezeddine, Hiba Kachouri, Cain C. T. Clark, Bessem Mkaouer, Nafaa Souissi, published by Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.