The Effects of Streching Exercises on Groundstroke Performance and Agility on Tennis Players

This study has investigated the effects of stretching exercises applied for six weeks to tennis players on groundstroke performance and agility. A total of 40 tennis players, 18-23 years of age, have voluntarily participated in the study. Participants were divided into two groups: 10 female and 10 male were in the control group while 10 female and 10 male were in the test group. While routine tennis exercises have been applied throughout six weeks in the control group, both stretching and tennis exercises have been applied in the test group. In the comparison of groups in pretest and post-test values, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test from non-parametric tests was used, and in the comparison of groups with each other, Mann-Whitney U test was used. Significance level is determined as p < 0.05 In test group, while hewitt test results has shown significant difference in pre test and post test values both in males and females (p < 0,05), there has not been observed any significant difference in agility test results (p > 0,05). In the control group, while hewitt test results have shown significant differences in pre tests and post test values both in males and females (p < 0,05), the agility test has not shown significant difference in females (p > 0,05), but it has shown significant differences in males (p<0,05). According to the comparison of pre-test results of control and test group, while the hewitt test results were significant in males (p < 0.05), other values were not found significant (p > 0.05). When the post results of control and test groups were compared, no significant result was detected (p > 0.05). In conclusion, it has been found that when both tennis and stretching exercises are applied together, they have a positive effect on groundstroke performance, but a negative effect on agility. In addition, applying only tennis exercises has a positive effect on both groundstroke performance and agility