Differences among Tennis Players Aged 12, 14 And 16 Years in Certain Morphological Characteristics: A Croatian...

A sample of young tennis players aged 12, 14 and 16 in Croatia. Sixty (60) tennis players ranked on the scale of the Croatian Tennis Association were analyzed through differences in morphological characteristics, as identified by a standard laboratory diagnostic procedure in Sports-diagnostic Centre of the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Zagreb. Significant differences were obtained in most of the monitored measures for the assessment of the morphological characteristics but the most significant differences were reflected in the variables for assessment of longitudinal dimensionality of the skeleton and body mass and voluminosity of the body. The statistical significance was defined at p<0.05. These differences may lead to decelerating the development of important fitness abilities (i.e., coordination), but also highlights the importance for changing the official propositions for the category of players between the ages due to the significant differences in certain morphological characteristics among all age categories. This study indicates an importance of understand grow characteristics of young players in order to effectively define tennis players playing style.