Effects of Postactivation Performance Enhancement From Upper-Body Flywheel Overload on Tennis-Serve Performance

(1) To analyze the effects of postactivation performance enhancement (PAPE) induced by upper-limb flywheel resistance training on serve velocity and accuracy in tennis players, (2) to compare the effects of 2 different protocols (low load [LL] vs high load [HL]), and (3) to examine whether PAPE effects are influenced by tennis players' neuromuscular performance.

Fifteen young competitive tennis players completed 1 familiarization and 3 testing sessions in a randomized order. In the control session, participants performed a warm-up protocol followed by serve-velocity and -accuracy tests. The experimental sessions included 3 sets of 6 repetitions of LL (0.02 kg·m2) or HL (0.08 kg·m2) flywheel shoulder internal rotation prior to the serve-velocity and -accuracy tests. Serve velocity and accuracy were measured at 30 seconds and 3 and 6 minutes after each protocol.

There were moderately significant serve-velocity differences between baseline and LL protocols at 3 (P = .009; 5.4% [5.8%]; effect size = 0.927) and 6 minutes in both LL (P = .025; 5.7% [7.2%]; effect size = 0.793) and HL (P = .026; 5.4% [6.8%]; effect size = 0.787) protocols. Serve accuracy remained stable in both protocols and recovery times. No associations were found between mechanical outcomes and percentage changes.

Low volume and multiple sets of shoulder internal-rotation flywheel resistance training induced serve-velocity PAPE in competitive tennis players without serve-accuracy impairment in time windows from 3 to 6 minutes. Better neuromuscular performance did not seem to favor PAPE effects.