THE INSTITUT CATALÀ DEL PEU TAKES PART IN THE “COURSE OF UPDATING AND REVISION OF THE SPECIFIC PHYSICAL TRAINING FOR TENNIS”, ORGANIZED BY THE CATALAN TENNIS FEDERATION.

Last February 11^th , the Fitmetric’s team, the Biomechanical Department in the Sporting Performance of the Institut Català del Peu, attended the conference as speakers the “Course of updating and revision of the specific physical training for tennis” which organized the Catalan Tennis Federation. Our team gave a presentation about the functional assessment of the tennis player. The Institut Català del Peu collaborates with the Catalan Tennis Federation on several aspects, leads the biomechanics of some tennis players, both at a level of the assessment of the sporting gesture and the functional assessment, as well as the participation as speakers about subjects of biomechanics  in some of their courses. This course is mainly directed to trainers of tennis players, and in parallel, to trainers of the tennis technique. It is a course in which the content is addressed to the training of this group and the connection among them. It is a way in which trainers of exclusively the technique may know the work which the physical trainers carry out. Fitmetric based its presentation on the importance of a functional assessment of the tennis player through a biomechanical technology. It is about functional assessments in which the tennis player and his/her technical staff may know as the maximum detail the functional condition of the sportsman/sportswoman. The functional assessment is a succession of functional exercises and functional explorations in which the sportsman/sportswoman is assessed about how he/she makes a movement, how the electromyographic response is, how the strength values of different muscles are, how his/her in static morphology is, how he/she steps and his/her foot morphology, how he/she walks and runs; we measure some excercises which results indicate us if there is some risk of lesion and, moreover, specific lesions which can have the sportsman/sportswoman can be assessed, or be focused on upsets which the sportsman/sportswoman may currently have. The results are so detailed regarding his/her functional condition than we can detect muscular imbalances, strength lack, movement deficit or deficits which can spark off a lesion or are giving rise to the problems which the sportsman/sportswoman have nowadays. From these data, the knowledge there is in order to make an action plan is very specific. This action plan can be for the improvement of the performance or for the prevention of lesions. This action plan is made by the technical staff of the sportsman/sportswoman and with the help of Fitmetric, providing all the results and important data in order to help that this action plan can fulfill the aims about the improvement of performance or prevention of lesions. In the presentation, we talked about the experience with some tennis players. It was made a practical part in which we talked about the medical history of the tennis player, it was reviewed aspects of his/her sporting career, he/she was observed playing tennis and carrying out some functional exercises and, finally, it was made the analysis of the report made to this tennis player. We talked about the different aspects which were interesting to observe, bearing in mind the medical history of the player and the results of the report were analyzed. The students could observe every detail of the reports, besides being a dynamic report where we can observe the movement and data of interest in a synchronized way, like the execution of an exercise and the activation at the same time. Everybody could perfectly observe the faults which were showed in the results, something it would not be possible to know if we did not have such technology. We need to know what we want to measure, to have the necessary knowledge to be able to interpret the results and a multidisciplinary team task, in order to be able to cope with as maximum as possible. The students were very convincing that technology, although it is not everything, is important in key moments and also to work with a multidisciplinary team in order to advise or to give to our sportsman/sportswoman the best service. Working with sportsmen/sportswomen is helping them to achieve their aims, to maintain their fitness and functional condition as best as possible and to guarantee them the best sporting career as possible with the less possible risk of lesion, at least those risks which can depend on intrinsic factors.