Correlation analysis of national elite Chinese male table tennis players’ shoulder proprioception and muscle strength

BACKGROUND Shoulder is the most injured part in table tennis players,and it takes multiple roles in transmitting power and striking the center of the ball during the stroke.Proprioception is strongly correlated with high level of athletic performance.It is customary to assume that there is a correlation between proprioception and muscle strength and therefore proprioceptive assessment and rehabilitation is often neglected.AIM To investigate the correlation between isokinetic muscle strength and proprioception in the internal and external rotation muscle groups of elite Chinese male table tennis players,to provide reference for physical training and rehabilitation of elite table tennis players.METHODS A total of 19 national elite table tennis players from the Chinese National Table Tennis Team were recruited in this research.All of them had more than 10 years training experience and had participated major competitions such as the National Games and World Youth Championships.IsoMed 2000 was used to test the peak torque of internal and external rotation isokinetic concentric contraction of the athletes'bilateral shoulder joints at low speed(60°/s)and high speed(180°/s)respectively;IsoMed 2000 was used to conduct the Joint Position Reproduction test to evaluate the athletes'proprioceptive ability capacity at low speed(60°/s)and high speed(180°/s)respectively.If the data satisfied the normal distribution,the correlation between the differences in peak torque s and angles in different directions was analyzed using a Pearson simple linear model;otherwise,Spearman correlation analysis was used.The comparison of proprioceptive ability between the table tennis racket-holding hand and non-racket-holding hands was performed using independent samples t-test if the data satisfied a normal distribution;otherwise,the Mann-Whitney U test was used.RESULTS There was no direct linear correlation between the strength and proprioceptive correlation analysis at slow speed(60°/s)and fast speed(180°/s)in the racket-holding hand;At the slow speed(60°/s)and fast speed(180°/s),there was no correlation between muscle strength and proprioception in the non-racket-holding hand except for the internal rotation variable error(VE)and external rotation relative peak torque,which showed a moderate positive correlation(r=0.477,P<0.05),(r=0.554,P<0.05).The internal rotation’s constant error(CE)and VE were 1.06±3.99 and 2.94±2.16,respectively,for the racket-holding hand,and-3.36±2.39 and 1.22±0.93,respectively,for the non-racket-holding hand;the internal rotation’s CE,VE of the racket-holding hand was lower than that of the non-racket-holding hand,and there was a highly significant difference(P<0.01).CONCLUSION There was no correlation between muscle strength and proprioceptive function in the internal and external rotation of the racket-holding hand’s shoulder in elite Chinese male table tennis players.These results may be useful for interventions for shoulder injuries and for the inclusion of proprioceptive training in rehabilitation programs.

British Soccer Academy Personnel Perceive Psychological and Technical/Tactical Attributes as the Most Important Contributors to Development

Purpose Understanding the desired attributes for talented soccer players may give insight into the process of(de)selection and player development.This study aimed to explore soccer academy personnel’s perceptions of attributes associated with talent and development.Methods Thirty English and Scottish academy personnel(managers,coaches,recruitment,sports scientists)provided per-ceptions into what attributes contribute to‘talent’,via an online survey.Utilising an E-Delphi method,seven experts refined these inputs over several rounds until a consensus was reached,resulting in 82 agreed terminology.This terminology was resubmitted via a second online survey,where 45 academy personnel rated each using a Likert scale.Results A ranking of attributes by importance was produced,finding Psychological and Technical/Tactical attributes con-sidered of greatest importance.Differences were observed,whereby recruitment personnel consistently over-emphasised the importance of several attributes compared to other personnel(P=0.02-0.04).When analyzed within each age phase,11 variations in the perceived importance of attributes were demonstrated in the youth phase(11-16 years,P=0.01)compared with 5 in the professional phases(17-23 years,P=0.01-0.05)Conclusion The present study demonstrates that‘talent’requires multifaceted developments,with academy personnel per-ceiving psychological attributes the most important contributor to development.