International Journal of Sport and Exercise Science, 7(1): 13-16
13
Kinematics and Kinetics of Jumping Serve in Youth National and
National Thai Female Volleyball Players of Thailand
Sirirat Hirunrat1,*, Onwaree Ingkatecha1,2
1
College of Sport Science and Technology, Mahidol University, Nakhon Prathom, Thailand
2
Faculty of Sport Science, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand
Received 10 May 2015; Accepted 14 Jun 2015
Abstract
Jump serve, a powerful offensive action widely uses in elite volleyball players. It’s related to the velocity of the ball
after contact. The analysis was conducted on the performances of the jumping serves of fifteen female volleyball
players; eight national and seven youth players. The objective of the study was to compare the kinematics and total
mechanics of the energy differences between the jumping serve skills. Methods: The kinematics data were recorded by
using Casio Ex-Fc 100 (1280×720 pixels) camera and analyzed by Skillspector V. 1.3. Kinematic and kinetic data
included linear and angular acceleration of the upper and lower extremities, the center of gravity, the kinetic and
potential energy during ball contact. The independent sample test was used to compare kinematic and kinetic data of
jump serve. The results showed that the velocity of upper and lower extremities of youth was higher than the national
team but was lower than the national in acceleration of upper extremity, and energy during ball contact of the youth was
higher than the national team but no significant difference between youth and national teams. In conclusion, it showed
no significant difference between youth and national teams in selected kinematic and kinetic variables between youth
and national teams.
Keywords: Volleyball, Jump Serve, Kinematics, Kinetics
Introduction
The overhead movement skills are to project the objects for
horizontal distance with accuracy and effectiveness by velocity
enhancing. Volleyball’s serve is the first offensive overhead
movement action for scoring or making the opponent pass
difficultly. The objective of serve is to make the ball landed
inside the court with desirable direction, speed and acceleration
in order for the receiver to face difficulty in handling the ball.
The serve can be performed from a standing or jump start. A
jump serve is a type of serves that the ball is thrown and the
player jumps to make contact with the ball. The player utilizes
more attack approach and jumps to strike the ball in the air
which puts more power on the ball.
The jump serve is popularly used by elite volleyball from
early 1990s as a great jump serve can produce a number of aces
over the course of a match [1, 2, 3]. It is similar to the spike at
the net, except the velocity of the ball after impact which is
lower for the serve than for the spike [4]. The ball is struck
at the peak of jump height using an overhead action. The
*Corresponding author: Sirirat Hirunrat
Tel: +660 2 441 4295
E-mail: [email protected]
efficiency of jump serve is high ball velocity which is difficult
for the opponent to receive. It has been suggested that a
successful spike is determined by three factors: the position of
the ball at impact, the speed of the ball after impact, and the
direction of movement of the ball after impact [5]. Jump serve
has been shown to generate the greatest ball speeds [2, 6].
Several studies have shown that arm swing has a significant
influence on jump height. An arm swing increases the angular
velocity and torque at lower extremity joints, center of gravity
(CoG) height, and velocity at takeoff for a countermovement
jump [7, 8]. The skills of players will be improved even if the
extreme movements are difficult for the players with different
levels. The purpose of the research was to compare the
kinematics of upper extremities and energy during jump serve
of national and youth national female volleyball players of
Thailand.
Materials and Methods
Eight national and seven youth national female volleyball
players of Thailand, who had average to excellence level of
jump serve, participated in the study. All of them were healthy
and had no history of serious injuries at least 3 months prior to
data collection. All subjects were informed about the purposes,
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International Journal of Sport and Exercise Science, Vol. 7. No.1 2015
procedures and advantage of the study. Ethical approval for
this study was obtained from the Burapha University Human
Ethics Committee. Informed consent was obtained from all
subjects prior to data collection. The anthropometric data were
measured and shown in Table 1.
Table 2 Selected kinematic variables during ball contact.
Table 1 Anthropometric data of the Thai female volleyball
players.
All subjects were asked to warm-up and perform spike jump
before testing. A video camera (Casio Ex-FC 100, Japan) is
located to collect sagittal plane motion of the dominant side of
each subject at the central of the court at Thailand Volleyball
Association, Sport Authority of Thailand. Two-dimensional
motion was obtained from approach to landing. Three
successful trials were collected. Kinematic, and kinetic data
were examined and analyzed using Skillspector V. 1.3. The
selected kinematic variables were the linear velocity and
acceleration of upper and lower extremities, the velocity,
acceleration and the height of CoG, ratio of CoG and body
height during ball contact. The selected kinetic variables were
potential and kinetic energy during ball contact. The statistical
analysis was conducted by SPSS version 20. The analysis to
establish the significance (p<0.05) of quantitative data was
performed using the independent sample test.
*Significant at 0.05 level
Table 3 Kinematics of CG during ball contact.
Results
The study investigated the biomechanics of jump serve
compared between youth and national female volleyball
players of Thailand. The results showed no significant
difference between youth and national players in selected
kinematic variable; linear velocity and acceleration of upper
and lower extremities in Table 2. However, the velocity of
upper and lower extremities of youth team was higher than the
national team but was lower than national team in acceleration
of upper extremity.
When comparing the kinematics of CoG; velocity,
acceleration and height, the results showed no significant
difference except the ratio of CoG and body height. Even the
velocity of youth team was higher but the national team
showed higher acceleration of CoG excursion (Table 3).
The energy used during jumping showed no significant
difference as well. Both kinetic and potential energy during
ball contact of youth team was higher than national team as
shown in Table 4.
*Significant at 0.05 level
Table 4 Selected kinetic variables during ball contact.
*Significant at 0.05 level
Discussion
The study investigated and compared the kinematics of
upper and lower extremities and energy used during jump
serve of national and youth national female volleyball players
of Thailand. The findings of the study showed that youth
International Journal of Sport and Exercise Science, 7(1): 13-16
national and national volleyball players were not significantly
different in kinematic variables during ball contact, except the
ratio of CoG and body height of the players. The segmental
linear velocities of upper and lower extremities of youth
players were higher than national players during ball contact
but the linear acceleration of distal segments i.e. wrist, hand
and toe of youth national players were lower than national
players. The upper extremity’s movement is the throw-like
pattern which the more massive segments are at the proximal
end and the less massive are at the distal and free end. When
the movement is initiated at the proximal end, the distal
segment is accelerated. The increment in velocity from
proximal to distal joints represents the kinetic link principle in
every similar movement of striking [9, 10, 11]. Though
movement pattern and sequence seem similar in both teams,
the velocity of the segments during jump serve between youth
and national teams may be same but there are important
differences on upper extremity’s acceleration of the national
team. Since the jump serve is the most advanced of several
types of volleyball serves. The player is able to produce more
power with faster hand contact which is one of the most
important variables in jump serve due to the momentum
transfer from upper extremity to the ball. Then, the forces
transfer to the ball may differ. As the kinetic link principle, the
upper extremity’s movement involves the summation forces
which begin from proximal to distal parts. The energy is
transferred at the precise timing by proximal segment’s
accelerations to speed up the distal. Therefore, the most distal
part reaches the highest velocity. However, the linear
acceleration of the extremities between the national and youth
team tends to be higher at the distal end. This indicated that the
national team could accelerate the upper extremity to contact
the ball at the precise timing. The speed of contraction of the
specific muscles might be different. Several research found the
effective explosive power training of both upper and lower
extremities by plyometric training. The plyometric method is
frequently used for conditioning in preparation of strength and
power in volleyball [12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. It is based on quick
stretch reflex to enable the muscles to reach high power level
and improve sensitivity of muscle fibers.
For the energy used, the results showed lower energy, both
potential and kinetic energy in national team but there was no
significant difference between them. The potential energy is
related to the ability of the athlete to vertically raise their
center of gravity. The players had similar values for body
height and weight, which could contribute to similar results in
jumping performance. Previous research has demonstrated the
importance of the vertical jump ability in discriminating
between national team and non-national team players [17]. In
addition, the level of performance which was not significantly
different might be a result of the same higher level of
competitions participated, year-round training and developing
skills that add strength, power and fitness specific to their sport
and highly trained duration of both teams.
15
In summary, it showed no significant difference between
youth and national players in selected kinematic and kinetic
variables between youth and national female volleyball players.
When studying kinematic and kinetic attributes, it is obvious
that the player with the highest jump serve demonstrates the
highest kinematic and kinetic value. Conclusively, some
researchers have said the jump serve and spike serve are the
same, more or less, as the net front hit. This study is based on
movement analysis during training periods. For master the
volleyball jump serve, the player has to practice the correct
serve techniques. Understanding how elite athletes performing
the jump serve can provide useful information for training
athletes how to learn the correct spiking skills.
Acknowledgments
Funding supports from the Sports Authority of Thailand.
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