The Effect of "Precision with Tempo" Exercises on the Accuracy of

Groundstroke Punch Techniques in the Tennis Students Activity Unit

of Yogyakarta State University

Wisnu Nugroho

, Fathoni Hidayat

, Abdul Alim

Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Jl. Colombo No.1 Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Accuracy, Groundstroke, Tennis

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of "precision with tempo" exercises on the accuracy of

groundstroke punch techniques in the Fields Tennis Students Activity Unit of Yogyakarta State University.

This was a quasi-experimental research using the one group pretest posttest design method. The population

in this study were players of Fields Tennis Students Activity Unit of Yogyakarta State University with

sample of 12 players whose accuracy of groundstroke punch technique was still low, not the core players

and mid-level players. The instrument for the test used is the Hewitt Tennis Test to assess the level of

accuracy by forehand and backhand groundstroke by using a predetermined target. The data analysis

technique uses paired-t test, which is intended to compare the mean values of the pre-test and post-test

results before and after treatment with the same sample. Before the paired-t test, performed the normality

test and homogeneity test. The results showed that after practicing precision with tempo methods, the

average forehand groundstroke and backhand groundstroke scores increased, namely the forehand

groundstroke of 2.77 and the backhand groundstroke of 3.87. Thus, it can be concluded that there is an

influence of the "precision with tempo" training model on the accuracy of groundstroke at the players of

Fields Tennis Students Activity Unit of Yogyakarta State University.

1 INTRODUCTION

A tennis athlete must have a good understanding of

the right time for an athlete to hit the ball coming

from the opponent’s direction. An athlete must

consider the speed and know the rotational motion

of the ball and take it into account. All of those

things must be done in a short period of time. The

success of the game for an athlete depends on ten

physical components, which are: (1) strength, (2)

endurance, (3) power, (4) speed, (5) flexibility, (6)

balance, (7) coordination. (8) Agility, (9) accuracy,

(10) reaction (Sajoto, 1988).

Tennis game is a game full of risks of making

mistakes. Based on tennis experts’ observations on

each level of players, only about 15% of the points

scored by tennis players are a result of an accurate

hit. The remaining 85% was a result of the

opponent’s mistakes in hitting the ball (USTA,

1996). Mistakes by a tennis player could be that the

ball was stuck in the net, out of the court’s lines, or

an inaccurate application of tactics that it benefits

the opponent.

To reduce risks in tennis, one of which is when

the ball is out of the court lines, accuracy is needed.

Accuracy is one’s skill to change his or her

movement as quickly as possible according to the

target or to adjust his or her movement to the target.

Accuracy is almost associated with speed. Accuacy

is one’s skill to control voluntary movements for a

particular purpose. Accuracy in tennis game has a

very important role. Generally, any hit in tennis

requires accuracy (Sikumbang et al, 1982). If there is

no accuracy when hitting the ball in tennis game, it

will be a huge loss for the athlete in terms of game

performance quality.

Based on the observation done in Unit Kegiatan

Mahasiswa Tenis Lapangan Universitas Negeri

Yogyakarta (Tennis Student Activity Unit at State

University of Yogyakarta) both during exercises and

matches, there are some players who seem to lack

accuracy especially in groundstroke technique.

Echol and Sadili (1996) defined groundstroke,

Nugroho, W., Hidayat, F. and Alim, A.

The Effect of "Precision with Tempo" Exercises on the Accuracy of Groundstroke Punch Techniques in the Tennis Students Activity Unit of Yogyakarta State University.

DOI: 10.5220/0009800706690674

In Proceedings of the 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science in conjunction with the 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports

(YISHPESS and CoIS 2019), pages 669-674

ISBN: 978-989-758-457-2

669

coming from two words ‘ground’ (land) and ‘stroke’

(hit), as a hit done after the ball touches the ground.

According to J. Brown (2001), groundstroke is a hit

after the ball bounces off the court. Whereas

Yudoprasetio (1981) suggested that groundstroke is

a hit done towards the ball touching the ground

(court). Based on those definitions, it can be

concluded that groundstroke is a technique to hit the

ball after it touches the ground or court. M. Crespo

and Dave Milley (1998), for the right-handed, the

stroke is on the right side of the body, and it is the

other way around for the left-handed. Forehand

groundstroke is the skill to hit the ball with the hand

palm holding the racket facing forward, or the back

of the hand facing backward. Backhand

groundstroke is the skill to hit the ball with the back

of the hand facing forward, or the hand palm facing

backward.

Some factors causing the problem is lack of

exercise, inadequate exercise mode to increase

accuracy, how long the player has been playing

tennis, the coach’s lack of knowledge on exercise

mode, and less structured exercises. Based on the

problem, we know that accuracy level of

groundstroke technique in UKM at UNY some

players is still low for some players.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

2.1 Type of Research

The research used in this paper is an experimental

research. Hadi (1985) stated that an experimental

research is a research conducted to determine the

effect caused by a certain treatment given by the

researchers on purpose.

This paper is a quasi-experimental research,

which means that this research has a drawback in

that there is no control group. One group pre-test

post-test design uses a pre-test before the treatment

is given and a post-test after the treatment (Ali

Maksum, 2012),. This research method is used to

determine the effect of an exercise of one variable in

a group experiment through pre-test and post-test.

2.2 Place and Time of Research

This research was conducted in the tennis court of

State University of Yogyakarta on November 6 –

December 15 2018 every Tuesday at 16.00 until the

end of the exercise, Wednesday at 16.00 until the

end of the exercise, and Saturday at 08.00 until the

end of the exercise. This research involved members

of the tennis club of State University of Yogyakarta;

10 male students and 2 female students.

2.3 Research Variable

The researchers used accuracy as dependent variable

and precision with tempo exercise as independent

variable, with operational variables as follows:

Accuracy. In this research, the researchers used

cone as the target for forehand and backhand

groundstrokes during treatment.

Precision with tempo. Precision with tempo is a

method of exercise done by two players in a tennis

game with the ball going on a straight direction for

one (1) minute and the players do forehand and

backhand groundstrokes as many as possible with

cone as the target, players stand on the back line and

the coach stays out of the court. Then, as the coach

gives a cue to start, the players do the groundstroke

concurrently for one minute. In precision with tempo

treatment, the players serve the ball to each other,

instead of getting the ball from the coach.

2.4 Research Population

Population is an area of generalization consisting of

objects/subjects with certain quantity and

characteristics decided by the researchers to study

and from which to draw conclusion (Sugiyono,

2006). The population of this research is the players

of the tennis club at State University of Yogyakarta,

which are 30 students in total. Twelve of those

students were the samples in this research,

consisting of 10 male students and 2 female

students.

This research uses purposive sampling technique

because the samples did not include all members of

the tennis club of the university, but they had these

criteria: a) low accuracy in groundstroke technique;

b) not the main player in the university tennis club

and c) a medium level player.

2.5 Data and Data Collecting

Technique

This research uses Hewitt tennis test accuracy

instrument for data collecting technique. The aim of

Hweitt tennis test accuracy is to assess accuracy rate

through forehand and backhand groundstrokes using

feeder (Strand and Wilson, 1993).

This research uses t-test for its data analysis

technique, which compares the average score of the

pre-test and post-test before and after treatment with

the same samples. Before t-test, normality and

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

670

homogeneity tests were conducted. Those tests were

done to determine the result of the data are normally

distributed and homogenous. It has to be reliable and

valid. Reliability and validation tests used

descriptive statistics using SPSS 23.

3 RESEARCH RESULT AND

DISCUSSION

3.1 Research Result

3.1.1 Forehand

Figure 1 shows a histogram of the frequency

distribution of the forehand groundstroke accuracy

pretest result. Two people (16.67%) were in Very

Good category, 4 people (33.33%) in Good, 3 people

(25%) scored Fair, 3 people (25%) scored Poor, and

0% scored Very Poor, of a total of 12 people.

Figure 1: Shows a histogram of frequency distribution of

forehand groundstroke accuracy pretest result.

Figure 2 shows a histogram of the frequency

distribution of the forehand groundstroke accuracy

posttest result. Four people (33.33%) scored Very

Good, 3 people (25%) scored Good, 3 people (25%)

scored Fair, 2 people (16.7%) score Poor, of a total

of 12 players.

Figure 2: Shows a histogram of frequency distribution of

forehand groundstroke accuracy posttest result.

A more detailed forehand data improvement can be

seen in Table 1.

Table 1. Forehand skill improvement.

No Pre-Test Post Test Improvement

1. 27 28 1

2. 24.5 29 4.5

3. 26.5 25 -1.5

4. 21 20 -1

5. 29.5 33 3.5

6. 22.5 26 3.5

7. 17.5 28 10.5

8. 19 26 7

9. 17 20 3

10. 31.5 33 1.5

11. 26 27 1

12. 22 24 2

Mean

23.67 26.58 2.77

Figure 3: Histogram of forehand pretest and posttest.

3.1.2 Backhand

Figure 4 shows a histogram of frequency distribution

of backhand groundstroke accuracy pretest data

result. Four people (33.33%) scored Very Good, 5

people (41.67%) scored Fair, 2 people (16.67%)

scored Poor, 1 person (8.33%) scored Very Poor, of

a total of 12 players as the samples.

The Effect of "Precision with Tempo" Exercises on the Accuracy of Groundstroke Punch Techniques in the Tennis Students Activity Unit of

Yogyakarta State University

671

Figure 4: Histogram of frequency distribution of backhand

groundstroke accuracy pretest data result.

Figure 5 shows the frequency distribution of

backhand groundstroke accuracy posttest data result.

Seven people (58.33%) scored Good, 5 people

(41.67%) scored Fair, 1 person (8.33%) scored Very

Good.

Figure 5: Histogram of frequency distribution of backhand

groundstroke accuracy posttest data result.

A more detailed backhand data improvement can be

seen in Table 2.

Table 2: Backhand skill improvement.

No. Pretest Posttest Im

rovement

1. 16 22 6

2. 28 28 0

3. 22 20 -2

4. 14 25 11

5. 20.5 26 5.5

6. 21.5 24 2.5

7. 18 23 5

8. 14.5 20 5.5

9. 10 15 5

10.

15 18 3

11. 23 25 2

12. 12 15 3

Mean

17.88 21.75 3.87

Figure 6: Histogram of backhand data improvement.

3.1.3 Hypothesis Test

Hypothesis testing is done to determine acceptance

or rejection of the proposed hypothesis. Hypothesis

testing uses t-test (paired t-test sample)

at 5%

significance. The result of t-test hypothesis testing

can be seen in table 3.

Table 3: Hypothesis test.

Variable

Sig.

Note

Forehand groundstroke 0.011 Significant

Backhand groundstroke 0.002 Significant

Based on the paired t-test test result for forehand

groundstroke, the p value (sig) is 0.011 and

backhand groundstroke 0.002.

3.2 Discussion

Precision with tempo exercise method is suitable for

improving groundstroke accuracy. This can be seen

from the improvement of the mean score in both

forehand and backhand groundstrokes in players of

tennis club at UNY.

The mean score of forehand pretest was 23.67,

then after given a treatment of precision with tempo

exercise method it improved to 26.58. It can be said

that the forehand groundstroke accuracy improved

by 2.77.

Regarding backhand groundstroke accuracy, the

mean score improved by 3.87. In backhand pretest,

the mean score was 17.88. Then, after given a

treatment of precision with tempo exercise, the mean

score of backhand groundstroke accuracy became

21.75.

Other than that, after data analysis using SPSS,

the hypothesis testing demonstrated that the data

obtained for forehand groundstroke variable was

0.011 and 0.002 for backhand groundstroke variable,

those numbers were marked as significant.

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

672

Therefore, from the data it can be concluded that

precision with tempo exercise method was effective

to improve groundstroke accuracy in the tennis club

of UNY.

Through precision with tempo exercises, the

quality of tennis technique can be mastered well.

According to Sukadiyanto (2002: 29) the basic

principle of playing tennis is to hit the ball over the

net towards the opponent’s court side. When hitting

the ball, one needs to make it difficult for the

opponent to hit the ball back. In order to make it

difficult for the opponent in hitting the ball back,

there are some basic techniques in tennis game, one

of which is the groundstroke technique.

Groundstroke is a hit after the ball bounces off

the court (J. Brown, 2001), Groundstroke is a hit

done towards the ball touching the ground (court)

(Yudoprasetio, 1981). Based on those definitions, it

can be concluded that groundstroke is a technique to

hit the ball after it touches the ground or court. For

the right-handed, the stroke is on the right side of the

body, and it is the other way around for the left-

handed (M. Crespo and Dave Milley, 1998).

Tennis is a sport which has no age, sex, and

physical limitation disability and background

boundaries for its players. This sport can be played

by anyone, without any condition that limits anyone

to do this sport or to even make achievements in

tennis. If an athlete wants to improve the game

quality, regular and structured exercises are required.

An exercise is an application of a plan to

improve sports skills in theory and practice, with

methods and rules in accordance with the purpose

and target one wants to achieve (Sukadiyanto,

2002),. For example, for a tennis player to perform

groundstroke accurately and precisely to the target,

exercises to consistently hit the ball on target are

necessary. In exercising, we also need a purpose.

The purpose of exercises is to make an

achievement through an effective and structured

drilling process. The research on precision with

tempo exercise model has a purpose, which is to

improve the accuracy quality in forehand and

backhand groundstrokes. In the journal Test-retest

Reliability for Hitting Accuracy Tennis Test,

accuracy is one of the main mechanisms where

points can be won (Estevam Strecker et al., 2011). It

was explained in the journal that accuracy is an act

of executing a shot which lands on a certain location

in the tennis court, a tennis player may be able to

keep the tennis ball far away enough from their

opponent that the opponent cannot reach the ball (a

winning shot) or that the opponent loses their

balance, causing them to make a forced error. In the

journal Reliability, Precision, Accuracy, and

Validity of Posterior Shoulder Tightness Assessment

in Overhead Athletes that accuracy means the skill

to hit the tennis ball to a specific target in tennis

court.

One of the aims of this exercise model is the

accuracy quality in performing forehand and

backhand groundstrokes. Precision with tempo is a

method of exercise done by two tennis players in a

tennis game with the ball going on a straight

direction for one minute and the players perform

forehand and backhand groundstrokes as many as

possible with cone as the target, players stand on the

back line and the coach stays out of the court. Then,

as the coach gives a cue to start, the players do the

groundstroke concurrently for one minute (Frank

van Fraeyenhove, 2018).

One of the purposes of this exercise model is to

improve the accuracy of forehand and backhand

groundstrokes because it is supported by some

principles of practice. Suharja (2007), there are three

principles of practice which can improve

groundstroke accuracy. The first one is progressive

overload principle, which means that the exercise

needs to be done regularly, gradually, and

progressively. Regularly means that it has to be done

continuously, not occasionally. Gradually means that

there needs to be more and more improvements.

Whereas progressively means that each practice is a

step further from the previous practice. The second

one is specificity principle, where each stimulation

will have a specific response from each athlete.

For that reason, the exercise material needs to be

suited with the needs of the sports branch. The next

one is variation principle of practice, which aims to

avoid athlete’s being bored.

Each exercise target has its own dose, thus

helping the adaptation process into the organs of the

body. An excessive dose of exercise in each session

will cause overtraining. On the other hand, too little

dose of exercise does not have any impact on the

organs of the body. The above principles are ones of

the effects of precision with tempo exercise to

forehand and backhand groundstroke accuracy.

4 CONCLUSION

Based on the data analysis result, the proposed

hypothesis test and the discussion of this research, it

can be concluded that precision with tempo method

of exercise has a big impact to improving the

groundstroke accuracy of the members of Fields

The Effect of "Precision with Tempo" Exercises on the Accuracy of Groundstroke Punch Techniques in the Tennis Students Activity Unit of

Yogyakarta State University

673

Tennis Students Activity Unit of Yogyakarta State

University.

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Sikumbang, M., dkk, 1982. Kesegaran Jasmani. Padang.

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YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

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