Influence of Clothing Materials on Protective Performance in Tennis

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyze influence of clothing materials on protective performance in tennis sportswear. Firstly, the paper presented a human protection model on tennis, and deduced two evaluation parameters to describe protection performance. Secondly, the experimental objects wore different gears made by different fabrics for tennis serve and the experiment data was collected to analyze the gears’ protection performance. Thickness, elasticity, fabric composite methods and wrapping types were set as independent variables of the gears. The ANOVA shows that these factors are of great significance to change the evaluation parameters of the upper limbs joints. Thickness of fabrics is more significant (P<0.01) on evaluation parameters than that of elasticity, especially for elbow (P<0.01), while elastic of fabric only affects peak momentum of elbow and wrist, but not obvious. The wrapping ways of pads are important factors to peak momentum changes. This research shows clothing material is an important element to design protective tennis gears.