Effects of the Five-step Strategy with videotape modeling on performance of the tennis serve.

This study was designed to compare two methods of instructing Singer's Five-step Strategy and their effect on the learning and performance of a tennis serve. 63 university students classified as recreational tennis players were stratified by sex and then randomly assigned to one of three groups: Five-step Strategy with videotaped modeling, audiotape Five-step Strategy plus written transcript, or no strategy. Players performed seven blocks of 10 service attempts per block of serves. Points accumulated with each service attempt as well as the number of errors were the dependent measures. Separate 2-way analyses of variance were conducted for each phase of the study. No significant pretreatment differences were noted among groups. Further, all groups improved significantly across time on both dependent measures and maintained this improved performance on a subsequent retention test.