Tennis Forehand Volleys: Developing a Wrist Brace to Moderate Hand Strain

Numerous tennis players experience hand strains and sprains as novices, and consistent exposure to these types of injuries can weaken the hand over time. This experiment aimed to determine whether a wrist brace can significantly increase a player’s performance in tennis, specifically in the forehand volley. The volley was chosen as it is the tennis shot in which the wrist is most vulnerable to muscle and ligament strain. A novel flexible brace design featuring a primary ulnar support as well as accessory structures was proposed for this experiment, and its effect was evaluated through the experiment. Various trials of a player’s forehand volleys, with and without the brace, were compared using video analysis software. The average velocity of the returned tennis ball with a brace was 10±3m/s, and it was 8±2m/s without a brace. A paired, two-tailed t-test confirmed that these results were significant, and that a player’s forehand volley can be improved when a brace is worn. Once developed further, this wrist brace may be able to aid those with hand disabilities and conditions to play tennis or used as a training implement for beginners.