Relationship Between Launch Angle and Ball Distribution of Kuda Kick in Sepak Takraw Service

Abstract

Service is an important move in the sepak takraw sport. A study to observe the relationship between the service ball’s launch angle and ball distribution in the opponent’s area in real sepak takraw match situations was carried out. Video analyses were performed on 10 experienced national university level servers (age = 21.61 ± 2.0 years; height = 1.71 ± 0.04 m; mass = 73.70 ± 10.17 kg). All videos were recorded during an inter-university sports tournament, starting from the group match, until the final match of the competition. The analyses focused only on the ‘Kuda Kick’ service technique. In order to analyze ball distribution during serve, the serve’s receiving side of the court was categorized into nine zones (zone A–I). A high definition video camera was utilized to record the entire two-sided court area from a sagittal plane view. The serve launch angles were then obtained from video analysis. It was identified that there were 7 ranges of launch angles during service. The results indicated that the highest ball distribution is in zone F (26.6%), followed by zone B (24.8%) and zone E (17.8%); whereas the lowest ball distribution is in zone G (1.0%). In terms of the serve launch angle, the highest distribution is at a range of 1–10°(42.2%), and 11–20°(36.0%). Based on these 2 launch angle ranges, range 1–10° recorded 31.27% ball distribution in zone B, and 24.17% in zone F. The launch angle of 11–20° was mostly distributed in zone F (32.22%), followed by zone B 20.56%. The results indicated that high ball distribution area created a ‘T-Zone’ in the court area. This study also shows that there was a moderate correlation between serve launch angle and ball distribution area (r = 0.374; p < 0.05).