Quantifying Coordination between Agonist and Antagonist Elbow Muscles during Backhand Crosscourt Shots in Adult Female Squash Players

Abdel-Rahman Akl, Amr Hassan, Helal Elgizawy and Markus Tilp
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Abdel-Rahman Akl: Faculty of Physical Education-Abo Qir, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21913, Egypt
Amr Hassan: Department of Sports Training, Faculty of Sports Education, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
Helal Elgizawy: Faculty of Physical Education-Abo Qir, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21913, Egypt
Markus Tilp: Institute of Human Movement Science, Sport and Health, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-9

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to quantify the coordination between agonist and antagonist elbow muscles during squash backhand crosscourt shots in adult female players. Ten right-handed, international-level, female squash players participated in the study. The electrical muscle activity of two right elbow agonist/antagonist muscles, the biceps brachii and triceps brachii, were recorded using a surface EMG system, and processed using the integrated EMG to calculate a co-activation index (CoI) for the preparation phase, the execution phase, and the follow-through phase. A significant effect of the phases on the CoI was observed. Co-activation was significantly different between the follow-through and the execution phase (45.93 ± 6.00% and 30.14 ± 4.11%, p < 0.001), and also between the preparation and the execution phase (44.74 ± 9.88% and 30.14 ± 4.11%, p < 0.01). No significant difference was found between the preparation and the follow-through phase ( p = 0.953). In conclusion, the co-activation of the elbow muscles varies within the squash backhand crosscourt shots. The highest level of co-activation was observed in the preparation phase and the lowest level of co-activation was observed during the execution. The co-activation index could be a useful method for the interpretation of elbow muscle co-activity during a squash backhand crosscourt shot.

Keywords: racket sport; injury; elbow; electromyography; co-activation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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