European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the developmental pathway of Malaysian tennis players. A total of 14 sub-elite and 16 elite tennis players participated in this study. Partipants completed the Participation History Questionnaire to indicate their age when commenced tennis related milestones, hours engaged in structured and unstructured tennis activities and involvement in other sports, retrospectively. The results showed that the elite male players started significantly earlier compared to sub-elite males, sub-elite females and elite females in terms of age started playing tennis, supervised training, participated in competitions, and self-training. The elite male players engaged significantly more hours in structured activities of the age range of 7-12, 13-15 and 16-17 years old while sub-elite males engaged significantly more hours in unstructured activities at 16-17 years old only. In conclusion, the Malaysian elite players followed the early specialization pathway by commencing their playing career at a young age and engaged in more hours of structured activities such as participating in competitions, training with coaches and self-training.