Marianna Bellafiore, Goran Kuvačić, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Alessandro Moura Zagatto, Luca Paolo Ardigò, Johnny Padulo, Antonio Dello Iacono, Ardigò, Luca P., Iacono, Antonio Dello, Zagatto, Alessandro M., Bragazzi, Nicola L., Kuvacic, Goran, Bellafiore, Marianna, and Padulo, Johnny
In table tennis, motor skills are crucial for discriminating player level. However, there is a dearth of studies exploring the impact of a vibrational stimulus on performance. Thirty-four male players (age 25 +/- 2 years ; body mass index, BMI 23.4 +/- 1.2 kg.m(-2)) participated in the study. Seventeen played at international level (IL), while the remaining 17 played at national level (NL). The participants underwent a ball-handling test, the ball score, before (PRE) and after (POST) a vibrational stimulus. Intra-class correlation (ICC) for the ball score result showed good reliability (ICC 0.87 for IL and 0.80 for NL). Repeated measures ANOVA showed differences between groups for ball score (p = 0.000) and a significant groupxtime interaction (p = 0.004). Better performances were observed for the IL group than for the NL group, significantly only for POST. Vibration produced positive and negative effects in IL and NL groups, respectively.