| The topic of quality practice in sport has been of great interest to coaches, athletes, and researchers. A two-part study examined the concept of quality practice within the sport of tennis. The purpose of study 1 was to evaluate the quality of practice regimen of a NCAA Division I women's tennis team. The purpose of study 2 was to develop and conduct an initial validation of the Quality Tennis Practice Inventory (QTPI).; The participants for study 1 were the players and coach of an NCAA Division I women's tennis team (n = 9). The evaluation was conducted across three consecutive practice sessions and utilized multiple methods of data collection including semi-structured interviews with the players and coach; direct observation, and questionnaires. Two-weeks following the data collection and analysis, the evaluation was presented to the team to provide information and suggestions concerning the quality of their practice regimen. A two-week follow-up questionnaire assessed how the players and coach felt about the accuracy and utility of the evaluation. The players and coach felt that the evaluation was accurate, informative, and helpful in providing information that would help them improve the quality of their practices.; Study 2 used a focus group of three collegiate tennis coaches and three collegiate tennis players to develop a definition of quality tennis practice. From this definition a 15-item questionnaire (QTPI) was developed. The QTPI and the Sport Confidence Inventory (SCI) were administered to 104 NCAA Division I college tennis players at the conclusion of a tennis practice. The QTPI demonstrated internal reliability with an alpha coefficient of .89 for this sample. The linear combination of validity measures (Three subscales of the SCI) was significantly related to total QTPI score, R 2 = .35, adjusted R2 = .33, F (3, 102) = 17.65, p < .001. The resulting factors were labeled (1) Physical/Mental Effort, (2) Relevance to Performance, and (3) Skill Enhancement. The three-factor solution accounted for 59.77 percent of the variance, with each factor accounting for 39.91 percent, 11.33 percent, and 8.5 percent of the variance, respectively. |
