A Comparative Analysis Of Skills And Tactics Of The Chinese Women Soft Tennis Team And Other Asian Teams

Soft tennis has been played in China for more than two decades.Yet its development has been restrained as it is not included in the Olympics. Despite the noticeable achievements of Chinese women players,the gap between China and other strong Asian teams such as Japan,South Korea and Chinese Taipei tends to widen in terms of overall skills and tactics as a result of the adoption of the new rules in 2003,hence the need for further eploration of skills and tactics of Chinese women players.This paper makes comparative analyses of 40 international matches between the 2003 World Championship and the 2007 World Championship. Methodologies used in this paper include literature review,interview with experts,statistics,on-the-spot observation,video comparision, logical analysis.The findings are:(1).China lags far behind the strong teams in Women's Doubles.Among the 19 items examined,China needs to improve in the following 10 indicators:first service points won,receiving success,return points won,forehand volley points won,forehand volley failures,backhand volley points won,backhand volley failures,smash points won,forehand stroke points won,forehand stroke failures.(2).In service games of Women' s Singles,China lags behind most in baseline forehand stroke.Among the 17 statistical items,the following 6 show the noticeable gap between China and other teams:first service successes,second service points won,forehand volley failures, backhand volley points won,forehand stroke points won,forehand stroke failures.(3).In receiving games of Women' s Singles,the gap is most apparent in baseline forehand techniques.Of the 14 statistical items,the following 5 demonstrate the obvious gap between China and other teams: receiving successes,backhand volley points won,smash points won, forehand stroke points won,lob points won.(4).The gap in Women' s Singles is not as wide as that in Women' s Doubles.In both games,other Asian teams all rely heavily on side forehand offense as the major strategy,while Chinese players need to identify the proper strategic guidelines and winning offenses.