# Assessing Table Tennis Technical Proficiency in Individuals with Disabilities: A Scoping Review
## 4 Discussion
### Table Tennis Technical Proficiency Tests
#### 4.1.3 Functional Reach and Trunk Rotation  
Two studies in Singapore used \"sweep area\" to measure wheelchair para-players' maximum functional reach on the table [24; 25]. This method is easy to implement using simple pen and paper, though additional time is required to calculate the area from the drawings after data collection. It is important to standardise the distance between the player and the table, which was 30 cm in both studies. Using the \"sweep area\" as a variable to indicate functional reach ability, promising results with 11.7% to 94.0% improvement were noted when implementing a customised design modification to the player's wheelchair. Another variable called \"tipping angle\" has been used to measure the functional reach to the left and right side along the frontal plane [24]. In this study, wheelchair players were asked to reach as far as possible to the point where they felt that they may fall over from the side. The angle of the spine in this maximum reach position was measured using the Kinovea video analysis software (version 0.8.15), though it was not specified how the line of spine was identified. It can be challenging to precisely and consistently locate the body landmarks to define the torso segment, especially for individuals with abnormal curvatures in the spine [33]. Taken together, measuring functional reach ability is a relevant and feasible assessment protocol for para-tennis players. As this concept has only been applied to wheelchair athletes so far using area and/or angle variables which require the additional post-processing of data, future work can explore simpler and direct measures such as reach distances to different directions. It will be of interest to see if the functional reach test is also useful for standing players.  
For one-handed strokes in racket sports, lumbar spine axial rotation is important as it can influence upper limb movements and racket speed [34]. To examine the rotational function of the trunk in wheelchair para-table tennis players, [PERSON] and colleagues [26] used a torso dynamometer to determine angular acceleration, velocity, and displacement. Considering the nature of table tennis which relies heavily on one arm, it is somewhat surprising to observe no differences in trunk angular kinematics between the dominant and non-dominant sides. Compared with able-bodied players, this study showed a slower trunk rotation velocity in para-players, which might be due to their limited range of motion in the trunk. While this assessment protocol provided robust and objective measures to evaluate players' trunk function, the need for specialised laboratory equipment to implement the test and biomechanical knowledge to interpret the data may impose challenges for practitioners and clinicians. At present, no studies have examined the trunk rotation movement during the execution of actual table tennis skills in individual with disabilities. The limited biomechanics studies on para-table tennis strokes only focused on the shoulder, elbow, and/or the wrist [22; 23].