Tennis players are always searching for ways to improve their game. Coaching and intense practice sessions can only get them so far. When players want to get a higher level of understanding of their game and increase their competitiveness, they invariably turn to technology for assistance.
Performance management techniques show ways to maintain and promote efficient performance. Sports analysis offer accurate, predictive data. Both are a part of the tool set for athletes looking to fine tune a skill or target specific areas for improvement.
Another tool is player-tracking technology. It’s used in other sports, notably basketball (SportVU), by giving real-time player information. Whether it’s to find out the distance a player has run or how accurate their drop shot is, this type of analysis helps both athlete and coach. Media and fans can also take advantage of this invaluable data to better understand a player’s winning serve percentage or how many shots they had in a rally if the fan is participating in a fantasy league, for example.
Stepping into the tennis world is Israeli company PlaySight. Founded by former members of the Isreali armed forces Chen Shachar, Yoram Bentzur and Evgeni Khazanov, they bring their background of 3D visualization technology used in training fighter pilots to tennis.
While it may be a stretch to understand how training pilots is similar to training tennis players, similar methodologies or practices are used. Both benefit from after-action reports (AAR) to help focus on the sequence of goal-oriented actions to see where any weaknesses may be located and then targeted. If a player has trouble with their serve they can see in real time how they’re holding their racquet and can apply a ‘lessons learned’ approach to fixing the problem.
This kind of single-minded, fighter pilot focus on details is precisely what athletes require. While a coach can video record them and make their comments after they finish a practice session, PlaySight offers data in real time, offering the ability to stop the training session to show their trainee exactly where they are making their mistakes via a 3D representation. Coaches can watch, replay and share their workout session with their trainee and whomever else they want to see the session. Membership is free at playsight.com and it’s easy to logon to the SmartCourt console to track the player’s session.
Like the NBA’s choice of analytic systems, SportVU, PlaySight’s SmartCourt uses multiple cameras mounted around the court. There are no special wires, chips or equipment worn by the players so they aren’t limited to wearing certain shoes or tops. Take a look at their video:
Big name past and present professional players believe in what the creative minds behind PlaySight came up with: generating interest not just in the tennis sphere but also in finance. Investors such as the owner of World Team Tennis (WTT)’s, Washington Kastles, and entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark Ein join tennis greats Novak Djokovic (winner of 6 Grand Slam tournaments) and co-founder of WTT, Billie-Jean King in getting the word out on what their product has to offer.
Ms. King, winner of 39 Grand Slam titles, has long believed in making tennis more accessible. Her Billie-Jean King WTT Charities Foundation goes the extra step to ensure as many people as possible have opportunities to play. Far more expensive than the racquets her foundation usually gives away, giving access to a SmartCourt could go a long way toward helping people who can’t afford an expensive coach to improve their game. The cost to the player comes when they use the court so they don’t have to purchase any special items to take advantage of this analytic tool.
The price of SmartCourt may be out of the price range of the average public tennis court facility but members of private clubs such as The Club of Riverdale (New York) and Nassau Tennis Club (New Jersey) as well as University of Georgia have made use of their SmartCourt for an additional fee beyond cost of membership. These facilities are one of 20 worldwide thus far.
Like SportVU, PlaySight wants to expand to other sports such as soccer that requires lots of real time data. SportVU, a subsidiary of STATS’ that was recently sold by the Associated Press and 21st Century Fox, was utilized in the UEFA Champions League tournament for the 2013-2014 season and will be used in the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil. Their technology will not only be tracking data such as goals scored, fouls given and received by each team, yellow and red cards given but also distance each player has covered using “streaming (a series of bytes) XML (a container for data) feeds. Here’s a clip of how SportVU works for the NBA:
as well as for soccer:
They also provided analytics for the NFL, as well as the National Basketball Association and select NCAA tournaments such as the Big Ten Tournament.
From the beginning player who wants to find out how to get their serve over the net, to the amateur who wants to take their game to the next level, or the professional who wants to climb the world ranking, Playsight’s SmartCourt technology offers excellent insight about how a tennis player can improve their overall skills.
Geared less toward amateur athletes, SportVU is very helpful for collegiate and professional athletes such as basketball players where measuring ball arc is useful in figuring out why some of their shots are good while other miss.
Player tracking, sports analysis, after action reports along with 3D visualization goes a long way toward assisting athletes and coaches in becoming better at their game.