Smart Tennis Sensors — IN OR OUT?
All my life I’ve been a tennis addict. When I turned 8, I was (finally) eligible to join the tennis club and since then I have hit thousands upon thousands of tennis balls. My YouTube channel is filled with all kinds of tennis related videos, from John McEnroe’s “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS” to his modern day equivalent, Nick Kyrgios, and his endless trickery. I’m also lucky enough to have a brother who is a tennis coach, and we have countless conversations about the sport and about how to improve our games. Every day and in all aspects of sport we see new technologies being introduced and we pondered whether this was the same in tennis.
The only type of analysis through technology I have used is a form of video analysis, where I will record training sessions. Through this I watch and rewatch every shot I hit, looking for inconsistencies and using this to improve my technique and overall game. This is the main form of analysis for the professionals still. It is a huge advantage to be able to see your own game through the use of video and I find it easy to pick up things that I’d like to fix and improve on.
Along with video analysis, over the past few years the tennis market has seen the introduction of Smart Tennis Sensors. These devices collect data and track tennis performance. The main question I have surrounding these sensors is do they enhance performance? But before I attempt to answer this question, let’s take a look into what exactly these sensors are and what they do.
Smart tennis sensors are inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors that will monitor and track data on the tennis player’s shots and swings. These IMU sensors contain accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers and they can measure their own acceleration, angular rate and the surrounding magnetic field. (Chua and Chua, 2021) They gather the data throughout a game of tennis and the data is then transmitted from the sensor to an electrical device such as a mobile phone or laptop.
They can be found either on the tennis racket or they can be stored in wearable devices for the athlete. Sensors on the racket can be attached to the butt (bottom), they can be embedded into the handle or they can be embedded within a vibration dampener which is attached between strings of the racket. Through the following table we can see exactly what can be tracked and analysed through the use of a smart tennis sensor. Various different brands and styles of sensors can track different things. The one I find most interesting is the Head Tennis Sensor, which can create a 3D animation of the player’s swing.
All of these sensors collect a lot of data but the accuracy of them has continued to be questioned. Most of the data given is an estimation and the margins of tolerance and error are large, with the exception being monitoring and collecting the data on the number of shots.
Now that we know exactly what these sensors are, let me now try answer the question I started out with: will these smart tennis sensors enhance performance?
My opinion is that, NO, they do not enhance performance and I think this for the following reasons:
- For a beginner tennis player, the main goal is learning technique and getting a clean contact on the tennis ball. These sensors do not provide lessons. They are merely a means to see the science behind a tennis shot.
- The different types of sensors and positioning of the sensors on the racket proves troubling. Adding the mass of a sensor to the butt of the racket or onto the strings via a dampener will change the feel and the weight distribution of a tennis racket, causing a discomfort to advanced players, affecting their swing.
- Sensors embedded in rackets are made for certain rackets and they are costly. Most advanced tennis players become comfortable with the rackets they use and would not want to change to one they may not even like to see the data. (They might even blame a bad day on the racket and never come back to it!)
- Much of the data provided by these sensors, I, for one, would simply not have any interest in seeing. I regularly change swing type, speed and the spin throughout a rally and I would know from the second the ball leaves my racket whether I’ve hit it well or not. Looking at numbers to back up what I already know at the end of a session seems useless to me and it’s not something I think would benefit me or any player.
In the following video made by the Wall Street Journal (with a very misleading title!!), we can see that these sensors seem to be quite a waste of money for a beginner in tennis as, tennis pro, Troy Mass explains just how having a smart racket won’t turn you into Rafael Nadal (or James Nolan ;) ). We are shown here also how Nadal, who Babolat sponsor, ‘uses’ this technology to track his shots but what I see though is merely marketing and we can even see Nadal joking about what the technology does for him. I don’t think Rafa cares if he’s hitting the ball directly in the middle of the racket every time!
The future of technology in tennis remains in question. For all the reasons stated, I haven’t seen Smart Tennis Sensors tear up the tennis market and I don’t know one person who uses one. Does the potential of this market remains in the video analysis?
If a software could be created that could match similar types of shots with each other over the duration of a match or a training session and group them together, through the use of a video, we would have a really beneficial technology on our hands. I could see my best shots and where I really hit the ball the way I should and compare it to my worst ones and use the video to try implement the best on a more regular basis.
I’ll tell you what, this blog post has really made me wanna play some tennis! I cannot wait for April 26th and hopefully with a little practice (and no use of a tennis sensor) I’ll be able to hit the ball like Rafa!
Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with a little clip of me trying to rip the ball in Spain!
— James
Bibliography:
simonmalbrecht, V., 2021. A Review Of Smart Tennis Sensors. [online] Sports Technology Blog. Available at: <https://sportstechnologyblog.com/2019/03/23/a-review-of-smart-tennis-sensors/> [Accessed 7 April 2021].
Chua, J. and Chua, V., 2021. Developing IMU Sensors For Capturing Motion In Sports. [online] Sports Technology Blog. Available at: <https://sportstechnologyblog.com/2018/08/04/developing-imu-sensors-for-sports/> [Accessed 8 April 2021].
Williams, A., 2021. Gadget Watch: Sony Smart Tennis Sensor. [online] Electronics Weekly. Available at: <https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/gadget-watch/gadget-watch-sony-smart-tennis-sensor-2014-08/> [Accessed 8 April 2021].
Bullpen.com.au. 2021. Smart Tennis Sensors: Running Through What’s in the Market — Bullpen. [online] Available at: <https://www.bullpen.com.au/smart-tennis-sensors/> [Accessed 8 April 2021].
