Advanced Tennis Update
To Advanced Tennis Friends and Supporters,
Once again I want to report on our progress, which has been significant
on many fronts.
For the past several months our principal scientist Nasif Iskander has
been conducting the most thorough analysis yet attempted of the "how
the ball bounces." It turns out that this "simple" event,
something that every player has experienced thousands and thousands of
times, is far more complex, intriguing, and important to the game than we
could have imagined. In 1/250 of a second, the ball makes a radical change
in direction, loses up to 1/3 of it's speed and changes spin
characteristics radically, by up to 2000rpm or more. This is all in an
interval that is literally invisible to the human eye.
We believe that hidden in the complex relationships between all these
factors is the key to the mythical concept of the "heavy ball."
Why do some shots seem "heavier" and able to penetrate the court
(or the opponent's racket) more effectively than others? The secret, we
now believe, lies in particular combinations of spin and speed on
particular court surfaces.
The perfect combination of spin and speed probably explains why Pete
Sampras, though far from the fastest server, is the most effective. We
believe that an understanding of exactly what these combinations are, and
how to produce them, could make a major contribution to coaching and
player development.
Nasif is in the process of creating a completely original software
modeling program that will allow us to understand the speed spin
combinations of the top players, and to test virtually any possible
combination of spin and speed for effectiveness on hard courts versus clay
courts versus grass.
The next few weeks are going to be very exciting to the Project from
the data collection point of view both for Nasif's work, and for the other
major component in our research, bio-mechanical analysis. The Project will
be using a new generation high tech ball machine capable of simulating
world class speed and spin on all shots, including serve, to record more
controlled data for Nasif's model.
Beginning February 26, we will also be filming for 3 days at the Sybase
Open in San Jose, California. At the Sybase, we will be recording live pro
"ball bounces." We will also be recording spin and
bio-mechanical data for players including Andre Agassi, Mark
Philippousssis, Lleyton Hewitt, Greg Resudski, and Goran Ivaniesivic.
For this filming, we will be using the most most advanced high speed
video systems currently available, the NAC HSV C3, which films at 250
frames a second with near broadcast television resolution. Obviously, we
can't wait to get our hands on the data!
On a final note, I had the opportunity last week to make a presentation
on our project, specifically our study of Pete's serve, at the USPTR
national teaching pro convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina. I had
over 100 people at the talk, which was very well received. I feel
confident I made some new friends for the project. If you haven't been to
Hilton Head (my first time) the beach is unbelievably beautiful, even in
February!
Thanks for all your support, and stay tuned! There will be another
update after the Sybase filming!
Best Regards,
John Yandell
Advanced Tennis Research Project
Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think by emailing
us here at TennisONE.
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