Will you beat Nadal and Radwanska?
Connected tennis: next level innovation in tennis
In this year's Australian Open, won by Wawrinka, the Netherlands did not play a leading role. Yet some tennis talent is not foreign to our country. Various explanations are circulating; is it because of today's players, is it a mentality issue, is the popularity of tennis declining and thus the available players? Or could it also have to do with innovation and technical novelties? KIVI Sports Engineering organised an afternoon symposium around 2 of the latest technological innovations in tennis and saw not only opportunities for the sport, but also commercial opportunities.
Sports innovation ideas
Chairman of the day Arno Hermans kicked off with a nice introduction and immediately involved the visitors in the topic; what questions and ideas are in among the visitors? Ideas and solutions come from different quarters. For example, to improve mental resilience with neuro-feedback. Or making tennis technique objectively measurable, perhaps using sensors in the ball or measuring the pressure on the feet while hitting the ball. We also look at how the athlete's feeling relates to his technique and to what extent this should be looked at individually or compared to other players. Measuring energy consumption and recording one's tactics can also contribute to improved understanding, according to those present.
Then the speakers follow. They talk about what is already possible with their new technology and, in some cases, this already goes beyond what has passed in the ideas around!
Playsight smartcourt
Israel-based Playsight has developed the 'smartcourt'. This is a system that is relatively easy to install on a tennis court and which then tracks, registers and recognises all tennis movements. Based on the video images from the 5 cameras, the system can give a lot of substantive feedback using image recognition software. For instance, it can recognise a service and thus track the strike rate, the speed of the ball, whether a ball is in or out, and many other aspects! And of course you can do video analysis afterwards, by looking back at images of your tennis game from different angles.
The combination of hardware and software means that the possibilities are almost endless and that the enormous amounts of data that are generated have to be handled smartly. The accuracy and reliability of the system is pretty good; the position of the ball can be determined to 1cm accuracy and about 90% of the movements are well recognised by the system. Even the spin of the ball can be detected.
Not only does Playsight think they can serve the tennis sport with their generic hardware, they are also writing software that can 'track' other ball sports. The system is still under development and they promise to improve further, but already there seems to be a lot of impact for both elite and recreational sports.
Babolat Play
In advance, this is already a very special lazing, as this is the first time in Europe (!) that Babolat's latest innovation is being presented in terms of content! This gives KIVI Sports Engineering a nice first.
The French company Babolat has been around since 1875 and makes tennis rackets. Interesting to see how they themselves kick off the lecture with pictures of tennis rackets through the years, concluding that there is very little development and innovation in them. Some top tennis players have been playing with the same model racket for more than 10 years, so apparently it is still competitive with newer models.
The interesting thing about the Babolat Play is that the innovation here is not sought in changing the basic features and functionality of the racket, but in adding a whole new functionality. Namely, Babolat's new racket, the 'Play', is "connected". This connected usually refers to the connection to the internet, but the essence actually lies in incorporating some sensors in the racket. The sensors and necessary electronics are mainly incorporated in the handle, but there is also a sensor connected to the strings of the tennis racket. This sensor can give accurate information about where the ball hit the racket and how hard the impulse and contact time of the ball was on the racket. This does not yet tell us everything about the speed of the ball, but it does show a comparison between strokes that has not been shown before.
It is interesting to see that Babolat itself emphasises the fun factor, while the content information also seems to have the potential for detailed analyses of technique.
Completing, not competing
Both Babolat and Playsight agree; they do not see each other as competitors, but as complementary. Playsight clearly has a different type of product, sold to tennis court managers. The product focuses on tactics, ball speed, game statistics collection and video analysis. Babolat, on the other hand, focuses their racket on the individual player and offers detailed measurements, focusing on how the user deploys their racket. Whether or not you hit the ball in the 'soft spot' of the racket is one of the most important feedback aspects here.
Interesting to see that the group of visitors to this tennis symposium came from both sports and technology, which gives a nice combination. Technology cannot develop valuable new products without the detailed knowledge of sport, and sport cannot gain new insights without making use of new technologies.
The tennis symposium thus provides some wonderful new topics for follow-up research, development and cooperation! For further information, please contact Erik Driessen, via twitter @KIVI_Sports. Also keep an eye on the website and our other platforms for upcoming activities! In the draft agenda, the following topics are in the pipeline; if you want to be kept informed, keep an eye on us or join KIVI Sports Engineering to not miss a topic!
Erik Driessen, chairman KIVI Sports Engineering
Description
KIVI has European first with interactive tennis racket! Racket supplier Babolat has chosen this symposium to present their tennis innovation: Babolat PLAY.
The CEO of Playsight is coming over to the Netherlands especially to talk about smart courts. This Israeli company has developed a number of smart courts that can be found all over the world.
In the final week of the Australian Open, Babolat and Playsight will take you through technology-based tennis. The technology helps every tennis player perform better. Under the name PLAY, Babolat is presenting their technological innovation for the first time in Europe. Among others, Nadal, Tsonga and Radwanska play with their rackets. The Israeli company Playsight provides feedback on your tennis performance with at least four cameras.
13:00 Reception with coffee and tea (broadcast Australian Open)
14:00 Opening by Arno Hermans
14:05 Welcome by Erik Driessen (chairman Sports Engineering)
14:15 Tennis player (former professional or semi-professional)
14:45 "PlaySight SmartCourt - reinventing tennis" Chen Shachar (CEO Playsight)
PlaySight Interactive Ltd. is the next generation in social sports technologies. PlaySightTM Smart Court is a game changing real-time and after action review system. Our technology is affordable, easy to set up and use and it is designed for tennis clubs across the world. We aim to globally revolutionise not only the coaching process in all ball sports, starting with tennis, but also to enhance the game experience making it more challenging and fun.
15:15 "Babolat Play connected racket" Arie van der Pas (Babolat Nederland)
This is the European first of the Babolat PLAY concept, the first interactive tennis racket that enables the player to really improve his technique. Sensor technology is used to generate data that is linked to an app, among other things.
15:45 In conversation with each other
16:30 Networking drinks
Speaker(s)
Arno Hermans (marketing coordinator KIVI)
Erik Driessen (chairman Sports Engineering)
Chen Shachar (CEO Playsight)
Arie van der Pas (representative Babolat Netherlands)
Location
Prinsessegracht 23 The Hague
Organiser
Business Administration
Construction
Industrial Design
Computer Science
Sports Engineering
Name and contact details for information
Arno Hermans; 070 391 98 82