Head speed vs. racket inertia in the tennis serve

Abstract

An initial study of racket motion in the power serve executed by six tennis players was performed using several rackets with different inertia properties. Both two‐dimensional high‐speed video and three‐dimensional active marker measurement techniques were employed at 4500 and 400 Hz sampling rates, respectively. The results indicate that a decrease in racket inertia, within realistic limits, can significantly increase the head speed achieved by skilled players. The racket’s instantaneous centre of rotation position at impact, with respect to a locally defined frame of reference, was also found to be remarkably consistent for most subjects and all rackets tested. A larger scale study is necessary to confirm or deny these observations, but the initial findings encourage the view that realistic racket service performance comparison tests must take account of the variations in head speed likely to be achieved in play.

Recommendations for Measuring Tennis Racket Parameters

“…The game has changed considerably over time, partly due to changes in the racket. Indeed, the maximum speed that a player can swing a racket is thought to decrease as its Transverse Moment of Inertia (MOI) increases [5,6], indicating that modern lightweight designs can be swung faster. Haake et al [2] predicted that a player could serve 18% faster with modern equipment compared to what was available in 1870s, mainly due to this increase in swing speed.…”

“…Engineers, designers and biomechanists undertake research to further our understanding of racket performance [7], with attention paid to issues such as the factors affecting frame vibrations [8] and swing speed [5,6]. Haake et al [2] represents the most comprehensive work on how rackets have developed to date, having characterised 150 from the 1870s to 2007, including measurements of overall length, head length/width, grip length, mass, centre of mass (COM), "swing-weight", "twist-weight" and vibration frequency.…”

Relationship between muscle coordination and racket mass during forehand drive in tennis

“…The importance of racket inertia characteristics in relation both to racket head speed generation and ultimate ball speed has already been reported (Mitchell et al 2000). Furthermore, it has been shown that non-tennis players were only able to distinguish between two rackets when the difference in their swing weight exceeded 25%, while expert tennis players perceived much smaller changes in weight (2.5%) (Brody 2000).…”

Single view silhouette fitting techniques for estimating tennis racket position

“…Sensors can be attached to a racket to measure its motion [4], although these add mass and elite players can distinguish differences in moment of inertia as small as 2.5% [5]. Recent work evaluating wireless inertial measurement units for measuring baseball bat swings indicates that current sensors may not be accurate for the full range of speeds experienced in play [6].…”