I will publish here the findings of my research in Sports Engineering. Currently I am working on the Ten Commandments of Racquet Science and some simplified formulas for various calculations. I call those formulas "Back of the Envelope" formulas. Here are some examples:
First three of "Ten Commandments of Racquet Science"
| 1. | Thou shalt not select a racquet just because a celebrity plays with it. (Racquets - like vision glasses - should be prescribed.) |
| 2. | Thou shalt play tennis with two racquets: one for the service game and one for the receiving game. (Read more at http://www.racquetscience.com/why_two_racquets.htm) |
| 3. | Thy racquet shalt compensate for temperature and altitude difference. (Especially important if you train in a different climate than the one you are going to compete in. Even on the same court, the temperature and humidity changes from morning to afternoon in a normal summer day can affect the ball's trajectory by as much as 30 cm [~1 ft]). |
Back of the Envelope Formulas:
Example: A 3 points Head Heavy racquet 70 cm long racquet weighting 265
g has a swing weight of 10*70 + 265 - 690 + 5 * 3 = 290.
Head Light balance values are negative. A 3 points Head Light
racquet 70 cm long racquet weighting 320 g has a swing weight of 10*70 +
320 - 690 + 5 *(-3) = 315.
How to remember the number 690? Think of it this way: a 69 cm long balanced
racquet of 300g has the swing weight 300 kg·cm²
About me: My name is Avi Wiezel (pronounced Aavee Veezl) and I am an Associate Professor in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. I became interested in sports engineering after studying the representation of human skills for construction operations, as part of my "bread and butter" research is in constructability modeling (i.e. how can we make computers intelligent enough to tell us how to build the buildings we want to build). I learned that good brick-layers and good tennis players have similar skills. I also learned that I am not particularly good at either of those two activities and that I need all the help engineering can give me to become a better tennis player. The rest is history.
Would you like to know more? Contact me at Racquet Science