Measuring Change: Radar Technology in Teaching

[don_budge]

The Need for Speed…Overrated

My partner has some device that supposedly measures speed. He just loves to trot it out in front of students…beginners and intermediates especially. I believe that he does it to impress them. Let's put it this way…I know that he does. He fires away…some pretty wild efforts I have to admit. It's all about ego. Speed kills. We live in times of "shock and awe". I am really unimpressed. It's only bigger racquets…giving us superior feelings.

On the other hand there is me. I preach to let the motion develop your speed. Allow your speed to build as your motion gets better. Less effort…better results. It is more important to learn how to spin the ball and place the ball with the proper grip. As far as the other strokes go…having a radar gun on them is totally a waste of time. I impress my students by hitting three serves in a row and have them all going on the same line.

I have to admit that I do it to impress them…to impress upon them the need for placement and intelligent tactics. I impress my students by hitting 25 forehands in a row against the wall at a 8 X 11 sheet of paper at three quarter speed and build it up to full speed…then dialing down to half speed. Control is the drug…and I am always in control. Well…except when I am out of control. What is power? Control. What is control? A combination of spin, placement…and speed. Give me a device that measures control…I'll buy it!

Once you start trying to better your mph you begin to ruin the motion. When the object becomes one of measurable or quantifiable the human psyche takes over and it is all about ego. The only time that I ever had any shot "timed" was at the Eiffel Tower when I was in Paris for the French Open this year. They had built a nice clay court there in front of the park that the Tower is in and a bit of distance away from the court they had set up a "booth" to measure serve speed. It was pretty crowded.

To tell you the truth I cannot remember how fast I served…and I couldn't care less. I probably would have hurt my arm if I had gotten too excited…trying to serve balls out without warming up properly. I noticed a couple of the mademoiselles looking at me with admiring glances. They like my "Rico Suave" attitude. They liked my sexy motion. Slow backswing and big finish. French women get it. They weren't going for the macho nonsense. Get my drift.

We had a friendly conversation…you can imagine. It was the Parisian hour.

[johnyandell]

Stotty,
Email them! I just got a nice thank you from Peter Goody there. Tell him you are a subscriber.

[stotty]

Sounds like a product worth looking into. Most speed guns are unreliable. A reality check is about right. Around 20 years ago a guy from Head came down to my club with a proper speed gun...the ones police use to catch speeding cars. Serving as hard as I could I only managed 92 mph and most of my first serves were fair bit under that. And there was me thinking I had been serving bullets all my life! Previous gimmicky off-the-shelf guns had timed me well over a 100mph. Ego guns I call them.

Berdych and Murray were averaging something like around 114mph on their 1st serves yesterday. It just stands to reason most of us cannot get anywhere near those speeds. Stotty certainly can't...

I quite fancy buying this product. I wonder if they ship to the UK...

[johnyandell]

Don,
Go poke around on their web site. This one is for real. It is very consistent on the speed out of my sports attack--same ball after ball with the same machine settings. I love it. I think they have a money back guarantee... And if you need to measure past 130mph not sure you need to measure...

[tennis_chiro]

John,
Is it really that accurate? I've always been really disappointed with the accuracy of the tennis radar guns I've used that run about $150. Especially for serves over 100 mph or even near that. I'm kind of disappointed it only goes to 130 mph. Will the faster serves just top out at 130?

How easy was it to measure the speed of balls out of your AceAttack. Obviously, that is an interesting consideration for me and my Twins.

It looks like it is too good to be true. If this is near as good as you are saying, I hope you are getting a kickback on sales through the Tennisplayer link.

don

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on my latest, "Measuring Change: Radar Technology in Teaching"