Our Research Project - Experiment Reports

At The
Sybase Open
(Page 2)

Development of the Ball Speed Study

John's question to Nasif was simple, if the two of them could film pro matches with a wide camera view that showed the entire flight of the ball back and forth between the players as they exchanged shot, was there a way to measure the speed?

If the time it took the ball to travel from one player's racket to another and the distance between the rackets could be measured, it must be possible to calculate the speed of the ball? But how?

Nasif explained to John that if they could video such exchanges, the speed could be calculated by digitizing the video footage into a computer and using a software measurement program to calculate the distances. Because standard video cameras record at 30 frames per second--meaning every frame represents 1/30 of a second--it would be possible to measure the time between the shots by counting the number of frames it took for the ball to travel from racket to racket. The software measurement program would allow them to mark the position of the ball at every frame. Because the dimensions of the court were known measurements, the program could calculate how far the ball was actually traveling over time.

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