At The USTA Training Center (Page 2)

The project team that went to Florida consisted of Jani Pallis, John Yandell, and our camerman from the U.S. Open Mark Renaudin. John and Mark were happy to renew their working relationship from the Open as cameraman and director. The controlled experiments the team planned required additional expertise and input provided by Jani.

This included measuring the atmospheric conditions that can affect air resistance, and could have a significant influence on our experimental trials. To do this, Jani brought a range on special instruments, a thermometer to measure the temperature, a barometer to measure the air pressure, a hydrometer to measure the humidity and a wind speed gauge. Jani made these measurements for each test. In addition, once we began filming, her judgment was vital in determining whether the flight of each individual ball landed close enough to the target line to be included in the database.

Besides these team members, we picked up a fourth key team member from the Key Biscayne area, Paul Meredith. Paul's title was "Production Assistant," but the title doesn't do justice to his vital role in the data collection process. First, Paul was in charge of setting up the generator we needed to power the ball machine and the camera--and keeping it running. Without this contribution, there was no experiment! In addition Paul had the critical role of establishing the ball machine settings and making the adjustments to generate the different types of spin we would study. Not to mention helping us with all the details of the camera and experimental set up! Last but not least, Paul cheerfully performed the constant task of reloading the balls in the ball machine as we worked our way through the dozens of experimental trials.