Tennis Technology Tuesday
I have worn glasses since I was about ten years old. I will never forget the day that my first pair of prescription lenses arrived. The first stop after we picked them up and had them fitted at the optician was one of the local tennis centers. We had hit balls for a few short minutes when the umpire who gave birth to me excitedly called me up to the net to tell me that I was playing really well in the new specs. From my side of the court, I didn’t notice much of a difference.
The very next day I had a first round tournament match against a girl who regularly beat me with ease up until that point. I won that match, essentially reversing all the previous lopsided scores. The umpire who gave birth to me was right. I play a lot better when I can actually see the ball.
Through the intervening years I went back and forth between glasses and contact lenses. Due to severe astigmatism and general eye sensitivity, I could never really make contacts work effectively. I wish I could. Glasses are less than ideal for tennis, creating all sorts of glare situations, especially at night.
For years I struggled to keep my lenses smudge free during a match. Every time I play tennis there is a battle waged over keeping my lenses clear and the elements. Sweat, fingerprints, dust, mist, and humidity plague my efforts. Over time, I have discovered some techniques that work pretty effectively for me.
During certain cold and humid conditions, my glasses tend to fog when I am not moving on the court. (This is where the umpire I gave birth to would interject to assert that I in fact never actually move on the court.) I have found that washing my glasses with warm soapy water before playing seems to help ward that off. Additionally I have determined that dish soap is way better than institutional hand soap for that purpose.
I have a very strong brand preference for pre-moistened lens wipes as well. The Zeiss brand of wipes streak the least. In a home/office setting the Zeiss wipe is pretty much all I need to achieve clear lenses. I have found that on court conditions generally require a follow up swipe with a dry lens cloth.
Lens cloths are scattered about my world. For many years now, I an oversized lens cloth has hung on the outside of my bag, attached with a grommet hole and a C clamp. More recently, I have discovered that it is convenient to attach a lens cloth directly to my tennis towel. This gives me a handy lens cloth wherever my tennis towel happens to be.
The picture that I used in this post represents the two methods I am currently using to attach a lens clot to my towels. For towels with an existing grommet, there are these little lens cloth pouches available on the commercial market. I have a bunch of these clipped to the corner of those towels. I have found the pouch solutions to be good for misty conditions as the pouch keeps the lens cloth dry until needed.
My more preferred solution on blazing hot summer days is an extra large lens cloth sewn directly to one end of my tennis towels. If you look hard enough at the gray towel in the picture, you can see the royal blue seam line where the blue lens cloth was attached.
I am assuming that all players who have ever worn prescription lenses or sunglasses have grappled with how to most efficiently keep the lenses clear while competing. I love to see any additional techniques or methods that other players have found to be useful in the comments section.
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Jan McKean was telling me yesterday about a new product she found to keep her glasses from fogging while playing or wearing a mask. I will have to ask her what it is she is using.