Using SwingVision with a Ball Machine

Tennis Technology and Training

I am still completely enamored with the SwingVision application. I have always been a big proponent of video review, but until SwingVision came into my life, my primary usage was pretty much confined to examination of individual stroke mechanics. My recent session using SwingVision with a ball machine illustrates how the heat map generated by the application opens a much wider perspective.

I had two primary objectives when I used SwingVision in conjunction with my ball machine training session last week. The first was to get a better feel for the accuracy of the shot locations when the camera was positioned more optimally than in the match described in last week’s post. I also wanted to explore how SwingVision might be used to enhance the effectiveness of working out with a ball machine.

The accuracy of the ball location calculated by SwingVision was much higher when the camera was positioned behind the court in the app’s recommended position. I have no quibble with how it was marking each ball. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised that SwingVision was not at all confused by the extraneous pickleball lines superimposed on this particular court.

When I first saw the rollup statistics from my session, I bristled at the idea that only 93% of my shots were in. As it turns out… ball don’t lie. I took a screen grab that shows my ball locations through the first 100 shots I hit during this session. I missed two balls long during that sequence. Later in the session when I was hitting more aggressive shot patterns, the miss rate was slightly higher.

I love how SwingVision allows filtering and isolation on specific shots. For example, this session included my favorite ball machine pattern that features two forehands and one backhand. SwingVision allowed me to isolate only the backhands to generate a heat map of where those shots were landing.

I had set up a ball hopper as a target on the crosscourt side. Contrary to what the heat map suggests… I was trying to hit all my backhands to that spot. This reveals that I am leaving a lot of attackable balls in the center of the court well off that target. It is obvious that I really need to work on that.

Another interesting thing from this part of the session is that only one backhand was hit into the net. On this particular day, I netted significantly more forehands than backhands. I wouldn’t have believed that without the video.

The next time I hit off the ball machine I will certainly use the SwingVision to enhance the experience. I will also be working on hitting my crosscourt backhands more sharply wide. The fact that SwingVision will provide objective measurement of how well I perform against that objective will most certainly increase my focus.

	Fiend at Court readers get a 30 day free trial of SwingVision when you sign up through this link. The “Holiday Sale” link on that page makes it super easy to give a one year of the “Pro” level subscription as a Christmas gift.
	Net/Chain Link Fence Mount Compatible Action Cameras Smart Phones If you decide to use SwingVision with your phone, you are going to want to have a flexible mount for positioning the camera that also protects it from wayward shots. This is the one that I use.

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