9/11/24

Application of Motion Capture Study to Tennis

For the past 8 years, I've been focusing on the idea of analyzing snare drumming, drum set playing, guitar, and dance through the technology of motion capture studies. Thankfully, I was able to present some of this research at PASIC 2022 (link here). For a less formal talk about the research, go to Pete's Percussion Podcast (link here). The motion capture study itself has led to many different skills. The mathematics involved in the motion capture study can be described as algebraic geometry, or topology. There are a series of proofs that I am working through, but the precise equations and logic are evasive for me. 

Since I am a bit stuck at the current state of the publishing the research, I have decided to apply my knowledge of rudiments, guitar, and dance to the development of tennis as percussion through motion capture study. This will allow me to pursue my first love of tennis and combine that love with the almost decade long study of music technique through motion capture studies. 

Luckily, I've been cataloguing my tennis playing in an controlled environment; meaning that most of the videos are of me playing against a tennis wall. Here are some examples:

Tennis Serve

Backhand Slice

Next Steps

With the research, I'm slowly publishing what proofs I currently have through this blog, conferences, and publications. For the application of previous work to tennis development, I will start with defining the positions of tennis that is found both in the data and in the colloquial language of the tennis teaching world. I hope to start playing tournaments locally and hopefully travel to a few before this time next year.