Tennis used to be a game I was quite good at. If the term ‘used to’ referred to some 15-odd years ago, and ‘quite good at’ meant not collapsing in a panting heap in the middle of the court.
Time – as it often does (albeit, not to tech) – caused me to trade my racket-swinging in for a quieter, less active life.
That was until I found myself standing on the pristine blue courts of the newly-opened Atlantis The Royal Dubai on Palm Jumeirah. A game of tennis with a side of opulent resort luxury was an offer too tempting to ignore. And so last week I dusted off my racket to relive my past, and redefine my game. Fortunately, I had a little help from tech in the form of an Apple Watch named SwingVision.
SwingVision acts as your artificially intelligent double’s partner. It mixes the Apple Watch (Series 9, in this case) 4-core neural engine, along with an iPhone or iPad, to be the tech-powered coach I sorely needed. The best bit? No internet is needed, it uses pure, real-time, on-device tennis smarts.
Set up is a tad easy – provided you have a tripod you can use to perch your iDevice above the court like an all-seeing umpire. Within seconds of the first volley, SwingVision was whispering sweet data back to my wrist, which should – the app says – transform my game from mere guesswork to precision tennis.
Its first ‘proper’ use case came when a lob I deemed ‘perfectly in’ sailed straight out. The app, like a wrist-bound McEnroe, begged to differ. It showed me a slow-motion replay right there on the court, confirming the out-call with no room for argument (and I thought it was on my side).
That said, the disappointment was short-lived: with every rally SwingVision’s machine learning algorithms were busy at work, analysing my swing speed and reminding me of a finesse I had lost long ago.
While the app’s advice to stop over and under-extending might have fallen on deaf ears (honestly, I don’t know the difference) for this amateur enjoying his tennis renaissance, the insights were invaluable.
Had I actually won the game I probably would have enjoyed another feature – post-match analysis. It acts as a virtual tennis coach, letting you relive (or perhaps in my case, learn from) the best and worst parts of the match.
Despite a few missteps and the crushing failure of defeat, one bonus was that I closed a few Apple Fitness rings because of course, the whole thing syncs perfect with the Health app.
SwingVision then, isn’t a bad double’s partner (I am, it seems) but I have little doubt that with some practice, and little more digital coaching, I could be reliving the golden days in no time.
For others eager to join the tech-infused sports revolution, SwingVision is available for a suite of Apple devices. It works for tennis and Pickleball, and soon padel tennis. It’s available now for free via the App Store.