Tennis is a game that most of us would have encountered at some point in our lives. It’s a sport in which two opposing players, or a pair of players use rackets to hit a ball over a net. Points are awarded when your opponent fails to return the ball within a defined set of boundaries.
We’ve all heard of names like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, who without a doubt are some of the most incredible tennis players in human history. In fact the world is mesmerized by the sport with more than 1.2 billion people around the globe who either play or regularly watch the game. This highly competitive sport combines showcases players skill, endurance and agility and produces matches and competitions which highlight some of the best public displays of athleticism found anywhere in the world.
The history of the tennis game dates back to 12th century France, where the French played Paume, a game of handball. This game evolved over time and changed from being played using the palm of the hand, to later using a leather glove. Eventually, the glove was replaced with a racket to allow for more effective hitting and serving of the wall. Initially the tennis ball was made from wood, however as the game evolved through the centuries, both the tennis racket and tennis ball went through frequent modifications.
By the 14th century, the game had spread across much of Europe, it’s popularity being championed by the French royal family and for the next few hundred years, the game was highly regarded by both kings and nobleman across Europe. The French players would begin the game by shouting out the word “Tenez”, which means play, and this quickly caught on with the game later being renamed to Tennis.
By the early 1875, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield created an outdoor version of the game, also known as Lawn Tennis, which he bought to The All England Croquet Club about a year later. The popularity of the game saw the club create the first Lawn Tennis Championship and in 1877 they held the inaugural Wimbledon Championship which has become the oldest, and most prestigious annual tennis tournament in the world.
The Grand Slams which include Wimbledon, the Australian, French and US Opens makes up the four most important competitions in Tennis life. Tennis Pro’s from all over the world gather at these events each year to compete for the prestige and fame that comes with winning these tournaments.
There is a lot to technique involved in perfecting your Tennis game including mastery of your strokes while also improving your mental and physical prowess. Video analysis software has been used for many years by tennis professionals and coaches to help players improve their performance. It allows you to review both your own performance and technique while also understanding the plays and movements of your competitors.
Up until now, video analysis has been quite a lengthy process, with the user having to manually draw lines and angles on top of your video, frame-by-frame. Sprongo however. has just released SIVA, Sprongo’s Intelligent Video Analysis software which is set to change the industry.
SIVA combines artificial intelligence and machine learning together, to create a video analysis tool that automatically identities your subject and creates a skeleton of the body’s movements within a segment of that video. This takes all the manual work out of the process, and within moments can provide you a wealth of useful data and insights for you to review. SIVA’s machine learning capabilities also learns from you over time, getting quicker and providing more useful insights the more videos you analyze.
SIVA is already used by professional athletes around the world for performance improvement. Try SIVA out for yourself today but visiting www.sprongo.com and signing up for a pro account.