Method and computer-readable storage medium for fitting tennis racket and analysis device

• US 9,717,967 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2012
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited
• Original Assignee: Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd. (Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Yosuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Toan
• Assistant Examiner(s): AIELLO, JEFFREY P
• Application Number:
  US13/651,825
• Publication Number:
  US 20130158939A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,751 Days
• Field of Search: 73 101, 73 9, 73 1101, 73 1104, 73 1201, 473464, 473463, 473461, 473524, 473521, 473201, 473151
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/42 Devices for measuring, verifying, correcting or customising the inherent characteristics of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like, e.g. measuring the maximum torque a batting shaft can withstand
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports

Abstract

A tennis racket fitting method according to the present invention comprises: a first step of preparing a plurality of test tennis rackets, at least one type of racket property that influences swing for hitting a ball being defined for each of the test tennis rackets; a second step of causing a reference tennis racket to be swung at least one time by a user in order to hit a tennis ball, and acquiring a measured value by measuring transition in at least one of the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and the angular velocity of the reference tennis racket in at least a portion of an interval from when the swing starts until when the swing ends; a third step of calculating at least one evaluation indicator to be an evaluation of the swing of the reference tennis racket based on the measured value; and a fourth step of, based on the racket property, selecting a tennis racket that can improve at least one evaluation indicator from among the test tennis rackets.

Claims

1. A tennis racket fitting method for selecting a suitable tennis racket for a particular user, the method comprising:

a first step of preparing a plurality of test tennis rackets, at least one type of racket property that influences swing for hitting a ball being defined for each of the plurality of test tennis rackets, and setting index values by quantifying the at least one type of racket property for each of the plurality of test tennis rackets;

a second step of making the particular user swing a reference tennis racket at least one time in order to hit a tennis ball, and obtaining a measured value by measuring transition in selected one or more of the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and the angular velocity of the reference tennis racket in at least a portion of an interval from when the swing starts until when the swing ends, the reference tennis racket being not included in the plurality of test tennis rackets;

a third step of calculating at least one evaluation indicator to be an evaluation of the swing of the reference tennis racket based on the measured value, the at least one evaluation indicator being different from the at least one type of racket property but being subjected to a magnitude of the at least one type of racket property; and

a fourth step of referring to the calculated at least one evaluation indicator of the reference tennis racket in the third step and the index values of the plurality of test tennis rackets set in the first step, and selecting one of the plurality of test tennis rackets for said particular user based on a predetermined correlation between the at least one type of racket property and the at least one evaluation indicator, without having the particular user swing any of the plurality of test tennis rackets before the selection,

wherein the selection in the fourth step is resulted from an evaluation that the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected one of the plurality of test tennis rackets would be improved compared to the at least one evaluation indicator of the reference tennis racket calculated in the third step, and the selected one of the plurality of test tennis rackets is for the particular user to be test swung after being selected.

2. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 1, further comprising:

a fifth step of making the particular user swing the selected tennis racket from the fourth step at least one time in order to hit the tennis ball, and obtaining a measured value by measuring transition in selected one or more of the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and the angular velocity of the selected tennis racket in at least a portion of an interval from when the swing starts until when the swing ends;

a sixth step of calculating at least one evaluation indicator to be an evaluation of the swing of the selected tennis racket from the fourth step based on the measured value from the fifth step; and

a seventh step of referring to the calculated at least one evaluation indicator of the selected tennis racket in the sixth step and the index values of the plurality of test tennis rackets set in the first step, and selecting one of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets for said particular user based on a predetermined correlation between the at least one type of racket property and the at least one evaluation indicator, without having the particular user swing any of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets before the selection,

wherein the selection in the seventh step is resulted from an evaluation that the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected one of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets would be improved compared to the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected tennis racket from the fourth step which is calculated in the sixth step, and the selected one of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets is for the particular user to be test swung after being selected, and

wherein the fifth step, the sixth step and the seventh step are repeated at least one time after the fourth step.

3. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 1, wherein the racket property is at least one of the weight, the face area, the maximum frame thickness, the minimum frame thickness, the flex, the length, the number of main strings, and the number of cross strings of the test tennis racket.

4. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 1, wherein the racket property is a numerical value defined using at least one of the weight, the face area, the maximum frame thickness, the minimum frame thickness, the flex, the length, the number of main strings, and the number of cross strings of the test tennis racket.

5. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 4, wherein one racket property is a power property quantified using at least the face area so as to reflect a ball flight distance.

6. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 4, wherein one racket property is a ball grip property quantified using at least the flex so as to reflect suitability of a timing of ball release.

7. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 4, wherein one racket property is an impact shock property quantified using at least the maximum frame thickness so as to reflect suitability of a sense of impact during a hit.

8. The tennis racket fitting method according to claim 1,

wherein in the second step, a plurality of measured values are acquired by performing the swing of the test tennis racket a plurality of times, and

in the third step, the evaluation indicator is calculated by averaging the evaluation indicators calculated from the plurality of measured values.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a tennis racket fitting program for causing a computer to perform:

a first step of storing information regarding a plurality of test tennis rackets, at least one type of racket property that influences swing for hitting a ball being defined for each of the plurality of test tennis rackets, index values being set by quantifying the at least one type of racket property for each of the plurality of test tennis rackets;

a second step of when a reference tennis racket is swung at least one time by a particular user in order to hit a tennis ball, receiving, as a measured value, transition in selected one or more of the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and the angular velocity of the reference tennis racket measured in at least a portion of an interval from when the swing starts until when the swing ends, the reference tennis racket being not included in the plurality of test tennis rackets;

a third step of calculating at least one evaluation indicator to be an evaluation of the swing of the reference tennis racket based on the measured value, the at least one evaluation indicator being different from the at least one type of racket property but being subjected to a magnitude of the at least one type of racket property; and

a fourth step of referring to the calculated at least one evaluation indicator of the reference tennis racket in the third step and the index values of the plurality of test tennis rackets set in the first step, and selecting one of the plurality of test tennis rackets for said particular user based on a predetermined correlation between the at least one type of racket property and the at least one evaluation indicator, without having the particular user swing any of the plurality of test tennis rackets before the selection,

wherein the selection in the fourth step is resulted from an evaluation that the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected one of the plurality of test tennis rackets would be improved compared to the at least one evaluation indicator of the reference tennis racket calculated in the third step, and the selected one of the plurality of test tennis rackets is for the particular user to be test swung after being selected.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 9, further comprising:

a fifth step of, when the selected tennis racket from the fourth step is swung at least one time by the particular user in order to hit a tennis ball, receiving, as a measured value, transition in selected one or more of the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and the angular velocity of the selected tennis racket measured in at least a portion of an interval from when the swing starts until when the swing ends;

a sixth step of calculating at least one evaluation indicator to be an evaluation of the swing of the selected tennis racket from the fourth step based on the measured value from the fifth step; and

a seventh step of referring to the calculated at least one evaluation indicator of the selected tennis racket in the sixth step and the index values of the plurality of test tennis rackets set in the first step, and selecting one of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets for said particular user based on a predetermined correlation between the at least one type of racket property and the at least one evaluation indicator, without having the particular user swing any of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets before the selection,

wherein the selection in the seventh step is resulted from an evaluation that the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected one of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets would be improved compared to the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected tennis racket from the fourth step which is calculated in the sixth step, and the selected one of the rest of the plurality of test tennis rackets is for the particular user to be test swung after being selected, and

wherein the fifth step, the sixth step and the seventh step are repeated at least one time after the fourth step.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 9, wherein the racket property is at least one of the weight, the face area, the maximum frame thickness, the minimum frame thickness, the flex, the length, the number of main strings, and the number of cross strings of the test tennis racket.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 9, wherein the racket property is a numerical value defined using at least one of the weight, the face area, the maximum frame thickness, the minimum frame thickness, the flex, the length, the number of main strings, and the number of cross strings of the test tennis racket.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 12, wherein one racket property is a power property quantified using at least the face area so as to reflect a ball flight distance.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 12, wherein one racket property is a ball grip property quantified using at least the flex so as to reflect suitability of a timing of ball release.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 12, wherein one racket property is an impact shock property quantified using at least the maximum frame thickness so as to reflect suitability of a sense of impact during a hit.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 9,

wherein in the second step, a plurality of measured values obtained from the swing of the test tennis racket a plurality of times, are received, and

in the third step, the evaluation indicator is calculated by averaging the evaluation indicators calculated from the plurality of measured values.

17. An analyzing apparatus for tennis racket fitting comprising:

a first storage unit storing information regarding a plurality of test tennis rackets, at least one type of racket property that influences swing for hitting a ball being defined for each of the plurality of test tennis rackets, index values being set by quantifying the at least one type of racket property for each of the plurality of test tennis rackets;

a second storage unit storing, when a reference tennis racket is swung at least one time by a particular user in order to hit a tennis ball, as a measured value, transition in selected one or more of the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and the angular velocity of the reference tennis racket measured in at least a portion of an interval from when the swing starts until when the swing ends, the reference tennis racket being not included in the plurality of test tennis rackets;

a calculation unit that calculates at least one evaluation indicator to be an evaluation of the swing of the reference tennis racket based on the measured value, the at least one evaluation indicator being different from the at least one type of racket property but being subjected to a magnitude of the at least one type of racket property; and

a racket selection unit that refers to the calculated at least one evaluation indicator of the reference tennis racket and the index values of the plurality of test tennis rackets, and selects one of the plurality of test tennis rackets for said particular user based on a predetermined correlation between the at least one type of racket property and the at least one evaluation indicator, without having the particular user swing any of the plurality of test tennis rackets before the selection,

wherein the racket selection unit is configured to make the section based on an evaluation that the at least one evaluation indicator of the selected one of the plurality of test tennis rackets would be improved compared to the at least one evaluation indicator of the reference tennis racket.