|
 Sliding is a key skill on clay courts, mastered by the likes of
one-time 'King of Clay' Rafael Nadal, who enjoyed years of success
in the French Open at Roland Garros. But the fast pace of the modern
tennis game means that top players are also using slipping and
sliding as a technique to move more quickly around grass and hard
surface courts to reach the ball.
"In all sports athletes tend to push the interactions to a greater
degree. And in elite tennis we're seeing that more players are
sliding on hard courts than they used to. So the kind of movements
that they're carrying out on hard courts would be something that you
might have seen on clay courts before," said Dr Matt Carré from the
Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The increase in sliding among top players could be a natural
reaction to more powerful racket technology, according to mechanical
engineering PhD student Daniel Ura.
"The speed of the game has increased a lot because the players are
serving faster than years before; it could be because of the
materials of the racquets or could be the strings as well. But I
think it's a necessity of the players to reach the ball faster," Ura
told Reuters.
Working in collaboration with the International Tennis Federation
(ITF), the world governing body of tennis, the researchers have
conducted experiments to measure the amount of friction between
different playing surfaces and shoes. Carré said their laboratory
testing rig mechanically replicates the friction between the player,
the shoe and the surface.
This includes parameters like the surface type, player force,
sliding shoe orientation, outsole temperature and speed during
critical player movements, he said.
"The end goal is to actually develop a system that allows us to
better understand tennis courts and how they perform and to monitor
the tennis courts. In order to do that we need to understand a
number of parameters including; how the shoe changes, how the
properties of the shoe affect that interaction, how the properties
of the tennis courts affect that, and also other factors like
temperature and the actual players loading themselves, so how they
slide or move around on the courts," he said.
[to top of second column] |
Their aim is to develop a portable hand-held device that could
measure the friction of any tennis court and allow players and
coaches to adjust their game plan. This could lead to a 'sliding
scale' for surfaces that grades them according to their propensity
for sliding.
While it will help the ITF more easily regulate tennis courts around
the world, the research could also aid tennis shoe and surface
manufacturers in designing new footwear and tennis courts to
maximize a professional player's ability to control their sliding.
Ura likened it to Formula 1 motor racing, where the choice of car
tire is crucial, depending on the condition of the track.
"I think it will become more like a Formula 1 race probably, when
depending on the weather conditions or depending - in this case - on
the surface conditions, I think the shoes are going to play an
important role during a match. So I think that's probably the future
of the shoes, they're going to start to customize them according to
the surface properties," he said.
"So I think when we're able to find the optimum friction or the
optimum parameters between the shoes and the surfaces, then the shoe
and the surface manufacturers are going to be very interested to try
to improve their shoes (and) their surfaces to get the best
performance."
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
