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Case Study

Key Words: Micah Joselow, Vision Research, Phantom V7.1 , Racket Stringing Patterns

TennisRacketStringingPatterns

Phantom camera isused to characterizeperformance of PowerAngle

®

diagonally-strung tennis rackets

Levels of oscillation
“In a controlled environment, the rackets were each subjected to a projected tennis ball, launchedat the same speed from a tennis ball projectile device.Levels of oscillation (vibration)were determined through theuse of a piezoelectric disksetup. Apiezoelectric disk wasplaced upon the handle of eachindividual racket, and attachedto an oscilloscope. Each racketwas hung upon an identicalapparatus as a freely movingpendulum, and tennis ballswere projected upon theirstrings at various locationsfrom the handle. During eachtest, the piezoelectric disk oneach racket handle gave offaspecific level of voltage to theattached oscilloscope, whichthen recorded the oscillationsgiven off by each racket.” Vision Research high-speed Phantom
® cameras used to identify performance advantages of tennis racket stringing patterns. Tennis is a game of speed, agility and precision. The sport requires a significant amount of concentration and hand-eye coordination, especially when your opponent serves a felt tennis ball in your direction at speeds upwards of 120 miles-per-hour! It’s also a sport known for its subsequent injuries, especially lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow), which affects 40 percent to 50 percent of tennis players. That being said, those who take to the court are always in search of ways to reduce stress and potential injury,as long as the solution doesn’t sacrifice performance. Reassessment and modifications to tennis equipment, namely the racket, have been the focus of many manufacturers and professionals over the years, with a significant amount of attention falling on the stringing pattern, where the impact with the tennis ball actually takes place. Besides the obvious advantages yielded by high-performance, lightweight composite materials such as graphite - used in the construction of the racket frame - and the benefits of natural gut and synthetic gut (nylon) for stringing, many tennis players feel that employing a diagonal stringing pattern can effectively reduce vibration, a leading cause of tennis elbow. Diagonal stringing, a method consisting of opposite pairs of equal strings, has been developed to reduce harmful vibrations without compromising the performance offered by a conventional (perpendicular) pattern.To clearly identify the benefits of each stringing pattern, Vision Research worked alongside Micah Joselow*, a junior at Ossining High School, in Ossining, N.Y., who spearheaded a scientific research project focused on highlighting the characteristics of a PowerAngle
Micah Joselow, Student at Ossining High School Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF) and won the prestigious Yale Science and Engineering Award
® diagonally-strung racket versus a conventionallystrung racket. Vision Research provided Joselow with a high-speed, Phantom .“In a controlled environment, the rackets were each subjected to a projected tennis ball, launched at the same speed from a tennis ball projectile device,” said Joselow.“Levels of oscillation (vibration) were determined through the use of a piezoelectric disk setup. Apiezoelectric disk was placed upon the handle of each
® V7.1 digital camera, which was utilized to record the interaction of a projected tennis ball with each racket. Joselow’s findings were impressive and in recognition of his work, the project took first place honors in the Physics category at the