Tennis is a sport of long-standing tradition and its tournaments have enormous amounts of history. While the sport honors its traditions, it has long since ditched the old wooden racquet and has embraced new technology within the flow of play in its equipment.
Babolat now is taking tennis to the next level.
Tennis is an incredibly challenging sport and until now it has been difficult for players to track their own progress and identify specific areas of their game that need to be improved.
Long-time French racquet specialist Babolat is looking to address this deficiency with the late 2013 release of its Play Pure Drive. The racquet connects with an accessible phone app and collects important data on an individual’s game. It runs their proprietary analysis which breaks down ways to improve and identifies a player’s shortcomings.
“The idea was actually born 10 years ago,” CEO Eric Babolat told GizMag. “But the technology was not ready then. We have been waiting for the advancement of electronic technologies, especially regarding sensors. We have been heavily focused on this project for six years. The availability of this new technology will really bring a new way to understand the game.”
Babolat was kind enough to send SportTechie one of their racquets to review and while no one would ever mistake me for a tennis aficionado, I was able to test it and see the app in action.
While the handle of the racquet is usually an empty space, on the Babolat Play Pure Drive an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a microprocessor board have been installed to translate and record the collected player data. Babolat has enabled the racquet to track spin level, energy, play time and the ball impact location. While it takes a semi-seasoned tennis enthusiast to break down and utilize the collected data in a productive way, an incredible amount of information, that has not previously been available, is provided and can be used to improve your game.
The compiled records of player performance can be viewed through bluetooth or a USB device with your personal smartphone or tablet utilizing the Babolat proprietary app. With the app you can review all your performance information as well as share your stats with other Babolat Play Pure consumers and challenge others to beat the global rankings that Babolat compiles.
The benefits of being able to push yourself and be competitive with your fellow users are numerous for Babolat and the user. It encourages players to purchase their own racquets and it also pushes the Play Pure user to up their game. It enables users to train with
their friends, even if they don’t live in the same location. Technology like this hasn’t existed before and it will help displaced friends and teammates to continue to work with each other no matter where they live.
Surprisingly, the racquet is also incredibly light. I couldn’t get over how I felt like I was barely holding anything when in reality I was holding one of the most technologically advanced pieces of sports equipment on the market.
“Our challenge was to include electronic devices without changing the weight of the racquet. Babolat Play does not alter the sensations/feel of the game”, said Bablot. “The weight is 10.6 oz, the same as a regular Pure Drive.”
Not only has the company packed its racquet with cool technology, it has also worked closely with the governing body of Tennis, the International Federation to ensure that use of the equipment in competition meets all the required regulations. Just this month , the ITF has added a new rule that will allow players to compile analysis technology during sanctioned tennis tournaments.
The Play Pure Drive launched last month for a retail price of $399 and for the serious player it is worth every penny. It will advance their game at a level that can’t be achieved without considerable professional tennis instruction, which can at times costs a lot more.
We, at SportTechie, are looking forward to tracking how the product fares on the open market and monitoring what the future holds for Babolat.