As an iPhone user and serious tennis player, you’ll naturally sift through the dozens of tennis-oriented applications in hopes that there’s something out there that can genuinely help you boost your game. If this seemingly futile browsing sounds familiar, you may want check out My Tennis Buddy and My Bullet Serve from Opus Mobile Technologies.
My Tennis Buddy (MTB), the flagship application from the company, is a powerful tool for tracking players and matches, and analyzing match results. It enables you to keep a history of your matches and to selectively view: a list of all of your matches, head-to-head matches against a given opponent, or summarized and detailed statistics of match results.
The follow-on product, My Bullet Serve (MBS), is a completely unique application that, amazingly, actually allows you to measure and track your serve speed – functionality that was previously only available via a radar gun.
In this article, we take a look inside of My Tennis Buddy and My Bullet Serve, and highlight the features that may well assist you in bettering your game.
My Tennis Buddy (MTB)
Getting started with MTB is easy. You begin by either adding a new match, or by entering information about each player including: name, gender, ranking, and stroke types. Also, a category of “Favorite” or “Opponent” can be specified, making selection of players quicker when choosing players for future matches, viewing head-to-head results, or viewing statistics.
Matches
When entering matches, the thoroughness of the information captured by the application is impressive. Items that can be entered are: match type (single or double), the players, date, type of match (friendly, practice, tournament, or league), event, location, and scoring rules. These last two items are excellent examples of the flexibility offered by MTB.
Details that can be saved for each location include: name, address, court type (indoor or outdoor), surface type (hard, clay, grass, or synthetic), and access type (public or private).
Scoring rules can be customized as follows: number of sets (1, 3, or 5), number of games (3 – 10), and match tie-breaker on/off (if on, super tie break replaces the last set and if tie-breaker is set off, a final set tie-breaker setting of on/off can be specified).
Once matches have been entered, the details can be readily viewed or changed at any later date. You can also export the match results in CSV file format and have them sent via email. This is an elegant touch, as the email recipients you specify can instantly view the results or import them into other applications such as Excel.
Statistics
Tracking matches and players and having the ability to store and share this information is probably worth MTB’s $3.99 price tag on that basis alone, but the most outstanding benefit of the application can be found in the statistics that it mines from your match results. Subtle positive or negative tendencies and other game outcome-influencing elements that may have otherwise not been noticed or considered can be uncovered by the analysis of long-term match data. Match statistics for a given player can be viewed in summary or detailed form.
The Summarized Statistics screen lists wins/losses and winning percentage for all matches, singles, and doubles. It also brings to your attention any current winning streak, and a quick view (neatly indicated via green and red tennis ball icons) of how you fared in your last five matches.
Tie-Breaks won/lost and success rate, as well as Bagels served (6-0) and eaten (0-6) are also shown.
Additional insights from MTB’s Detailed Statistics bring to light a player’s “Comeback Power” and “Finishing Power.” These two indicators are derived from a combination of win/loss results within a variety of the match scenarios. With these stats, you’ll clearly see how many times you’ve won or lost after either starting strong or struggling from the onset of the match.
Armed with these MTB features, you’ll understand your game as never before. And, you can refine this focus even further for the area of serving.
My Bullet Serve (MBS)
If you’ve ever wondered what your serve speed is, but haven’t been in an environment where a radar gun was at your disposal, a solution for taking this measurement is now as close to your iPhone.
All that is required is to have a friend or coach assist you by running MBS on your iPhone while you make a serve. Your assistant first selects your starting location (deuce court, or ad court) from the MBS serve screen, and then taps the serve button when you initially hit the ball, and again when the ball lands on the ground. MBS will then prompt for the outcome of the serve (In, Net, or Out). If the “In,” button is tapped, a graphical representation of the court with a moving scale of feet and inches is displayed. From this screen, the approximate bounce location in the service box can be specified.
Using these data points, MBS calculates the travel time and the distance traveled, and then applies a sophisticated algorithm that also takes into account the player’s height and the resistance of the air on the tennis ball. The resultant serve speed is then displayed. If the serve speed measurement happens to be among your top 10 serves, MBS will alert you and store the measurement.
You can view this list at any time and this may give you a newfound incentive and rejuvenate your practice as you attempt to best your own top 10 serves. And, you can gain further motivation by comparing your serve speeds against those from other players. MBS allows you to measure and store serve speeds for multiple players and view a ranking list of these players based on their fastest serves.
Getting a calibration of where your serve speed is today and keeping a record of your speed measurements is an excellent way to start making progress toward a faster serve. Priced at only $1.99, My Bullet Serve may be just the tool you need to accomplish that.
If you are interested by more details, read the In-Depth Review of MyTennisBuddy and MyBulletServe (downloads PDF) or visit www.opusmt.com.
(The above is a paid advertisement.)
