Audio-based performance evaluation of squash players.

Katalin Hajdú-Szücs,Gábor Vattay,Nóra Fenyvesi,József Stéger,Sven G Meuth

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0194394

Abstract

In competitive sports it is often very hard to quantify the performance. A player to score or overtake may depend on only millesimal of seconds or millimeters. In racquet sports like tennis, table tennis and squash many events will occur in a short time duration, whose recording and analysis can help reveal the differences in performance. In this paper we show that it is possible to architect a framework that utilizes the characteristic sound patterns to precisely classify the types of and localize the positions of these events. From these basic information the shot types and the ball speed along the trajectories can be estimated. Comparing these estimates with the optimal speed and target the precision of the shot can be defined. The detailed shot statistics and precision information significantly enriches and improves data available today. Feeding them back to the players and the coaches facilitates to describe playing performance objectively and to improve strategy skills. The framework is implemented, its hardware and software components are installed and tested in a squash court.

Highlights

At present in competitive sports there are a lot of talented sportsmen and the differences between individual performance are often very small to spot
Small electronic devices are capable of measuring various metrics including those that are relevant for the sports, like heart rate and blood temperature and pressure registers, pedometers, speedometers and accelerometers to name a few
Using such devices is more than necessary since the results in a competition and the final scores may depend on millesimal of millimeters. Another reason why to use measurement devices yielding objective performance metrics is because when sportsmen are overloaded in a performance, with adrenalin in their vein, it is hard if possible for them to spot and fix their failures

Summary

Introduction

At present in competitive sports there are a lot of talented sportsmen and the differences between individual performance are often very small to spot. Knowing the detailed statistics of various hits and shot patterns talks about the quality of the sportsmen and are very important information for both the coaches and the squash players. These data and their statistical analysis are not available at present because of the paste of squash. The sound footprint of each rally is a projection of all the details about the strength and the position of the ball hitting various surfaces in the court This pattern, which maintains the natural order of the events, is contaminated by some additional noise. The framework to be detailed can be applied to various other types of ball games

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