Novel Methodology for Measuring the Coefficient of Restitution from Various Types of Balls and Surfaces

Abstract

The determination of the coefficient of restitution is of major interest in the design of balls and surfaces. Tennis courts are required to be resurfaced every five years. Players that slide on the court trust the surface to be uniform. Tennis court surfaces change as the ball fluff builds up, the heavily used playing areas are compacted more, the surface on clay is scuffed, and the sun and rain degrades the surface. Injuries can be caused by a player losing footing because of surface variability. With bouncing balls, the ball type and pressure are variable and depend on temperature and age. An investigation on the bounce of various balls (diameter less than 150mm) from surfaces using an accelerometer on a novel, low cost, portable apparatus is presented. The mechanical structure holds both the moving ball and an inertial sensor. The quality and age of balls and the wear on playing surfaces is particularly important for reflex actions of elite athletes. Courts, pitches and other sports surfaces can be routinely quantified using sport specific balls and this simple, low cost method. Good agreement was observed between the coefficient of restitution using the portable device and a vertical drop test using a high speed camera. The error obtained using the portable device on various types of sports balls with the variation in CoR ≤ 0.01 which falls within the standards of the International Tennis Federation. There is a significant difference (p = 0.0003) between a hardcourt tennis CoR and a synthetic grass tennis court.