Data-morphic Analyzing Approach
This project is a data-morphic analysis for understanding a tennis racket. Tennis rackets don’t come in onesize-fits-all, and there are too many properties to pick an appropriate one for the beginner.
I visualized the information collected from the tennis rackets in a chart of hexagon shapes. I compared those shapes to understand what they mean and how they can be used. The survey was conduct with members of tennis club at the University of Houston. 15 student members participated in this project and all survey answers were collected through the online Google forms.
There are many factors influencing to the character of tennis racket, but I chose 6 most influencing properties among them. Racket’s weight, head size, beam width, string pattern, tension, and flex. The shapes in the beginner group are relatively moderate than other groups. Some similar shapes are found in the intermediate group while extremely sharp shapes appear in the advanced group. I believe the reason that advanced player’s shapes are sharper is they understand well about a racket and they choose a racket in a way of maximizing their preference between control and power.
I found a possibility of this hexagon shape analyzing. I would like to develop this analyzing tool further so that it helps beginner player to understand properties of tennis racket. Also, I hope that I can propose this analyzing tool to the racket manufacturer in future.
