Can artificial intelligence transform an average player into a tennis ace, turning an amateur into the next Carlos Alcaraz or the new Iga Swiatek? That’s the aim of a startup that uses AI to analyse a player’s movements and advise them on how to perfect their game. And this technique could be used for other sports, such as padel or golf.
Specialising in sports analysis, the Norwegian startup SportAI is developing a tool to analyse a player’s movements and technique, in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
The technology developed by SportAI is designed to optimize every movement, to improve the performance of every athlete. To achieve this, it relies on machine learning, fed by data from elite players around the world. SportAI can now measure hip and shoulder rotation as well as swing speed, enabling it to suggest that the player modify their angle of attack or shift their weight more in the direction they want to hit.
In theory, an individual’s technique can even be instantly compared to that of other players, including top-level professional athletes. This makes it possible to hope to one day serve like Novak Djokovic or return like Rafael Nadal.
The aim is to provide coaches with real-time data and athletes with personalized training information. While tennis is the startup’s primary focus, its technology is also perfectly suited to padel and golf.
SportAI is already capable of analyzing videos from any source, be it video feeds (TV, streaming), court cameras or cell phones. However, this technology is not yet available to all, since SportAI is first seeking to establish partnerships with coaches, training academies, brands and even the media, in order to enhance expertise during live broadcasts.
AI undoubtedly has a significant role to play in sport. In the spring, Google DeepMind, an Alphabet subsidiary specialising in artificial intelligence, announced that it had developed a specialised tool for optimising corner kicks in collaboration with Liverpool soccer club. – AFP Relaxnews
