The Sweet Spot in Racket or Bat Sports

Understanding the effects of impact location (sweet spot) in racket or bat sports. What does research say about the badminton smash, cricket power hitting, and historical racket development in tennis?

This video presents an overview of the scientific research (including my own) on the relationships between impact location and performance outcomes (speed, direction, and margin for error) or injury risk factors in racket and bat sports. This includes theoretical definitions of the sweet spot such as the geometric center, vibration node, center of percussion, and maximum apparent coefficient of restitution. Likewise, studies including realistic performances by elite badminton or cricket players are used to show the interactions between athletes and their equipment. Novel methods are applied to track the ball or shuttle and calculate impact location / sweetspot on the bat face or racket face. #ScienceOfCricket

00:00 Understanding the effects of impact location in racket or bat sports
01:16 Tracking the shuttlecock in badminton
08:41 Theoretical definitions of the sweet spot in racket or bat sports
14:53 The effect of racket-shuttlecock impact location on performance outcomes in badminton
30:49 Calculating impact location in cricket batting
33:55 The effect of bat-ball impact location on performance outcomes in cricket
40:39 Historical racket development in tennis

Add your old rackets to the dataset: stuartmcnaylor.com/rackets

Other videos mentioned (name order):
Cricket Batting Biomechanics - Stuart McErlain-Naylor -    • Cricket Batting Biomechanics | Dr Stu...  
Cricket Batting Biomechanics Study: Male and Female Power Hitting -    • Cricket Batting Biomechanics Study: M...  
Gait Cycle Phases, Events and Normalization -    • Gait Cycle Phases, Events and Normali...  
Tennis Biomechanics - Bruce Elliott -    • Tennis Biomechanics | Prof Bruce Elliott  
Visual3D: Segment Colors & Equipment -    • Visual3D: Segment Colors & Equipment  

Thanks to Badminton Insight:
‪@BadmintonInsight‬ channel:    / @badmintoninsight  
‪@BadmintonInsight‬ 'Sweetspot + Accuracy Challenge:    • Sweetspot + Accuracy Challenge!  

Studies mentioned (ordered by name then year):
Afzal et al., 2020: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Allen et al., 2016: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf...
Brody, 1995: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=2...
Choppin et al., 2011: doi.org/10.1007/s12283-011-0062-7
Hatze, 1994: https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.10.1.43
Kidokoro & Morishita, 2021: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260520
King et al., 2012: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.20...
King et al., 2017: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016...
King et al., 2020 - A Correlational Analysis of Shuttlecock Speed Kinematic Determinants in the Badminton Jump Smash: doi.org/10.3390/app10041248
Kwan, 2010: https://www.worldbadminton.com/refere...
McErlain-Naylor et al., 2015 - Determining instantaneous shuttlecock velocity: Overcoming the effects of a low ballistic coefficient: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
McErlain-Naylor et al., 2020 - Effect of racket-shuttlecock impact location on shot outcome for badminton smashes by elite players: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
McErlain-Naylor et al., 2021 - Comparing power hitting kinematics between skilled male and female cricket batters: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021...
Peploe et al., 2018a - A curve fitting methodology to determine impact location, timing, and instantaneous post-impact ball velocity in cricket batting: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Peploe et al., 2018b - The relationships between impact location and post-impact ball speed, bat torsion, and ball direction in cricket batting: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Peploe et al., 2019 - Relationships between technique and bat speed, post-impact ball speed, and carry distance during a range hitting task in cricket: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Taraborrelli et al., 2019: https://doi.org/10.3390/app9204352
Whiteside et al., 2014: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2013....

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