Math Question About Practice Balls?

[tennis tom]

If anyone who is mathematically inclined here, how many balls would be hit in an hour of baseline rally practice by a player? How many balls in an hour of solo service practice?

Thanks

 

[AnDaLe]

~1440 times per person for baseline rally. I watched a video on youtube for 30 seconds, count, and multiplied. About 3.5-4.0ish level medium pace.

~600 serves.

 

[tennis tom]

Thank you very much, it's greatly appreciated!

 

[tennytive]

That sounds really high to me, but I won't argue with a video.

By my count off the top of my head, assuming there are no misses, each player would be hitting a ball every 4 seconds or so, which is 15 shots per minute multiplied by 60 minutes is 900 balls per hour for each player.

Cut the time down to 3 seconds between shots, and it's still only 1200 balls per player. As far as serves go, I could never serve for a whole hour, so no idea there.

The guys you watched must have really been pounding the ball back and forth. 3.5's, really?

 

[esgee48]

You need to state your assumptions for the analysis to work. What's been stated so far are initial assumptions with no time for retrieving balls, drinking water and so forth. I think practicing wastes at least 50% of the time doing non-ball hitting activities. Sustained rallies of more than 10 shots are rare for 3.5-4.0. Based on my assumptions (4 sec/hit, 50% wastage), numbers are probably closer to 450 hits/hour. 2 cents.

 

[dcdoorknob]

You need to state your assumptions for the analysis to work. What's been stated so far are initial assumptions with no time for retrieving balls, drinking water and so forth. I think practicing wastes at least 50% of the time doing non-ball hitting activities. Sustained rallies of more than 10 shots are rare for 3.5-4.0. Based on my assumptions (4 sec/hit, 50% wastage), numbers are probably closer to 450 hits/hour. 2 cents.

This seems much more accurate to me, although I'm too lazy to actually crunch any numbers myself at the moment.

 

[tennis tom]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

Lets assume no breaks in between hits.

One more question, at whatever the par rate will be, how long will it take to hit a million practice balls, rallying from the baseline and serving?

Thanks again!

 

[esgee48]

1M / 1200 = 833 hours
1M / 1440 = 694 hours
1M / 450 = 2,200 hours

If you hit every day for 6 hours, you'll hit your 1M tennis balls or more! Things that matter would be whether your arm would still be attached to your shoulder, whether you are still married and if you're still employed. :twisted:

 

[West Coast Ace]

That sounds really high to me, but I won't argue with a video.

By my count off the top of my head, assuming there are no misses, each player would be hitting a ball every 4 seconds or so, which is 15 shots per minute multiplied by 60 minutes is 900 balls per hour for each player.

Cut the time down to 3 seconds between shots, and it's still only 1200 balls per player. As far as serves go, I could never serve for a whole hour, so no idea there.

The guys you watched must have really been pounding the ball back and forth. 3.5's, really?

I'm with you. And only the most dedicated 3.5s would hit for an hr without at least two 5 minute breaks.

If the person hitting with the ball machine had someone picking up balls he could knock out quite a few... Having said that I'm not endorsing that - working with the machine there's a happy medium of Quality and Quantity.

 

[AnDaLe]

I was going under the assumption of no breaks and continuous rallying without picking up any balls. Same with serving. It's was a hypothetical question so I gave the easiest answer.

12 balls hit in the 30 seconds I watched, equates to 1440 balls an hour. 12 x 2 x 60 min. Nearly a ball every 2 seconds is not unreasonable.

Serve assumed 6 seconds per served over the course of an hour. 3600/6 equals 600 serves. Again, no breaks.

These were my assumptions.

 

[maggmaster]

I hit on the ball machine every day for an hour and rarely get over 600 balls but I have to pick them up and change drills.

 

[tennytive]

Nearly a ball every 2 seconds is not unreasonable

I watched Nadal yesterday and he and his opponent hit the ball on average right between 3 and 4 seconds. Same with the players in the marathon 5th set they showed later.

I realize they're not the 3.5 4.0's you were watching, but 2 seconds between hits seems unsustainable for 5 minutes let alone a full hour.

 

[tennis tom]

... Things that matter would be whether your arm would still be attached to your shoulder, whether you are still married and if you're still employed. :twisted:

Happily single and semi-retired, looking forward to total retirement and testing the limits of the shoulder joint.

Thanks for doing the math!