PlaySight - Coming To A Court Near You

As Peter Smith, USC’s Men’s Tennis head coach puts it, “In college tennis, if you don't have a SmartCourt, somebody else does." PlaySight now has SmartCourts and LiveCourts installed with close to 20 collegiate programs across the nation, including Oklahoma State, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Cal-Berkeley, among others. Winning is the name of the game in college tennis, and PlaySight is giving players, coaches, teams, and programs a performance edge – from on-court play to video review to streaming and recruiting.

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PlaySight’s newest college partners this summer are Stanford University (installed in July), fresh off of a 2016 Women’s NCAA Championship, and the University of Tennessee Volunteers (installed in June). PlaySight is also bringing its technology to Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, and Nebraska in the coming weeks. And this fall they will be installing SmartCourts and LiveCourts on all 102 of the courts at the new USTA National Campus at Lake Nona – the new home of American tennis, and also the home venue for the University of Central Florida.

Towards the end of the 2016 regular season, PlaySight finalized the installation of six SmartCourts at the newly-renovated Marks Stadium at the University of Southern California. For the Trojans, having all of their courts as SmartCourts has already been a huge addition to both teams. Hear from Peter Smith and Women’s Associate Head Coach West Nott (in the video below) about the impact that PlaySight has had on them as coaches and on their players, too.

The PlaySight Edge in Action

PlaySight is bringing college programs live streaming capabilities, in-depth analytics and statistics, real-time video from multiple angles on-court, and a cloud-based platform to manage all practices and matches, but at its core, it is a player development and improvement tool. Many PlaySight-enabled programs had very strong 2016 seasons, benefitting from the technology in several ways.

Oklahoma State Cowgirls

• Finished the season ranked 8^th in the nation
• National runner-up to Stanford
• Competed in their first ever National Championship after defeating three top-5 seeds
• Undefeated at home
• Conference Champions

The Cowgirls had a season for the ages and Chris Young, the Tennis Director and Head Coach, believes that PlaySight helped. “It has been an amazing tool for us to have PlaySight, and no coincidence that we won the Big 12 title using it this year.” 

Assistant coach Matt Manasse saw an immediate improvement in the practice habits of the team. “It’s allowing [the players] to see stuff that we see, and it’s just allowing for a quicker change for them to understand what’s going on and how it’s working for them. Now there’s numbers and stuff like that, they can feel the competition and pressure, which is going to help in the long run when they are in their matches.”

Oklahoma State's Greenwood Tennis Center

Oklahoma State Cowboys

• The men improved from 28^th (preseason ranking) to finish just outside the top 10 (13^th)
• Advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2008

Head coach Jay Udwadia found PlaySight to be a huge help in practices with his team. “It is very easy to use and the data that you get is very simple, but at the same time, very helpful. Practice is more productive, because you are concentrating and trying to beat those goals. It makes you practice sharper and more intensely.”

The California Golden Bears

Women’s Team:

• The women’s team obtained their first ever #1 seed in the nation (and at the NCAA Championships)
• They were a semifinalist during the 2016 NCAA Championships
• Head coach Amanda August was named ITA Coach of the Year

Men’s Team:

• The men started the season ranked 21st, and finished inside the top 10 (9th)
• They earned their first ever trip to the Pac-12 Championship Final
• They also reached the NCAA semi-final for the first time since 1991

Head coach Peter Wright and associate coach Tyler Browne have been early adopters of PlaySight technology – this was the second season that the Bears played and practiced home matches at Hellman Stadium using SmartCourt technology.

Northwestern Wildcats

Men’s Team:

• The best season in program history (most wins, at 26)
• Played for the Big Ten Conference Title for the first time in 26 years
• Best regular season Big Ten finish since 1990
• Ranked as high as #7 during the season

Arvid Swan and the Northwestern Wildcats had a season to remember in 2016. Swan has a special connection to PlaySight – one of his former players, Josh Graves, is the senior sales manager for PlaySight, and worked hard to bring the technology to his alma mater. Swan credits PlaySight with the historic season the Wildcats put together. “PlaySight is a game changer for my program.  The ability to utilize PlaySight in practice and matches and provide my players with detailed information is an invaluable tool.  The players really appreciate being able to watch their practices and matches on their laptop and phone.”

If you are interested in finding out more information about PlaySight, you can check out their college tennis brochure here. Also, be sure to follow them on Facebook and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Even if you don’t have access to a SmartCourt, they put out lots of tennis tips and tutorials for players of all ages and abilities.