Impact Problems of Bails in Tennis and Golf

Abstract

This paper reviews some of the work that has been carried out on golf ball and tennis ball impacts. The emphasis is on the motion of the ball rather than equipment and an attempt is made to focus on ball impacts with turf. It was found that the majority of work has looked at golf ball impacts with the club and that viscoelastic models of impact are used by many authors to simulate the ball/surface collision, although the identification of the viscoelastic parameters has remained a problem for most researchers. Two studies of ball impacts on turf were outlined; golf ball impacts on golf greens and tennis ball impacts on synthetic turf. For golf ball impacts, it was found that the hardness of the turf was an important parameter while for tennis ball impacts the hardness of the ball was important. The harder surface, or ball, causes the ball to slip throughout impact causing less topspin on the ball after impact and allowing the ball to rebound fast at a shallow angle. It was concluded that more work needs to be carried out on the material parameters of balls and turf if suitable models are to be formulated.