If there’s anything Andre Agassi’s latest book has taught us, it’s that having your mullet-style wig in place is the most important part of tennis. A great serve, I am told, comes a close second.
All kidding aside, because the serve starts every point of a match, it is an undeniably huge part of anyone’s game. And now it’s a part of your game you can keep track of via the My Bullet Serve iPhone app ($1.99)
Opus Mobile Technologies first burst onto the iPhone app scene early last month with My Tennis Buddy, an iPhone app that keeps a detailed log of your match records. My Bullet Serve, which is the company’s second release, is similar to My Tennis Buddy in that it is kind of a personal log – but My Bullet serve just keeps track of your serves.
This radar gun substitute first requires you to create a player. You can track multiple players on the iPhone app, and they are ranked by serve speed. As for the actual capturing of serve speed, it is recorded with two touches of your iPhone, one when the ball is hit and one when the ball hits the ground.
You then mark where the ball landed, as only serves that are in the iPhone app are recorded. In addition to speed, the iPhone app also tells you the travel time and distance of the ball.
Because of the system the iPhone app uses, there’s no way it’s going to effectively measure high-powered serves. So, if you wanted to keep track of the pros’ serve speeds, I just can’t imagine this working too well – it’s too quick and there’s too much human error involved.
But when it comes to measuring us mortals, My Bullet Serve seems to work well enough. Don’t get me wrong — while the iPhone app is a radar gun substitute, it’s not as good as the original.
Of course, it also has advantages over an actual radar gun. Most important, it’s much cheaper and easier to use.
My Bullet Serve should be well-received amongst the tennis-playing iPhone public. It’s a one-of-a-kind iPhone app that isn’t perfect; but as Agassi has taught us, no one is.
