Swupnil Sahai, CEO of SwingVision is back talking with us about the magic tennis technology!

SwingVision is the A.I. tennis app that brings you pro-quality shot tracking, video analysis, and line calling on any court, using just your iPhone!

Grand Slam Experience to Any Court in the World

SwingVision is not your regular tennis app. It brings the grand slam experience to your court with improved AI accuracy for line-calling and offers a unique way to review matches, distilling hours of gameplay into a 15-minute video.

Record Your Tennis Game with SwingVision

All you need to do is set up your iPhone behind the baseline and SwingVision will automatically track the stats of all the players on the court, generate highlights of the best rallies and shots, and you can even use it to call the lines now.

This is truly MAGIC TENNIS TECHNOLOGY and it will blow your mind!

Here’s a transcript of our discussion:

Carolyn: 0:09
Hi, this is Carolyn, and I’m here with Erin and we’re excited to have back on the podcast Swupnil. Swupnil is the CEO of SwingVision, and Erin and I are big fans of SwingVision, aren’t we, Erin?

Erin: 0:20
We are. I’ve been using it a lot lately actually.

Carolyn: 0:23
So, , thank you for coming back on the podcast and, in case people didn’t hear our previous episode, can you tell our listeners what SwingVision is?

Swupnil: 0:30
Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for having me back. It’s always fun to chat with you both and, yeah, I’ve been back on SwingVision. So it’s the tennis app that you can use to record your game. You set up your iPhone behind the baseline and it will automatically track stats of all the players on the court, generate highlights of kind of the best rallies and shots, and you can even use it to call the lines now. So it really does kind of everything and it brings that sort of grand slam quality experience to any amateur player, and you can use it on any court in the world and all you really need is an iPhone, which is kind of the coolest part about it.

Erin: 1:06
Yeah, I think the thing that we were most excited about at the beginning was the line calling, because Carolyn and I are both Carolyn especially hates having to be her own referee.

Carolyn: 1:16
Yes, it’s the thing I hate about tennis. I hate that about tennis.

Erin: 1:20
It’s the one thing. She played other sports growing up that always had somebody you know refing whatever a basketball game or whatever. So I think that’s what we were most excited about. But you have so many cool new features and so much has happened since we had you on last, so do you want to talk about the latest additions and what’s coming out soon?

Swupnil: 1:39
Yeah, I mean, I think the line calling is probably a good one to talk about first, but that’s been such a huge focus of ours. And it’s really interesting because when we first started the company, like we weren’t even thinking that was going to be possible. Actually because we thought, okay, well, in the slams you have Hawkeye that has like 10 cameras, and then in college they tried play site for a bit, which also required like eight cameras or something like that. So we didn’t really think we’d be able to solve this with one camera. The idea was just okay, let’s just try to get some stats on a game like the pros, and it’s not going to be as accurate, but like it might be good enough for amateurs. And that’s where we started with it. But then it’s been really fascinating to see, as we’ve just seen, so many customers over the last few years using the product all around the world. The AI accuracy has gotten so much better, and then obviously the camera call has also gotten a lot better on these smartphones, and so we’re at a point now where we can actually call the ball more accurately than the players, especially for those close calls which are always the most contentious. So we actually have this metric. Basically, with the ball lands within 10 centimeters of a line, we can actually see it more clearly. We can call it in or out better than a human can, and that’s really powerful because, yeah, I mean, it’s just crazy like to think that your phone can do this, but yeah, it kind of makes some sense because, like, humans see it around 30 frames per second, or your iPhone is capturing video at like 60 frames per second, so it’s kind of seen like twice as much information and basically the ball looks like it’s moving in slow motion to the AI, and so that’s why it’s able to see it more accurately than you, and so it’s really cool. And so we’ve gone to that point. That was like a big update that we’ve been like working on and that rolled out like kind of earlier this year. And now we’re actually talking with various associations to get swing vision to prove for line calling in junior tournaments. So that’s going to kind of be initial focus and then, separately, we’re also talking to the ITA to get this rolled out in college tennis, which, as you know, also has lots of bad line calls and cheating, and so we’re really trying to solve the problem for everybody. And, as you mentioned, like it’s crazy that there’s no refs in most of competition tennis unless you’re playing like at the really highest levels, and so, you know, even division one tennis doesn’t really have it’s the players that are calling the lines like it’s just insane and so this has to change and we’re fine, I’m going to solve this problem would basically be the most affordable option out there on the market and it’s really just one iPhone and we will build like a two iPhone solutions. If you wanted to put one on each side, you can get like the ultimate accuracy, but you won’t really notice that much of difference as a player because like one is already more than is like better than the players, and you know we’re continuously evolving that and making that more accurate kind of every month as we get more data. But that’s, that’s been super exciting and, you know, always been a big goal of ours.

Erin: 4:16
Carolyn, I’ve been using the challenge on my Apple Watch. That is so fun so I’ll let you explain it. Swapnil instead, because you just hit a button that says challenge and then it shows the ball and you can use the. What’s the little I’m pointing? To the digital crown. You can go back and forth and the ball like kind of bounces you know, back and forth, like if you use the crown. But can you explain that feature? That’s super fun for me.

Swupnil: 4:40
Yeah, it’s so fun. Basically there’ll be a ball that’s like super close and you’re my opponent, have no clue, like it’s just too fast. We had no idea. Maybe it was in, maybe it was out like 50 50 chance. But then we pull up the Apple Watch, hit the challenge button and it shows you slow motion replay and you can go back and forth frame by frame, actually with the digital crown, which is really cool, so you can very precisely see, like where it bounced. And then zoom vision also gives you a result as well, so it says whether it’s in or out and you can just verify and there’s been so many times where it’s like very obvious in the video but like we had no idea when we saw it like that. One time you get to see it, so it’s pretty fascinating. But I think it that just. I think that feature really shows you the power of this technology because, like you’ll often see shots like that where it just comes by too quickly and your eyes just can’t perceive it accurately, but the technology sees it very clearly and so, yeah, that’s been super fun and yeah, like I said, like that eventually that’s gonna get to a point where you’re never gonna have to challenge your watch. We’ll just like buzz you and say it’s out right. That’s clearly where this is gonna go.

Carolyn: 5:37
Can’t wait. So cool Tennis can be so frustrating After a match. There’s been so many times where I’ve left the match and had no idea what happened, and I remember, my husband will ask me how was your match? You know what worked, what didn’t and I have no idea, and this will completely take that away.

Erin: 5:51
I had a match the other day and I literally said and I lost it, and I said I wish I had swing vision, because I didn’t, I couldn’t tell Anybody what happened. And I said that is a match I wish I had swing vision because, you know, it wasn’t super close, we had like a hundred deuces, I mean, we had so many. But it’s like you can say, well, duh, you didn’t win because you didn’t get any of those deuce games or you know you were broken or whatever. But like what specifically happened, and I walked off the court and I said I wish I would have recorded that match With swing vision.

Swupnil: 6:19
Yeah, I mean the way you guys described it right there. That’s like exactly why we started the company. Like we have the same issue. You know we play a match lose. You don’t know what happened. There was no basic data, no basic video, right, and this kind of solves both and yeah, I constantly use it for that. Like, if I use lose a match, like you kind of have some intuition right when you’re playing. Like oh man, my service just like off today, but like it’s very hard to diagnose like why exactly you just don’t have no time to do that. Like you’re just trying to focus on winning the points, right, so it’s like very hard to like course correct within the match itself often, but Afterward you can see it and like let’s just look at the serves I miss and it’s like, oh, it’s so obvious, like that was like my tosses off or whatever it is. Like you can just see it right away. So that’s definitely the beauty in the power of it. It’s just like insane how fast you can improve just by watching like a couple minutes every video. Like it does not take much time, just like literally I just sit down in the car after the match. You already know like what you did wrong. I think it’s so powerful.

Erin: 7:12
Yeah, I changed my stroke, like my forehand, like I love my forehand, but I was doing some weird little hitchy things and I recorded two times and like solved it, just like that. The fact that I can record it and see that is is really like life-changing tennis wise.

Carolyn: 7:26
So yeah, and I think you mentioned this at the beginning, but swing vision takes away all the dead space, so when you have a match, you can watch your entire match in like 15 minutes instead of trying to watch two hours. I don’t want to watch two hours of myself, but I could watch. You know, when I’m waiting for my kids in carpool, I’ll pull it up and be like okay, let me see these points, and so I think it’s great.

Swupnil: 7:45
Definitely that’s so. That’s the most popular Future. Probably it’s just the fact that you can just watch the match in like 15 minutes, like so efficient, save so much time.

Erin: 7:53
Yeah, and the fact that you guys just made you guys as in your company, just made little highlight reels for me already. Thank you, I don’t have to. The five most exciting, you know. Yes that’s great. So I asked, kind of before we started recording the thumb you wake up every day just being like what a great life, like you’ve made this magical. It really is kind of a magical tennis tool for people and I’m sure you remember when we talked a year almost year and a half ago now I said I think I was the one that told you that I felt a little bit silly going out with like the this, the swings. I don’t have the new swing stick, which I actually want, because that just that new patented Swing stick that you guys made looks so cool, but I have the old one. You know that came with mine and I felt kind of silly like I put it in my bag and sort of walk out. Now Every time I go to the court people literally stop me and say, oh, did you record your match? What are you using? What are you know, I’m like proudly like pulling that thing out and putting up there. Every person around me stops, like multiple people. You know what are you know, it really does. I mean, it really will solve so much stuff in rec tonus, if we can get it, you know, more to the masses and and more accepted. But it just sounds like the technology is there.

Swupnil: 9:02
Yeah, that’s so cool here and thank you for being an early adopter. I know it’s definitely awkward in early days when you’re like the only person using a product in your like community here, your friend group, but like it’s, you know folks like you who kind of make sure this technology stays alive and like stays around long enough that I can continue improving. And yeah, we’re definitely really proud and always excited to see just like how pervasive it’s become in the tennis community now and like this whole concept of recording your matches just become like a norm which is really close, and so you know we want to just continue pushing that out and that’s all just gonna become normal. Like it’s gonna feel really awkward at first and people are gonna feel weird using it, but that’s just how technology is and you know, I think we’ll all realize once it gets adopted, you know, five years from now, that’s gonna be like how are we ever playing without this?

Carolyn: 9:46
You know, like this is crazy, yeah.

Swupnil: 9:48
So I’m really glad we made a positive impact on on the sport and the community and, yeah, definitely always proud of that and that’s what keeps us going is like knowing that we can continue to make like an even bigger impact as the product continues to scale and Reach more people and do more things right and solve more problems. So super exciting times.

Erin: 10:07
The other thing I love is if you’re friends with someone on SwingVision, like I have a friend, lynn, in San Diego, who uses it every time she plays, and so I’ll be. You know I’m three hours ahead of her, so at night I’ll be sitting, you know, on my couch or whatever, and it’s like Lynn has started a match and then, like I can watch hers after, like just to see what other people are doing. You know, around the country, around the world. I love that. I can like kind of go into a feed and look at other people’s you know highlights or whatever I want. So I don’t know I love that feature. I don’t know what other people are doing when I’m kind of on my island out here doing my thing.

Swupnil: 10:41
Yeah, it’s so interesting. Like in the early days it’s funny because we’ve had that feature like since the first launch, but like no one cared about it initially because they’re like, well, I don’t really care about random people, like I just want to record my game. So it was like very focused on like single player mode. But now that everybody has like friends or even just like semi-famous people that they know or whatever, like kind of like an Instagram influencer or whatever right Like now you can just find them and or that college player that we featured like last week or whatever it is right you can find those players on the app now and like follow them. It’s so cool. And so I think this community aspect is like starting to build. We’ve even heard from customers who will use the feed to look at people who are just above their level. So, like if I’m a 4-0, I might look at the feed and say, show me the four or five players and let me look at how they’re playing. Like what are they doing differently from me? And like they’re actually using it to improve their game and learn, which is pretty fascinating. Like we do not expect anybody to use it like that. So I think there’s some really cool opportunities there still, and I think you know, in the junior space. I think that’d be so cool to be able to use that for like recruiting purposes. If you’re a college coach, you could easily find like players you know anywhere in the world literally who are playing and like actually watch them and, you know, maybe reach out to them and be like, hey, you should come like play at our school. Like I just think there’s so much potential there with all that content that we have. I mean, we don’t even have like the bandwidth to like address all those things yet, but I mean, hopefully over time we will. But yeah, I’m really, I’m personally really excited about the community aspect, like having more leaderboards, like competing with your friends on the platform, maybe even having leaderboards within your club, so like you can compete with other members. Like I just think there’s so much cool opportunity there that’s going to again just elevate the experience, make it more fun, make you more motivated to play as well, right, but that’s good to hear that you’re already finding value in that.

Erin: 12:18
So that’s awesome, yeah, yeah, although Carolyn told me the other day didn’t you say the other day, stop using swing vision, because now I can see every time you play tennis and I’m not playing right now.

Carolyn: 12:27
Yes, I’ve not been able to play for a little bit and I get a notification here. In his play Aaron is playing, which I am actually very happy about.

Erin: 12:35
I know.

Carolyn: 12:35
But we also had on the podcast swap. Now we had Kenny who won the four national championship and he said he always used swing vision and he used it for his matches and he would also kind of like check out the other players that he was going to play on swing vision. And then he said when he played and I found this too when I’ve used it in matches then afterwards everybody wants to see it, they want to see themselves, and then it’s a way that you kind of make a friend out there, because now you know, you exchange phone numbers and you text them the match and it’s kind of it makes the experience a little bit better and a little bit more friendly even.

Swupnil: 13:10
Definitely. I mean it’s funny, like I always do, if I’m playing a league match, like I’ll get their emails, send it to them afterwards, you know, even though we were opponents for that like two hour of time, but like after that you know, it’s like hey, here’s your, here’s a match. Like it’s kind of fun to just look at and it’s funny. Actually one of our investors actually met like that. So we never knew each other. We like just met on the UST league match. I sent it to him afterwards. We kind of, you know, establish a bit of a relationship, started texting each other and then eventually he actually invested in the company. So you never know where these connections will take you. But it’s just so fascinating though, like that enables that connection, which is kind of interesting. So, yeah, that’s awesome to see you know more people doing that too.

Carolyn: 13:46
Yeah, I don’t want to do it. I think they’re cheaters, right, right.

Erin: 13:53
I love you, Carolyn.

Carolyn: 13:54
Because, it adds it’s not mine, okay, well, it adds the benefit of the doubt, because I think a lot of ret players or adult ret players you’re supposed to give your opponent the benefit of the doubt. I feel like when there’s a camera up there, all of a sudden that’s added into the game.

Swupnil: 14:09
That’s a good point, yeah, and people who don’t want it don’t want to get caught, maybe.

Erin: 14:12
Exactly.

Swupnil: 14:14
I actually it was funny. I had one guy, I was playing a League match. I mean, it was just like a four League match, Like it’s not that serious right, but like, and I was just like it is to us.

Carolyn: 14:22
What now?

Swupnil: 14:26
No, I mean, it is serious, for sure.

Erin: 14:27
But, we know in the grand scheme of life.

Swupnil: 14:29
Yeah, once you hear the end of the story. You can be like really like, okay, but like, so I was recording the video and I was using my watch to keep score and then my dad was watching and he came up to me at the changeover. This guy was playing and he’s like what are you doing in your watch? Like are you getting texts from your dad? Like are you getting coaching? I’m like dude, it’s a four League match. Like I’m just playing on the weekend here, like I’m not getting coaching for a match like this, like combat, you know. So it’s just like so silly. So some of that happens sometimes. But yeah, I think all that’s just like familiarity with the product, right, like I think as more people use it, as more people hear about it, they’re going to be like oh, this is cool, like you should definitely record it. Like I’d love to get my video and get my stats and get the highlights and share with my family. So I think, like, as people understand the benefits and get more familiar and comfortable with it, then hopefully those things will go away. But there’s always like people who resist technology, but you know that group always shrinks over time.

Carolyn: 15:18
So yeah, is there anything we miss? Swapnail that you want to talk about with swing vision?

Swupnil: 15:22
I mean, you know, the only other thing to mention is just like the new swing stick that you’re talking about. We’ve kind of moved all production to that. So this is like well, she’s some backstory. So the mount that we were selling before, which is called the QM one, it’s been made by a guy in Colorado named Mike Lamens, so he invented it. He has a patent for it. He actually invented it like 10 years ago and so he’s been selling it for the last decade. It’s mostly been sold to like coaches who were like avidly recording with like go pros and stuff like that, and so we saw that that was the best solution on the market for mounting your phone. So we actually went and bought the patent from him and then we expanded and on his design, and so we’ve made this really nice, beautiful, all black design. It has a swing vision branding. It’s just improvements in every possible way you could think of. It’s more reliable, it’s more sturdy, it just aesthetically looks a lot nicer. It has a built-in sunshade to protect your phone.

Carolyn: 16:12
Oh, nice, nice. Yes, I love that part yeah.

Swupnil: 16:16
And then it even extends a couple of feet above the fence, so, like where you attach it to the fence, it actually allows your phone to go two feet higher than that, which gives an even better angle, especially on the far side of the court, gives you more accurate line calling and all that stuff. And then, while doing all these things, this like selfie stick device essentially is smaller than any tennis racket out there, so like it fits in any tennis bag. It’s just like so simple. It’s like three pounds, super light, and so we’re now building it ourselves, we’re manufacturing ourselves, we’re selling it to all new customers. Now you can buy it on our website. It’s $50. But if you get it with a subscription, we actually have a bundle and I’ll send you guys a link that you can share to your listeners for this. But it will allow them to get the swing stick for free if they purchase one year of the subscription, and that also gives you like a 45-day money back guarantee. So it’s like a no-brainer to just get it. Try it out. You don’t like it, just return it. But, pretty confident, you’re going to like it. And we’re also going to have a gift option as well. So going into like the holidays. If you want to gift this to a friend, you can do that. A friend or family member, or your captain, you know it’s going to be such a cool like.

Erin: 17:26
Yeah, or your captain. Ooh, that’s a great idea.

Swupnil: 17:29
And so, whether you’re playing tennis or pickleball, you’ll be able to gift it to them and it’s really cool. So that’s just one thing I wanted to mention. I think the new stick is awesome and it’s just like such a joy to use, I think, and it has our branding on it and everything. It just fits in really nicely with, kind of your tennis gear and I’m just hoping like this just becomes like part of everybody’s tennis gear. You know, like everyone has a swing stick. It’s just like the easiest way, the best way to record your game. So, yeah, even if you’re not using swing vision, you should get it, because it’s just the best way to record. Like there is no better device.

Erin: 17:57
So you know, even from that standpoint, I have the old one and it’s been fine, but I’ve had my eye on that one, so I’m definitely going to order that.

Carolyn: 18:04
Yeah, and that makes it super simple, I guess, for people that feel like they aren’t tech savvy. I definitely feel that way a lot. I’ve used it with just my lessons and it has been really helpful that you know I can put it back there before I start my lesson and I can. I can swing and my instructor can tell me different things than I can watch her swing, and even that has really improved my game. So if you’re worried about you know, asking someone to videotape the match or anything like that, I mean it’s worth it just for your lessons, because I mean I think it costs the price of a lesson or two, so it’s really worth it.

Swupnil: 18:42
Yeah, and then you get the swing sticker for you now, so it’s like super good deal.

Erin: 18:46
Yeah, it’s great.

Carolyn: 18:49
Thanks very much to Swapnil for coming on the podcast. If you’d like to get a free swing stick, which is $100 value, with your first year of swing vision pro, you can use our referral link in our show notes. Also, we have another episode with Swapnil where he will discuss how swing vision is making the ball machine not so boring and also data that could help you in. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the courts soon.

Tennis Warehouse’s Tip of the Week

We hope you’ve heard some of our Tennis Warehouse’s Tip of the Week segments with Michelle. Use discount code SECONDSERVE in your Tennis Warehouse cart and get $20 off clearance apparel orders over $100. Clearance apparel can be found here!

For more in-depth discussions about gear, check out Michelle’s Talk Tennis podcast.

We hosted Michelle for several great podcast episodes too. You can find them here:

Ep. 118: Gear Talk with Tennis Warehouse’s Playtester, Michelle (Ep. 1)
Ep. 119: Gear Talk with Tennis Warehouse (Ep. 2)
Ep. 120: Gear Talk with Tennis Warehouse (Ep. 3)