Serve
Detected by the distinctive overhead arc — a long upward motion followed by a high-intensity downward impact. Average intensity in our sample: 55.
Forehand
A sideways swing from the dominant side of the body. Typically the lowest average intensity because of the smoother, flatter contact surface.
Backhand
A cross-body swing with reversed wrist rotation. Both one- and two-handed backhands are detected; the app checks your playing style in Player Profile to tune thresholds.
Smash
The highest peak-G shot in the dataset — short, sharp, almost always 90+ intensity. Detected by the extreme acceleration spike with a near-vertical wrist path.
Slice
A cutting motion where the wrist rolls under the ball. Recognised by a medium swing speed combined with a distinctive backspin rotation signature on the gyroscope.
Drop
A soft, low-intensity touch shot. Identified by a short swing arc, low peak G, and a gyroscope pattern that indicates open racket face.
Average intensity per shot type
The Match Summary includes a bar chart comparing how hard you hit each shot type. In the screenshot on the left — a real demo match — smashes peak at 100, backhands at 81, serves at 55, and forehands at 33. Your profile will look different: that's the point.
- Compare your forehand intensity to your backhand — is one arm doing all the work?
- Track serve intensity over time to see if your fatigue is eating into your power.
- Padel players: slice and drop classification is especially useful — these make up most of the match. Bandeja and vibora are also detected from their distinct shoulder-and-wrist motion.
- Beach Tennis players: classification follows the tennis path (not padel), which fits paddle-style swings on sand better — serves, forehands, backhands, smashes and slices all detected from the same wrist motion.
- Badminton players: a dedicated badminton path runs on the Watch. A serve window opens at the start of every rally and only the current server's stroke is labelled as Serve; once the rally is live, classification switches to forehands, backhands, smashes, drops, slices and lobs. The current server stays synchronised between iPhone and Watch in real time.