One great way to improve as a tennis player is to record yourself. I do it all the time. Now I have tried the Functional Tennis camera mount.
The Functional Tennis camera mount is mainly made for mobile phones but can also be used for GoPros or similar cameras. It is not made for larger, more traditional digital cameras, but I have recently moved from recording with my Lumix GX85
(which is great, but limited when it comes to recording sound) to my iPhone 11
. The phone does a great job capturing the colors and the sounds and I am more than happy with that for my YouTube videos.
The Functional Tennis camera mount is not a tripod
but made to be hung on the fence from behind you. I’ve tried it in different places around Malta and it has always worked well. One benefit compared to the Tripod is that I get the camera higher up and thus get a better overview of the action on the court. The issue is that you can’t move it around on the court, it needs to be mounted on a wall. So if you want a close-up from somewhere on the court – you would still need a tripod. I generally bring both, but to get good court footage, the camera mount is fine.
About the Functional Tennis Camera mount
It weighs less than half a kg and includes a collapsible pole which makes it fit easily in all tennis bags.
The setup is easy and only takes a minute. The phone is steadily in place and there seems to be no risk of it slipping out of the mount even if hit by a ball.
I have really been impressed by the quality of the footage when filming with an iPhone compared to my regular mirrorless camera, but the biggest improvement is probably the sound. Now you can really hear the thwack of the racquet hitting the ball. I will create a video review of the mount shortly so that you can see how it works. Below is a screenshot from a video I recently released on the Tennisnerd Patreon page called “Cleaning my technique”.
You can buy the Functional Tennis Camera mount here.
