Playing Tennis is Playing Physics
If you need to slide a sofa to a new spot in the room, how would you do it? Likely, you’d get behind the sofa and push it in the direction you want it to go. You wouldn’t use your arms alone—you’d instinctively bend your knees, and whichever foot is behind your body would push against the ground to generate power and create force.
Everything about movement aligns with physics. You are never separate from the laws of physics. So when you consider tennis, it’s useful to look at it from the perspective of physics. Don’t worry—no complex equations here.
When we play tennis, we are intuitively doing math and physics. If you tried to write down the calculations behind everything that happens on the court, it would take months, maybe years, and you might even win a scientific prize for it. Yet you perform these calculations in real time with all your senses. You feel what is happening, and that feedback informs you about your environment. Take a moment to appreciate how amazing you are!
Let’s explore a classical observation you probably learned in school: Force equals Mass times Acceleration, or F = MA.
In simple terms, tennis is hitting a ball with a racquet and sending it to the other side of the court. For the ball to travel, it needs force. That force also has direction. So, force is directional.
Now, let’s unpack Mass and Acceleration. You—your body, clothes, and racquet—are the mass. The acceleration comes from moving that mass. Acceleration also relates to the rate at which speed increases.
Think back to moving the sofa. You moved it by shifting your mass against it in the direction you wanted it to travel. Tennis is no different. You move your mass in the direction you want the ball to travel.
So, what does this mean in practical terms? Let’s explore scenarios of F = MA:
You could move only your arms, maybe add a bit of body rotation. Would that be your entire mass? No, just a part of it.
What happens if most of your body is moving back or sideways while your arms swing forward? In that case, your mind has to balance conflicting directions in its intuitive calculations. The result? Reduced force potential and a greater chance of losing control (because most of your mass is going some other direction).
So how do you transfer all your mass into the ball, in the direction you want it to go? Pause and inquire.
Like with the sofa example (which you can test yourself), you need to strike the ball from behind the direction you want it to travel. To move your entire body—legs, torso, and arms—you push off the ground with the leg behind your body.
In technical terms, this is the kinetic chain. Your back leg pushes against the ground (which only works if the knee is bent). That push sets off a chain reaction: your mass begins to move, your torso rotates, and your swing accelerates. When all this coordinates into a smooth transition to contact, you gain directional control and maximize your force potential. Depending on how explosive your leg push is and how quickly you accelerate, you can add or reduce force as you choose. Experiment with this to unlock more creativity on the court.
Here’s the takeaway: you gain control on the court when you strike the ball in front of your body with all your mass moving in the direction you want the ball to go.
Test it for yourself. You’ll only know it’s true by experiencing it—otherwise, it’s just a concept in your head.
Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for future articles, where I’ll break down spacing, acceleration, and other cool related advice.