Racket Speed and Why We Want to Play With Better Players

We love to hit with better players because we play better. It's a universal tennis experience and it's more than just ego and motivation that makes us feel this way. We hit harder, crisper and crush the ball effortlessly, while sparring with a bigger hitter.

While you may take comfort in knowing the benefits of "hitting up" are not just in your head, they don't reflect an improvement in your abilities. Unfortunately, that wonderful feeling of hitting better goes away against lesser players. It's the laws of physics just messing with you.

To understand why hitting up is so alluring, let's examine the effects of racket speed on ball speed. Generally, the faster you swing the racket, the faster the hit travels, all other things being equal (racket weight, string tension, racket strike point, etc.) with two very important exceptions.

First, the relationship between racket speed and the velocity a struck ball travels is not direct. It plateaus at modest speeds before rising again at faster speeds. This is because greater flexing of the racket strings causes the ball to speed up in a direct relationship to swing speed, while ball compression, which slows the ball down, is non-linear to increasing racket speed.

At a moderate swing speed, you can hit pretty hard with a great deal of control. Most players notice that if they try to swing just a bit faster, they don't gain power, but lose some control. To make the ball travel faster, you must swing a good deal faster.

The bottom line is that it's difficult to supply your own power to hit harder and maintain control.

Of course, you could hit with a bigger hitter, because they supply the power to make your strings flex more and speed the ball up. It's Newton's Third Law of Motion at work and it states that "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

As your opponent hits at greater speeds, the ball maintains speed when it collides with your strings and you feel like you're a pro.

Imagine riding a bike that's going slightly downhill. You're not a stronger rider because you move faster, it's just gravity helping you which is a wonderful feeling until the road goes up and you must do all the work.

Similarly, hitting with a better player is great fun, but it's not a shortcut to improved play.