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TennisOne Lessons 
Inertia — The Big Drag in Tennis! Joe Dinoffer If you’ve ever been late to an important appointment, you will easily relate to, and learn from, this article. We’ve all done it at one time or another. You oversleep your alarm or swear it didn’t go off. You wake up late, look at your watch and freak out! You’re going to be late. Your mind races, “What excuse can I give?” Your whole body feels tense, your breathing is short, and you can’t think clearly. It’s a morning from hell. In a tennis match, it’s not much different. But your alarm clock is never to blame. The culprit is the law of inertia. And, yes, we are ALL affected by it. The most concise definition of inertia I have found is, “Resistance to motion, action, or change.” How does this apply to tennis? In more ways than you probably ever considered. Here are four examples of the law of inertia working against you. Take this short list as a starting point, as it is very individual and the list can be much longer. If you are experiencing any of these examples or some different ones, this article can help you improve in short order. Examples of Inertia Inertia Example #1: Slow Feet — We all know that moving into position early and quickly is essential to playing your best tennis. There are many causes of slow footwork. Being mentally or emotionally uptight can slow you down or you can simply have a low energy day. Either way, the effect is the same. And, the longer you move slowly on the court (in a single match or over months), the law of inertia will have an increasing effect as you can get accustomed to being late, making it harder and harder to get the lead out of those feet. What can help? Look at the professionals bounce up and down or do the “tennis dance” in between points. They do this to fight inertia, since the law of inertia doesn’t spare anyone! Inertia Example #2: Tight Forehand — We are specifically listing a common forehand groundstroke challenge since it is one of the two most commonly hit shots in tennis, along with the serve. Since you will hit so many forehands each time you are on the court, it can drag your whole game into the doldrums. A free flowing, confident forehand is the goal. The opposite is a swing full of tension and lack of fluidity. This is when inertia sets in, making it harder than ever to shift to a higher performance gear.
One of the reasons that the forehand is a common shot to break down is that it is a one-handed stroke, unlike the backhand which, whether you hit with one hand or two, uses the non-dominant hand to help the hitting arm relax. What can help? Try supporting the weight of the racquet in the non-hitting hand to help your dominant hand relax in between shots. You can also try dropping your little finger off the bottom of the grip, as is demonstrated in the video clip in this article. Inertia Example #3: Tense Serve — The most frequently hit shot in tennis is the serve. No question about it. Every point begins with it and many points end with it! Since the serve starts from a stationary position, it is easy for the law of inertia to take over. In fact, players who are a little tight on their service motion, often face a secondary problem, slow recovery. They are often not ready in time for their opponent’s return.
Where does this tension originate? Often, it starts when players are gripping the racquet too tight, thus creating tension in their entire body. What can help relieve some tension while you serve? Practice serving with your little finger off the bottom of the grip to get a feel for a loose grip. To help your recover faster after you serve, see Step #2 below. Inertia Example #4: Short balls — overhit — This fourth example of inertia at work that we will describe is short balls. We’ve all experienced this. In the middle of a point, your opponent hits a short ball. You rush in towards the service line to contact the ball above the height of the net, but you hit it way out and the ball nearly hits the back fence! How does this happen? At least in part, it’s because of the law of inertia. If you anticipate and start moving to the short ball early, you will often not have to rush forwards. You will get to the ball in plenty of time and be able to adjust your swing and ball trajectory more easily. And, more often than not, the reason for getting to a ball late is the same culprit, that heavy-legged, inertia-laden feeling that causes delayed and slow movement patterns. Isaac Newton called it the law of inertia way back in the 17th century, long before tennis was invented. How to Overcome Inertia The law of inertia is easy to experience. It is all around us, present in every object. Like gravity, we become so used to its presence, we hardly think about it at all. Nor should we. It should only concern us on the tennis court, when it is a factor we need to overcome. Remember that inertia means “resistance to motion, action, or change.” But tennis is all about constant change. This is where the “rub” occurs. Change of direction (player and ball), quick starts and stops, and change of ball spin, arc, speed and depth, are just some examples of the constantly changing world of playing tennis. If you are like most of us, the law of inertia regularly affects your tennis in a negative way, whether you are aware of it or not. Here is a 3-step process to try and overcome the inevitable and ever-present affect of inertia on the tennis court.
Step #1: Self Evaluation — Identify a particular aspect of your game. We gave four examples above, but there are many, many more. Use a 1-10 scale, with “number 1” feeling very stuck and negatively affected by the law of inertia. A “number 10” means you are completely unaffected by it. Here’s an example. When you are serving, you regularly have difficulty getting into position to hit your opponents’ returns, unless they are hit very slow and land in the middle of the court. You rate yourself as a “number 3” to identify that getting stuck after you serve by the law of inertia is a very real challenge for you. This completes step #1. You have identified a problem area and assigned a self-evaluation number.
Step #2: Brief Over-Correction — To move upwards from a “number 3” to a much higher performance level such as “number 7” requires a bit of a jolt! You may not be a race horse by nature, but you will need to “fake it ‘til you make it” by making an over-correction. I call this process becoming “super ready” as it is a bit exaggerated but does give you that much needed energy lift. Think of it like jump-starting a car. In the example from Step #1, you are serving but are slow to recover after your serve to be ready to hit your next shot. Here are a couple of ways to bump yourself up from a #3 to #7. First, pretend that every single serve you hit is going to come back hard, deep, and down the middle. Second, don’t fall into the common trap of looking to see whether your serve landed in or out. The pause that comes from wondering about your serve will allow the law of inertia to exert its presence. Instead, don’t pause after you serve and try to get ready as your opponent contacts the ball. Step #3: Know and Find Your IPS — Dr. Jim Loehr is a legend in sports psychology. He coined the phrase IPS or Ideal Performance State. In short, IPS is when you play in the zone or that special mental state where everything flows effortlessly and the athlete is playing at peak performance. No matter your playing level, chances are you have experienced this “Ideal Performance State” for at least one shot or, better yet, for several points in a row or even longer. We see this with the top professional players. Sometimes they will play near perfect tennis for a full set or even an entire match. The commentators will commonly describe this as playing “lights out” tennis. The 2 Faces of the Law of Inertia Keep in mind that the law of inertia states that a stationary object will be hard to get moving, and also that an object (you!) in motion will tend to remain in motion. Therefore inertia on a tennis court is not all bad. Of course, you don’t want to be in constant motion on a tennis court, either. Before each shot, as much as possible, you want to get on balance with feet solidly planted on the court. But, the idea of consistent and energetic movement to each shot, followed by consistently quick recovery after each shot is essential to achieve that Ideal Performance State. Summary In short, players of all levels need to be objectively aware of the challenging influence that inertia can have on their success on a tennis court. Equally important, we need to be equipped with the tools to shift gears from a low performance state towards the ideal one (IPS). The opposite is what we all want to avoid. Namely, to play an entire match poorly without making adjustments. Hopefully, after reading this article, you will be more aware when inertia is sabotaging your capacity to play your very best and you can actually do something constructive about it!
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