ANTICIPATION & SPEED

This section is about the physics of tennis and anticipation

ON COURT ANALYSIS AND SHOTMAKING

In consideration of the realities; time and space, movement and distance, force and inertia, and clarity and confusion the superior player must take stock of the whole viewpoint. The tennis court is 78' x 27' with a net that is 3 1/2' on the sides and 3' at the center. The ball travels between 50 and 110 mph on groundstroke rallies. This allows from the time you hit the ball from the baseline until it is returned by your opponent anywhere from roughly 3.5 seconds to 1.0 seconds. This is all the time you have from the moment you hit the ball until it returns to your racquet.

The optimum place to be is in the center of the court at all times in a groundstroke rally. This allows for the player to retrieve any ball equally. It is the natural position of yourself and your opponent. Understanding this brings us to the fact that hitting down the lines or crosscourt to the lines is the most appropriate shot.

From the center point there is 13.5 ft to each sideline. To actually hit the ball you must move 10 ft. from your position. The lateral movement required is 10 ft to each side. The optimal shots would be to force a player into a side to side movement until the amount of time he has to reach the ball will not allow it to be physically possible. The ball moving from one corner to the opposite corner at an ETA of 1 sec is a speed of 56mph, a speed of 75mph will bring the ball in at a rate of 3/4 of a second. In order to move 10 ft in 3/4 of a second it requires an average speed of 10mph. This means that the acceleration must be much quicker than 10mph and deceleration must also be very quick. To move from one sideline to the other a distance of 27ft the speed in .75 of an second will be averaged to 24.55mph. In Comparison a 10 second 100 meter dash is an average speed of only 22.36mph and a 4.4 40yd dash is 18.6mph.

Anticipation is the ability to speculate and make a judgement on where the ball is to be hit in order to get a jump on it. If a player hits the ball from the center point to the outside corner at 100 mph it will get there in about .55 secs. It is physically impossible to reach that point and be set to return the ball correctly without anticipating the shot. The ability to see the opponents techniques and correctly interpret them is an imperative asset in order to diminish the time necessary to reach the ball and hit it at a proper point for return. Each step will take from .05 to .20 tenths of a second covering a distance of 2 to 3 feet. Relating to a speed of .05 per ft at maximum, (The speed of a 4.4 40 yd dash is .03666 ft per sec.) In a 10ft distance the quickness required to reach it is five steps of 2 ft per each at a speed of .20 per ft. This translates into about 7mph. To travel 27 feet in this time is the same as a 4.4 40 yd dash or 18mph. To start and stop and hit would be very impressive for any human. By anticipating the shot selection correctly by .20 of a second you will save 2 steps and approximately 5 feet. This is enough to reach the ball and place it back in play.

There is in every trajectory optimum positions to hit the ball. The return trajectory is determined by the positioning of your body in relation to the ball. Your arms do not stretch nor does your body remain balanced when reaching for the ball when based in an awkward position. In order to reach these optimum positions requires; anticipation, balance, speed, and accuracy of movement. Without the accuracy of movement it would be entirely impossible to do anything. With such little time as explained previously. Accuracy of movement is essential to being prepared to make the shot. Athletic training is designed to make the body function in automatically and synchronously with the mind. Robotic consistency with spontaneous reactive coordination in balance with a clear mind is required to achieve the optimum shot selection.

Time Distance Feet per/sec
20 yd 2.90 dash 14.11 mph 60 20.69
40 yd 4.40 dash 18.60 mph 120 27.27
100 yd 10.50 dash 19.48 mph 300 28.57
220 yd 36.00 run 12.50 mph 660 18.33
440 yd 80.00 run 11.25 mph 1320 16.50

Ball Speed
Distance Feet per/sec
0.60 89.94 mph 79.15 131.92
0.60 88.64 mph 78 130.00
0.70 80.46 mph 82.6 118.00
0.60 88.64 mph 78 130.00

2.50 seconds 317.75 lf

5.00 67.5
Player speed
1.00 9.21 mph 13.5 13.50
2.00 9.21 mph 27 13.50
2.00 9.21 mph 27 13.50

0.8 ball sp 67.46 mph 79.15 98.94

Four ball rally

hit-1 0.80 ball 67.46 mph 79.15 98.94
p-2 0.75 p-2 12.27 mph 13.5 18.00
brt-2 0.80 ball 66.48 mph 78 97.50
p-1 1.60 pr-2 5.75 mph 13.5 8.44
brt-3 0.80 ball 70.40 mph 82.6 103.25
p-2 1.60 p-2 11.51 mph 27 16.88
brt-4 0.80 ball 66.48 mph 78 97.50
p-1 1.60 p-1 11.51 mph 27 16.88

3.2 average speed 317.75 ball distance
3.20 67.70 mph 317.75 99.30
P-2 2.35 average speed 40.5 lf
2.35 11.75 mph 40.5 17.23
p-1 3.2 average speed 40.5
3.20 8.63 mph 40.5 12.66