Modelling the impact between a tennis ball and racket using rigid body dynamics

A model of an impact between a tennis ball and freely suspended racket, normal to string plane, was derived using rigid body dynamics. The inputs to this model were the ball and racket physical parameters (e.g. racket mass), and the experimentally determined coefficient of restitution for an impact on a head-clamped racket. The predicted values of ball and racket post-impact velocities were compared with experimental results and typically correlated within ~5%.