I used to play with the family doggo like this :o I'd hold a toy in my hand and he'd lunge at it, and I'd absorb or redirect his forward energy. He loved it, it used to drive him crazy but I'd let him have the toy and some fusses before he got fed up. Interesting :)
An interesting thought. It is said that strategy is invisible while tactics are what you see. While this is “like that”, I don’t think it quite applies that way in this context. Here, the decision to employ mechanical efficiency over technique is a strategy. But the actual use is tactical. I think of mechanical principle as the subtlety of tactical skill.
