The range of dynamics is a hugely important aspect of playing the piano with expression, subtlety, and musicality. Only a large pipe organ has a greater range of dynamics than the piano. Even the name of our instrument, originally called the pianoforte, or the fortepiano, means soft/loud (or loud/soft). This was a huge innovation after the harpsichord, which, due to its strings being plucked, not struck, could only achieve one dynamic level. The development of the strings being struck by a hammer changed everything.
The music score, as well as your teacher or coach, may tell you to play a passage loud (f), or very loud (ff). But you may never have been shown or taught how to actually do that. It might seem like it's instinctive -- just play with more force. But it's not quite that simple. You can't really play a loud chord, for example, with just your fingers. Try holding one hand with the other so that it can't move, and try to play with fingers alone: impossible, even if you think you have strengthened your fingers through exercise (which I don't believe in, for reasons described in previous posts). Even if you could, you'd have pain and fatigue in your hands in no time. Now try to hold your upper arm inert and just use your forearm. I call this a hammer-stroke, because it's very much like how you would use a hammer to hit a nail. It works well for the nail, but on the piano it produces a very harsh sound. The only way to get loud without being harsh is to use the whole arm. Using the arm, but still keeping the hand firm but not tight, will produce the sound you want without pain or fatigue.
Think of the baseball player. When he wants to hit the ball out of the park, he brings the bat as far back as he can, using his whole arm, then swings it with as much speed as he can. Yes, he may be strong and he is using his muscles, but it is the speed that is the key. Conversely, when he wants to bunt, he holds the bat right in front of his body and uses mostly his forearm, and has very little momentum, so the ball doesn't travel very far. More speed, more momentum, less speed, less momentum. It's just physics, folks!
To achieve momentum at the piano, your arms must move in, that is, toward the fallboard, and then, using the whole arm as a unit, come towards yourself at high speed as you make contact with the keyboard. The louder you want it, the more momentum you need, which means you move in toward the fallboard as much as possible. Your wrist will need to flex slightly you you don't actually hit the fallboard with your finger tips. Think of Chopin's C minor prelude, which has a loud chord on every beat for the first eight measures. You must use full arm stroke on every chord.
Now the score and/or your teacher tells you to play soft (p) or very soft (pp). Just like the baseball player's bunt, when you want your playing to be very soft, you want less speed and less momentum. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, just using fingers alone doesn't give you a reliable and even softness. Using a full arm stroke but with little momentum gives you a soft sound that is still well-controlled. You've probably experienced those times that you intended to play soft, but instead you got a "ghost" note or notes, that is, no sound at all. That is because the hammer didn't have enough momentum to hit the string at all. If you put your finger on a key and just press, you will almost certainly get no sound, because there was almost no momentum.
To play extremely soft, your "attack" must be very precise, which requires a lot of alertness. I like my students to use this image: you have a tiny, delicate item that needs to be repaired, and you have a tiny hammer and a tiny nail. You really only have one shot at fixing it, because if you hit it too hard the item will break; if you hit it too lightly, you will have to try again, and increase the risk of destroying it. So you summon all your alertness, and give one quick, precise hit, with enough momentum to get the nail to go in, but not so much as to break it. While not a perfect analogy, it gives you an idea how great pianists achieve the clear and beautiful soft sounds, especially in music such as Debussy and Ravel.
If you try to research how to play loud or soft, you will find a great deal of misleading or incorrect information. When you read something that you think might be correct, ask yourself if the physics support that idea.
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