Watching the ball the whole time?

[nadalfan!]

Tips or advice to watch the ball all the time??? I seem to have a problem because everytime I try to watch the ball it just doesn't work.
P.S.- I wear glasses but I don't wear them when I play tennis.

[AznHylite]

It has to become a habit! Maybe everytime you look away too early, punish yourself with 5 pushups (or even a slap to the face if you so incline). The pushups one worked for me.

[Babb]

^^^^
How hardcore... lol.

[nadalfan!]

Wow, good strategy. Gonna try that.

[10s talk]

Tips or advice to watch the ball all the time??? I seem to have a problem because everytime I try to watch the ball it just doesn't work.
P.S.- I wear glasses but I don't wear them when I play tennis.


say HIT at the exact moment you hit the ball ( based on sight )


FWIW ....... almost all miss hits are caused by taking your eye off the ball

[nadalfan!]

Well, the weird thing is, I usually hit with the sweet spot on the racquet all the time. Even sometimes on running shots. Anyone know why????

[RestockingTues]

Lol lucky you; I try to watch the ball until even after I make contact but I end up with ball fuzz all over my stringbed :(

[BreakPtSi]

Well, the weird thing is, I usually hit with the sweet spot on the racquet all the time. Even sometimes on running shots. Anyone know why????

Because you naturally watch the ball, without really even noticing.

[Koaske]

Because you naturally watch the ball, without really even noticing.

That's right. The OP could try to take a video of himself hitting to see if he really isn't watching the ball. There's so much in our strokes that we're really not aware of while we think we are. A video is the best and the only way to see our own technique.

[THSBOI]

Man dude i never thought about looking at the ball its kinda wierd because i always wonder why i keep mishiting the ball maybe its because i dont look at the ball at times hmmm...

[quicken]

Well, the weird thing is, I usually hit with the sweet spot on the racquet all the time. Even sometimes on running shots. Anyone know why????

you played tennis more than 3 years.
(am i right? teehee)
it usually becomes natural.

[TNT16]

you played tennis more than 3 years.
(am i right? teehee)
it usually becomes natural.

Check ANY picture or video of Federer - and then compare the Fed pics to the pics of ANY other pro. Fed watches the ball more than ANYONE in the game . . . TRY doing what he does (actually looking at the point of impact instead of the target). Easier said than done!

Anyone have suggestions on how to form THAT habit? Any input appreciated.

[ROFLingpanda]

if you aren't watching the ball what are you watching? the net?

[quicken]

Check ANY picture or video of Federer - and then compare the Fed pics to the pics of ANY other pro. Fed watches the ball more than ANYONE in the game . . . TRY doing what he does (actually looking at the point of impact instead of the target). Easier said than done!

Anyone have suggestions on how to form THAT habit? Any input appreciated.

Dude... I know bro...
Henin also does this...

It's not a habit, he probably forces himself to do it.
You just have to remind yourself every single time you hit a ball.
Usually saying "look" at point of contact helps.

Anyways, what I was saying was. If you played for quite a while, you start to develop a feel where the ball is going to be during a warm up rally or something like that. So, it is possible to hit sweetspots time after time. But during a game where your opponent may throw you some sick spins, thats where "looking at the ball" really shines imo.

Anyways, looking at the ball is crucial. Period.

[SystemicAnomaly]

Actually, it is more than watching than watching the ball. On most incoming shots, it is virtually impossible to watch the ball all the way into the strings --the human visual tracking system is just not up to the task. Once the ball gets close to us (1-3 yards?), our smooth pursuit system can no longer track the ball. What Federer and others do, is to track it as long as possible. Once the ball gets close, their eyes jump ahead to the expected contact location.

Check ANY picture or video of Federer - and then compare the Fed pics to the pics of ANY other pro. Fed watches the ball more than ANYONE in the game . . . TRY doing what he does (actually looking at the point of impact instead of the target). Easier said than done!

Anyone have suggestions on how to form THAT habit? Any input appreciated.

Federer tracks the ball and holds his head & eyes still, on the contact point, much longer than other players & pros. His eyes jump ahead to the contact, as I mentioned above. If you look at some slow-mo videos of Fed, yo will notice that, his head & eyes are still at the contact for a while after the ball has left his racket. This really helps balance and ensures that he is not starting to move his head at the moment of contact.

You can practice doing this every day with practice swings. While doing this, be sure to keep your head still and your eyes on the imaginary contact until you have seen your racket head pass thru the contact zone. You should keep it there until you are nearly finished with your follow thru. Avoid the urge to move your head or lift your eyes prematurely.

Do the same thing whenever you practice on the wall or with a ball machine. Hit a bucket of self-fed balls and make it a point to do this. The same sort of thing can be done whenever you are hitting short court and the rest of your warm-up. Do all of these things and it should eventually become a habit.

[TNT16]

Dude... I know bro...
Henin also does this...

It's not a habit, he probably forces himself to do it.
You just have to remind yourself every single time you hit a ball.
Usually saying "look" at point of contact helps.

Anyways, what I was saying was. If you played for quite a while, you start to develop a feel where the ball is going to be during a warm up rally or something like that. So, it is possible to hit sweetspots time after time. But during a game where your opponent may throw you some sick spins, thats where "looking at the ball" really shines imo.

Anyways, looking at the ball is crucial. Period.



Actually I think for him it has become automatic - he does it even in the craziest circumstances (and also during practice etc.) -- probably has a lot to do with his ability to return the way he does against Roddick, Isner, Karlovic . . . but the big question is what did he do to form this habit -- and I do think it is unique since the other pros have not come near to forming that habit as successfully.

With any other pro (including Henin btw) you look at pictures which are taken at the moment of impact, shortly before or shortly after and their eyes are NOT on the ball but somewhere ahead of it (towards the other side of the net).

[Mansewerz]

It has to become a habit! Maybe everytime you look away too early, punish yourself with 5 pushups (or even a slap to the face if you so incline). The pushups one worked for me.

Have you ever tried a Yonex RDX 500 midplus? I'm wondering cuz thats what I use and I'm planning on using the LM instinct later, still need to demo. Is the LM instinct a good stick for both doubles and singles?

[TNT16]

Federer tracks the ball and holds his head & eyes still, on the contact point, much longer than other players & pros. His eyes jump ahead to the contact, as I mentioned above. If you look at some slow-mo videos of Fed, yo will notice that, his head & eyes are still at the contact for a while after the ball has left his racket. This really helps balance and ensures that he is not starting to move his head at the moment of contact.

You can practice doing this every day with practice swings. While doing this, be sure to keep your head still and your eyes on the imaginary contact until you have seen your racket head pass thru the contact zone. You should keep it there until you are nearly finished with your follow thru. Avoid the urge to move your head or lift your eyes prematurely.

Do the same thing whenever you practice on the wall or with a ball machine. Hit a bucket of self-fed balls and make it a point to do this. The same sort of thing can be done whenever you are hitting short court and the rest of your warm-up. Do all of these things and it should eventually become a habit.


This is very helpful - great post - especially about eyes jumping ahead to contact point . . . I had not thought about that at all and have to digest this notion.

Point about Fed holding head still is well taken - he it truly unique in the extent to which he does - and I think it is a big factor in creating the stability which enables his shot-making and technique.

I think you are right about the ways to practice this . . . although I have to admit I had been hoping for a shortcut LOL!

[aimr75]

Check ANY picture or video of Federer - and then compare the Fed pics to the pics of ANY other pro. Fed watches the ball more than ANYONE in the game . . . TRY doing what he does (actually looking at the point of impact instead of the target). Easier said than done!

Anyone have suggestions on how to form THAT habit? Any input appreciated.

this article was posted a while back..

http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/federervisiontechnique.html

[TNT16]

this article was posted a while back..

http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/federervisiontechnique.html

AWESOME post! Thank you!

[quicken]

For me, I can't keep my head still after contact. I need to see the ball clear the net.

[TNT16]

For me, I can't keep my head still after contact. I need to see the ball clear the net.

THAT is precisely the problem! By looking up you cause instability and all sorts of problems that get in the way of stroke production. Also there is a tendency to look up way too early ie not after you strike the ball but before you do -- which in essence means taking your eye off the ball.

And THAT is the habit which is so difficult to break.

Think about it -- after hitting thousands and thousands of balls you should know exactly where the court and the net is . . . so objectively speaking there is no need to look up to see it clear the net (and even your opponent is at the net you would not have to look up until well after you hit -- but it does not work that way).

[quicken]

THAT is precisely the problem! By looking up you cause instability and all sorts of problems that get in the way of stroke production. Also there is a tendency to look up way too early ie not after you strike the ball but before you do -- which in essence means taking your eye off the ball.

And THAT is the habit which is so difficult to break.

Think about it -- after hitting thousands and thousands of balls you should know exactly where the court and the net is . . . so objectively speaking there is no need to look up to see it clear the net (and even your opponent is at the net you would not have to look up until well after you hit -- but it does not work that way).

Yes that is true.
But its the insecurities that I have that force me to look up.
Just gotta trust myself more I guess.

[SystemicAnomaly]

If my opponent is at the net, I'd undoubtedly would look up in time to see the ball cross the net. However if we are both in the backcourt, there really is no need to see the ball before it has crossed the net. Most of us can still detect any motion of our opponent with peripheral vision even tho' we are still locked on the contact point. We don't really need to see detail on the other side of the net with our primary (foveal) vision until the ball is over the net.

this article was posted a while back..

http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/federervisiontechnique.html

Revolutionary Tennis gets knocked by some on these forums, but this particular article shows considerable insights on the way Fed "watches" the ball. If you incorporate the "head tilt", do not tilt it very much -- else your perspective might possibly suffer.

Don't expect to actually see the ball thru your strings like we see in the high-speed pictures on that page. What you probably will see, with practice, is the blur of the racket swinging thru the contact point. It is also possible to see the yellow (green-yellow) blur of the ball at/near the contact.

This is very helpful - great post - especially about eyes jumping ahead to contact point . . . I had not thought about that at all and have to digest this notion.

Point about Fed holding head still is well taken - he it truly unique in the extent to which he does - and I think it is a big factor in creating the stability which enables his shot-making and technique...

The eyes "jumping ahead" to the contact is known as saccadic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade) tracking (or saccadic eye motion). As you are reading these words, your eyes jump ahead to the next group of words in a series of saccades.

When tracking a moving object, we use smooth pursuit tracking until that object traverses our field of vision too rapidly to keep up this type of visual tracking -- this happens either when the motion is just too fast or if the object is too close (at moderate speeds). The limit for smooth pursuit tracking is something like 70-90 degrees per 100 ms (0.1 sec) for most people. Once that limit is exceeded, our eyes "jump ahead" in order to try to keep up -- saccadic eye motion.

[nadalfan!]

Helpful tips! Thanks everyone. Well the one thing that I'm gonna try to do today is take my eyes off the ball and look at the racquet. I will post on how this goes in about.... 10 hours. That's when I'm going to be done playin.

[lawrence]

the #1 mistake people do to miss the ball is take their eyes off the ball a second before contact to see where its gonna go
if you watch those slow mo's of fed he watches it till impact, and even maybe half a second after impact, then sees where it goes

[nadalfan!]

Well, how could someone explain all of Fed's miss hits??

[Loco4Tennis]

watching the ball all the way to impact is not entirely correct, because iuts too fast, and yet it is what you are doing by guesstimating where the ball is going to hit your racquet,
it helps me hit better shoots on the center of the racquet,
everytime i misshit the ball, its because i did not watch the contact point,
watching through impact is also important,
the time you hold after impact is not long at all, maybe a second if that, this is something you need to force yourself to do, its all part of a proper technique
i just saw a dvd where they interviewed andre agassi, he said "the first thing and the last thing i learned about tennis is to keep your eyes on the ball", great advise in my opinion

as a side note,
what are the 2 things you will always hear any tennis coach say???
first one gets a cookie!!

[TNT16]

Well, how could someone explain all of Fed's miss hits??

That is a valid and good question.

But his ability to keep his head still with eyes on contact point at and shortly after impact is unquestionably exemplary - so on topic for the thread.

The shanking . . . could be a variety of things but certainly not caused by looking at the ball in an exemplary way.

[TNT16]

the #1 mistake people do to miss the ball is take their eyes off the ball a second before contact to see where its gonna go
if you watch those slow mo's of fed he watches it till impact, and even maybe half a second after impact, then sees where it goes

Precisely. Trying to learn how to do precisely that is the challenge. Definitely easier said than done!

[TNT16]

Revolutionary Tennis gets knocked by some on these forums, but this particular article shows considerable insights on the way Fed "watches" the ball. If you incorporate the "head tilt", do not tilt it very much -- else your perspective might possibly suffer.

Don't expect to actually see the ball thru your strings like we see in the high-speed pictures on that page. What you probably will see, with practice, is the blur of the racket swinging thru the contact point. It is also possible to see the yellow (green-yellow) blur of the ball at/near the contact.



The eyes "jumping ahead" to the contact is known as saccadic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade) tracking (or saccadic eye motion). As you are reading these words, your eyes jump ahead to the next group of words in a series of saccades.

When tracking a moving object, we use smooth pursuit tracking until that object traverses our field of vision too rapidly to keep up this type of visual tracking -- this happens either when the motion is just too fast or if the object is too close (at moderate speeds). The limit for smooth pursuit tracking is something like 70-90 degrees per 100 ms (0.1 sec) for most people. Once that limit is exceeded, our eyes "jump ahead" in order to try to keep up -- saccadic eye motion.

Another great post, SystemicAnomaly, very insightful and helpful -- thanks a lot!

[TNT16]

as a side note, what are the 2 things you will always hear any tennis coach say??? first one gets a cookie!!

Watch the ball and move your feet -- OK so where is my cookie?!?!?

There was an interview with Agassi where he was asked about perfecting his game over the years (it may have been post-match and pre-retirement, not sure); he said that over the span of his career he has been trying to learn and do the first two things you are taught in tennis -- to watch the ball and move your feet -- and that this has proven enough of a challenge.

[Loco4Tennis]

Watch the ball and move your feet -- OK so where is my cookie?!?!?

There was an interview with Agassi where he was asked about perfecting his game over the years (it may have been post-match and pre-retirement, not sure); he said that over the span of his career he has been trying to learn and do the first two things you are taught in tennis -- to watch the ball and move your feet -- and that this has proven enough of a challenge.

well you got 1 of 2 answers i was looking for,but, cookie still up for grabs :-)

i guess i should be more specific on the question-
what are the 2 things you will hear a tennis coach (one thats been arround a while) say?

[nadalfan!]

Foot in front?

[luca85]

Keeping your head down on contact for longer is as important if not allows you to watch the ball more

[nadalfan!]

Well, guys sorry for the waiting, but I tried to put my eyes on my racquet but it just couldn't go. And when I did I screwed up my shots. I don't know but I hit ok today with my regular way. Just gotta get back to training outside. Dang snow here in Michigan. Hopefully it goes away by spring break. Boring around here....... :cry:

[SystemicAnomaly]

Well, guys sorry for the waiting, but I tried to put my eyes on my racquet but it just couldn't go. And when I did I screwed up my shots. I don't know but I hit ok today with my regular way...

Don't give up on the technique that easily. For many people, it is not an instant fix. Try is with some self-feeds for a while. Then try it with easy feeds from a partner. Make it progressively more and more challenging. Gotta learn to crawl before you walk and walk before you run.

[montx]

I think you can get pretty close to watch the ball even up to the strings.

I think you target like a second before you make contact with the ball and then for sweetspot efficiency you watch the connection.

One way of improving this is using a smaller racquet head.

[SystemicAnomaly]

I think you can get pretty close to watch the ball even up to the strings...

Sorry, not humanly possible for most incoming balls.

[jamauss]

Keeping my eyes on the ball for as long as possible was (and still is) probably the biggest factor in how well I play.

There actually is a simple drill you can do to help improve how long you are looking at the ball. It helped me quite a bit, anyway.

What I did was, I took 6 balls that I was going to hit with and took them out of the can, and using a black sharpie marker, wrote the number 1 all over one ball, wrote the number 2 all over another ball, ...all the way to 6 so that each of the 6 balls was covered in a particular number (I think I wrote the numbers about 5 or 6 times on each ball I used)

Then, while I played, on each stroke I tried to see if I could pick out what number was on the ball I was about to hit. I was only able see a number clearly on 2 or 3 shots for every 10 balls but, it was the "trying" to see the number that helped me keep my eyes on the ball.

Anyway, that's what helped me. You might want to at least give it a try and see if it helps you.

[rosewall4ever]

I know everyone has 'their' way of seeing something that science proves we all can't but my way is simplly to visualise or sense a certain trajectory of your return, this in turn focuses your senses on visualising a preset plan so to speak, aiding in accuracy. In a word its anticipation but also premeditation...

[Loco4Tennis]

Watch the ball and move your feet -- OK so where is my cookie?!?!?

There was an interview with Agassi where he was asked about perfecting his game over the years (it may have been post-match and pre-retirement, not sure); he said that over the span of his career he has been trying to learn and do the first two things you are taught in tennis -- to watch the ball and move your feet -- and that this has proven enough of a challenge.

Foot in front?

the 2 things you will always hear a old tennis coach always say:

1 - keep your eyes on the ball!
and
2 - dont hit me!! :-)

[nadalfan!]

Lol nice loco4tennis. Woulda never guessed that at all! :lol:

[nadalfan!]

Jamauss thanks for the drill. Will definately try that when it gets better outside. Well, the snow is melting because of the rain. Nothin' left to do but go downstairs and work out. hm........ :cry: