any tips on how to watch the ball better?

[LafayetteHitter]

Tennismastery, great post! I concur that many ideas should be considered by anyone looking to improve. Some time ago I decided to rework my service motion and made a tough decision. I left a coach that I had spent years with. I was playing a match and a close friend said one of the reasons that my coach (a great player and coach) may not have been able to help with revamping my service motion is that he simply wasn't reaching me. It took a few days to think about what my buddy said (this guy was a former college player and current 5.0) for me to realize he had just pointed out something critical. I went to various different coaches and I ended up with a very technial coach in a lesson that taught went through the service motion backwards and used some lingo that I had not heard before. The next day I was able to apply much of what he said and ended up really making some great gains within the following month with further coaching from the same guy. The end point here is not that he had any great secret to success with my serve or that he was any more or less of a coach than my others. He simply accomplished one of the most difficult tasks, he reached me and it clicked.

[Tennismastery]

Lafayette,

This is one reason I try to encourage my students to attend camps and/or clinics in other areas. (At least respected camps and clinics!)

Two things I know will occur: my student could understand something being said by someone else. (It might very well be exactly the same thing I have been saying...just having it said by someone else in a different setting surrounded by different students can make the difference in a student 'getting it.')

Second, if the camp or clinic is good, my students will understand that I'm not the only teaching the methods/techniques I want my students to master. They usually come back to me and say something like, "Those guys were talking about the serve/groundies/volley the same way you do." Thus, solidifying the concept as being sound in their mind...not just mine!

Thanks for your input!