Do I look at the ball, or do I look at the spot I want to hit it?

[carguy01123]

I have pretty good technique on my shots, but I haven't really worked on placement yet. I've read online that, when you are swinging and making a shot, you have to look at the ball and keep you head still as you do it. However, I've also read on this forum a few times that people hit it straight to their opponent subconsciously (bad placement) because they are looking at their opponent when they are making the shot. By this logic, it must be that you have to look at a spot on the court that so you'd aim at it and that's where the ball would bounce. How do I balance these two ideas? Do I look at the ball when I'm not too worried about placement and more concerned with hitting the shot in and then, when I see an opportunity to hit the ball into the open court, should I divert my eyes to where I want to hit it? Or do I look at the court and aim with my peripheral vision? Thanks and I appreciate the help.

 

[Deleted member 232704]

Keep your eye on the ball for the entire time. Never let it out of your sight when possible. Watching other players such as Federer and Nadal ( Of course you aren't them, but they are a good example for this ), you would see them watching the ball fly off their racquets. Aiming is only natural to them and all they need to do is hit the ball in the right spot to get it into where they want it to go. They dont stare at the spot they want to hit at and watch the ball in their peripheral, they watch the ball for as long as they can. I'm assuming you are probably a 3.0 or something and are having trouble with aiming and sorts.. You just have to practice honestly...

 

[Sir Shankalot]

Keep your eye on the ball for the entire time. Never let it out of your sight when possible. Watching other players such as Federer and Nadal ( Of course you aren't them, but they are a good example for this ), you would see them watching the ball fly off their racquets. Aiming is only natural to them and all they need to do is hit the ball in the right spot to get it into where they want it to go. They dont stare at the spot they want to hit at and watch the ball in their peripheral, they watch the ball for as long as they can. I'm assuming you are probably a 3.0 or something and are having trouble with aiming and sorts.. You just have to practice honestly...

That's basically right but there is a twist. Look at this video of Federer, and see how he stops looking at the ball and instead looks at his intended point of contact just as he starts his forward swing. He then keeps his head and eyes locked on the contact point for a long time after the ball has gone, basically until he is finishing his follow through. So there is basically about a quarter of a second in each stroke when he is not looking at the ball but instead his contact point.

My board name is no joke, and whenever I am living up to it I make a concious effort to do this and it works wonders.

As for aiming, unfortunately there is no substitute for hitting thousands of balls and it will come eventually.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Keep your eye on the ball for the entire time. Never let it out of your sight when possible. Watching other players such as Federer and Nadal ( Of course you aren't them, but they are a good example for this ), you would see them watching the ball fly off their racquets...

Close, but not entirely true. Yes, it is true that elite players do not look at the spot or area to where they want the ball to go. Instead, they visualize where they want the ball to go. Visualization is a very powerful tool that should be developed ball all intermediate players. Even novices can use it to some extent. After a little bit of practice, a novice player can watch a ball trajectory and predict or visualize to some extent where the ball will bounce.

As they get better at this they will also learn to predict/visualize how the ball will bounce and visualize/determine where they should move to intercept the incoming ball. After further experience, players learn to visualize where they want the ball to go. At times, we will just reflex the ball back but, most of the time, decent players will intentionally put the ball where they want it either by visualizing the shot or visualizing the intended location. The better we get at visualization, the better our subconscious mind figures out how to make the visualized image happen.

Ok, let's get back to the subject of watching the ball. While elite players do watch the ball quite a bit of the time, they do not watch the ball all the time. One time when elite players are not watching the ball is during the forward swing on groundstrokes (and volleys). For most incoming balls, it is actually impossible for our eyes to track it all the way into the stringbed. When most balls get very close, the ball traverses our field of vision so quickly, the motion exceeds out visual pursuit velocity (measured in degrees/sec).

Some years back, I posted a link that showed a slow motion (high-speed) video of Federer swinging at an incoming ball. The video showed that Roger's eyes appeared to get to the contact point before the ball did (as he commenced his forward swing). With this eye movement to the contact point, he has obviously stopped watching the ball. Roger continues to fixate on the contact point as the ball makes contact (for 4-5 ms). His eyes stay on the contact point for most of the rest of his forward swing even tho' the ball is speeding away. Clearly, he is not watching the ball during this time either. During the time Roger's eyes are fixated in the contact point, he keeps his head very still. Also, during this time, he is employing visualization in order to direct his shot.

Apparently, studies by Yandell, Vickers (The Quiet Eye), Lafont and others have come to the same conclusions that I have. Here are a couple of links that discuss this:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/uwic/ujpa/2008/00000008/00000001/art00010
http://www.damienlafont.com/tennis/six-good-reasons-to-keep-your-eyes-off-the-ball

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

It looks like you beat me to the punch, ShankAlot. We are in complete agreement on the "quiet eye/head" aspect. The video link provided by ShankAlot is not quite as slow as the one I posted a while back but it appears to illustrate the point just the same. You may have to watch the video very closely to see that Roger's eyes get to the cp right before the ball does.

Nadal is another player who fixates on the contact point and keeps his head/eye still until the follow-thru is pretty much complete. Most other elite players also keep their eyes quiet and head still but not all do it quite a long as Roger & Rafa. Some elite players, like Agassi, fixate a little bit in front of the contact point instead of the cp itself. However, they still stop watching the ball and keep the head still for a while.

 

[Sir Shankalot]

It looks like you beat me to the punch, ShankAlot. We are in complete agreement on the "quiet eye/head" aspect. The video link provided by ShankAlot is not quite as slow as the one I posted a while back but it appears to illustrate the point just the same. You may have to watch the video very closely to see that Roger's eyes get to the cp right before the ball does.
.........

A good practice drill for this, which I picked up on TTW some time ago, is to deliberately keep the head and eyes fixated on the contact point after you hit until you hear the ball bounce on the other side. Obviously this is exaggerated and you wouldn't do this in a real point but it is quite a powerful learning tool. Once you have gotten used to this exaggerated technique then it is quite easy to just keep your head and eyes quiet up to the point you finish your follow through.

The nice thing about keeping your head still through the whole shot is that while it is an advanced technique it can literally be done by anyone, from the day one beginner, through intermediates like me, to good / advanced players. It makes a huge difference to consistency.

As for the OP's question about aiming, you just have to hit a lot of balls, preferably doing crosscourt and DTL cooperative drills, and eventually your body (not your concious mind) will just get it and you will be able to place the shot roughly where you want it.

 

[mightyrick]

I have pretty good technique on my shots, but I haven't really worked on placement yet. I've read online that, when you are swinging and making a shot, you have to look at the ball and keep you head still as you do it. However, I've also read on this forum a few times that people hit it straight to their opponent subconsciously (bad placement) because they are looking at their opponent when they are making the shot. By this logic, it must be that you have to look at a spot on the court that so you'd aim at it and that's where the ball would bounce. How do I balance these two ideas? Do I look at the ball when I'm not too worried about placement and more concerned with hitting the shot in and then, when I see an opportunity to hit the ball into the open court, should I divert my eyes to where I want to hit it? Or do I look at the court and aim with my peripheral vision? Thanks and I appreciate the help.

Lots of questions. I had a lot of misconceptions, too. Your eye will actually do a lot of the right things just with natural, instinctual reaction. If you trust it. But this is very very simple.

Watch the ball until the point of contact and then at contact, keep your head completely still as the racquet comes through. That's it.

The device some people use to help keep the head still is by saying "keep watching the point of contact". I actually close my eyes sometimes -- just for a split second -- right at contact.

There are two things you need to do to aim. You need to KNOW where you are on the court and you need to KNOW where you want to target the ball. You don't need to force yourself to SEE either one of those things. If you KNOW those things, all you need to do is know how you need to address the ball (contact point, racquet face angle, swing path). There is nothing else you need to know.

The one thing that has helped me the most to aim is being more aware. I don't need to physically SEE as much anymore. I use my own mind. If I am aware... I know what my opponent is going to do. If I am aware... I know where the ball is going to go. If I am aware... I know where I am on the court.

I know this seems like a metaphysical response. It isn't intended to be.

 

[LeeD]

When you drive your car, are you looking at the road coming at you? Or are you looking at your final destination?

 

[West Coast Ace]

Eye on ball as long as possible - many studies showed that most players only watch up to about 3 ft away; predicting where it will be when you want to make contact based on the type of shot you wish to hit.

 

[Tennisguy3000]

When you drive your car, are you looking at the road coming at you? Or are you looking at your final destination?

Be careful not to look at & go for the contact point... in your car that is ;-)

Great info on head/eye focus & movement. I was recently hitting a bit late & a friend told me to stop watching the ball hit my strings but to focus on where I wanted to hit it/preferred contact point. It worked for me.

I will definitely try the drill delaying looking up/forward until the bounce & see what that feels like.

 

[Deleted member 232704]

That's basically right but there is a twist. Look at this video of Federer, and see how he stops looking at the ball and instead looks at his intended point of contact just as he starts his forward swing. He then keeps his head and eyes locked on the contact point for a long time after the ball has gone, basically until he is finishing his follow through. So there is basically about a quarter of a second in each stroke when he is not looking at the ball but instead his contact point.

I mentioned, "when possible". I worded my example a tad wrong i guess. They watch the ball bounce off of the racquet. Also, since were only human, were not fast enough to watch the ball during that action ( in this case, forehand/backhand ). Can you stand against a wall having someone hit a forehand to the wall towards your forehand while following the ball for the entire time including the time that it bounces off the wall? Probably not.
Unless im just really slow.

EDIT : What SystemicAnolamy said. Nailed it.

 

[rkelley]

+1 for watching the ball, but then fixing on the predicted/desired contact point right before contact.

Do NOT look at the target. Nothing to see there.

 

[MauricioDias]

The ball, look to the ball.... after the contact look to where you want but untill the contact is not done, look to the ball

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

... Great info on head/eye focus & movement. I was recently hitting a bit late & a friend told me to stop watching the ball hit my strings but to focus on where I wanted to hit it/preferred contact point. It worked for me.

I will definitely try the drill delaying looking up/forward until the bounce & see what that feels like.

If you have access to a hitting wall, you can try another drill. Make sure that you do not look up to follow the ball until you hear it hit the wall. This is a bit more realistic than waiting to hear the ball bounce after crossing the net.

 

[Tennisguy3000]

If you have access to a hitting wall, you can try another drill. Make sure that you do not look up to follow the ball until you hear it hit the wall. This is a bit more realistic than waiting to hear the ball bounce after crossing the net.

Nice, I will try that as well Thanks

 

[Sir Shankalot]

If you have access to a hitting wall, you can try another drill. Make sure that you do not look up to follow the ball until you hear it hit the wall. This is a bit more realistic than waiting to hear the ball bounce after crossing the net.

Good one. I'll try that. Just to stress, the drill of keeping your head still until the bounce is not intended to be realistic - instead it is intended to cure a bad habit of looking up immediately after you have hit the ball (which in reality means looking up during the strike, which is bad). After you have spent 10 minutes doing this drill it just seems a lot easier to quieten the head during the strike and the follow through.

I recently had a hit with a very good and experienced coach and I was playing very badly - shanks, mis-hits, longs, nets, you name it. I asked him what was wrong with my strokes, and he said my strokes were fine for my level and the issue was purely about my timing being off, coupled with poor anticipation and not reading spin well. He explained to me what I should be looking at and when as follows:

1. When you hit the ball, keep your head still and eyes on the contact point until you have finished the follow through.
2. Then as the ball travels over the net to the opponent, while you are recovering, focus on the opponent not the ball. Where is he going? What kind of shot is he preparing to hit?
3. As the opponent swings to hit the ball, split step and start watching the ball again. The cue to this change of focus is the split step.
4. After the ball bounces on your side and is coming close, once you are fully turned and prepared, shift your eyes to the contact point and keep them there.
5. Hit the ball, rinse and repeat

.

I won't say this will cure all timing and anticipation issues, but it certainly helps. And anyone can do it regardless of level if they practice enough.

 

[degrease]

Watch the ball until it leaves strings. You have plenty of time to then look at your target regardless of how fast ball travelling