Hey does anyone have any drills or tips for watching the ball and or keeping your head down when you hit ground strokes? I tend to pick up my head as i hit thus causing my whole body to jump up causing the ball to carry long. Its like i watch my shot head over. I really want to fix this in my game. Thanks for any input.
Tips needed for watching the ball/keeping your head down during groundstrokes
- Thread starter makos101
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ManuGinobili
Hall of Fame
Taken from the Inner Game Of Tennis, and very very popular:
- Watch the seams of the ball: it requires more effort to focus on the subtle things, so you'll REALLY be watching now.
- Bounce, Hit: as the ball bounces on the court, say to yourself (whisper or loud, depends on u) "bounce", and as your racket makes contact with the ball, say "hit". Making this habit gives you the extra benefit of learning the rhythm of the ball.
The key thing is dont try to force yourself do anything, relaxxxx and pay attention to these areas, that's all.
- Watch the seams of the ball: it requires more effort to focus on the subtle things, so you'll REALLY be watching now.
- Bounce, Hit: as the ball bounces on the court, say to yourself (whisper or loud, depends on u) "bounce", and as your racket makes contact with the ball, say "hit". Making this habit gives you the extra benefit of learning the rhythm of the ball.
The key thing is dont try to force yourself do anything, relaxxxx and pay attention to these areas, that's all.
GetBetterer
Hall of Fame
Use your non-hitting hand to "point" at the ball (it doesn't have to necessarily be a point)
BevelDevil
Hall of Fame
I found a pretty good trick, imo:
Focus on the relationship between your chin and your shoulder when you make contact with the ball. When you successfully keep your head on the ball and hit the ball at the ideal contact point, remember how the gap (if any) between your chin and your shoulder felt. Also remember what the follow through felt like regarding your chin and shoulder.
Then swing to replicate that feeling.
For example, at contact, my chin is just inside my shoulder. On follow through, my shoulder actually bumps into my chin. This is the same regardless of stance.
I noticed that it's easier to keep your head on the ball when you focus on this feeling. It's also easier to remember to keep your eyes on the ball when your head is on it. However, this doesn't always happen. There are plenty of times when my head will be on it but my eyes didn't quite catch it. The interesting thing is that I will still often hit it cleanly.
I'm still working on it, but the chin/shoulder trick works great and allows me to hit a much more consistent shot. The source of this added consistency, for me at least, isn't so much seeing the ball better, but that I have a better feel for where my contact point (distance from me to the ball) is.
You just have to get used to not directly seeing the ball leaving your court.
My pet theory is that Fed keeps his head on the ball so much because the chin/shoulder relationship helps him find the optimal contact point (which is supposedly tougher to reach with his kind of forehand).
I'm been practicing the Fed forehand and the chin/shoulder trick was the single biggest breakthrough for me.
Focus on the relationship between your chin and your shoulder when you make contact with the ball. When you successfully keep your head on the ball and hit the ball at the ideal contact point, remember how the gap (if any) between your chin and your shoulder felt. Also remember what the follow through felt like regarding your chin and shoulder.
Then swing to replicate that feeling.
For example, at contact, my chin is just inside my shoulder. On follow through, my shoulder actually bumps into my chin. This is the same regardless of stance.
I noticed that it's easier to keep your head on the ball when you focus on this feeling. It's also easier to remember to keep your eyes on the ball when your head is on it. However, this doesn't always happen. There are plenty of times when my head will be on it but my eyes didn't quite catch it. The interesting thing is that I will still often hit it cleanly.
I'm still working on it, but the chin/shoulder trick works great and allows me to hit a much more consistent shot. The source of this added consistency, for me at least, isn't so much seeing the ball better, but that I have a better feel for where my contact point (distance from me to the ball) is.
You just have to get used to not directly seeing the ball leaving your court.
My pet theory is that Fed keeps his head on the ball so much because the chin/shoulder relationship helps him find the optimal contact point (which is supposedly tougher to reach with his kind of forehand).
I'm been practicing the Fed forehand and the chin/shoulder trick was the single biggest breakthrough for me.
This one had helped me a lot in the past. Not only does it help at watching the ball but helps my timing and positioning.
TennisCoachFLA
Banned
This is also an issue when teaching kids. I once saw a coach who would put powder on the balls and make the kids watch the powder puff after they hit the ball!
Dreamer
Professional
I agree with this.
If you really can't watch the ball on whim it appears to be a mental block; that you don't trust your stroke to work properly. You want to look over to see if it went as planned.
You really need to be more patient with your stroke. Watching the ball makes you accommodate to it better. The courts don't move after all.
Try this:
Don't think about the courts, don't think about placement. Just think about the contact and catching the a look at the contact point. Imagine the afterimage where it was struck and give it a moment before looking up.
10s talk
Semi-Pro
BullDogTennis
Hall of Fame
people don't usually do this to watch the ball, the reason this is done is to get good shoulder rotation. if you follow the ball with your arm, your shoulders WILL turn
SystemicAnomaly
Bionic Poster
Try thousands and thousands of shadow swings keeping your head still with your eyes glued to an imaginary contact point. Try to perform 2 dozen or more every day whether you go out to the courts or not. As you do this, watch the blur of your racket head coming thru the contact zone. This shadow swinging should help to develop a new muscle memory (to replace your old, defective muscle memory).
Also, practice keeping your head still when you hit on a practice wall. Make it your primary objective for a while. You can do the same thing on a court with a basket of ball. Just visualize your target area before and during your swing. Look up at the end of your swing to see the ball bounce on the other side. Practice this "head still, quiet eye" technique whenever your play mini-tennis or during your regular warming up on the court prior to play.
BD (above) mentioned the chin. This is an excellent idea. There is another aspect to this. Your chin should go from front shoulder (on the unit turn) to the back shoulder (on the follow-thru) -- while rotating your body on your forward swing of the racket the head does not move but your shoulders do. In baseball, it is sometimes said that the chin goes from "Mike" to "Ike". Don't know where those names comes from but the concept is the same.
Also, practice keeping your head still when you hit on a practice wall. Make it your primary objective for a while. You can do the same thing on a court with a basket of ball. Just visualize your target area before and during your swing. Look up at the end of your swing to see the ball bounce on the other side. Practice this "head still, quiet eye" technique whenever your play mini-tennis or during your regular warming up on the court prior to play.
BD (above) mentioned the chin. This is an excellent idea. There is another aspect to this. Your chin should go from front shoulder (on the unit turn) to the back shoulder (on the follow-thru) -- while rotating your body on your forward swing of the racket the head does not move but your shoulders do. In baseball, it is sometimes said that the chin goes from "Mike" to "Ike". Don't know where those names comes from but the concept is the same.
BevelDevil
Hall of Fame
Caution must be used here. This risks throwing off your takeback, weak-arm extension and forehand stroke.
When done right, your weak hand is not pointing anywhere near the ball: At racket release, it's pointing back and to the side. As you fully coil it's extended and pointing to the side. As you begin the forward swing, the weak hand it sweeps out a little and, briefly, your pointer crosses the path of the ball.
So you normally will not actually point at the ball, rather, the ball path briefly moves into your pointer as it moves close to you.
If you decide to point at the ball for the majority of it's path, your arm will be doing all the "wrong" things in that your balance will be slightly off, you won't tend to get the right amount of rotation early enough, and you'll be sweeping your arm inwards instead of outwards, making it more difficult to fully load.
For beginners this might be a good technique. However, for intermediate or advance players this would do more damage than good.
