Watch the ball.

[Steady Eddy]

Like anyone hasn't heard that tip a million times. But I'll shank a few and ask myself, "Am I watching my racket hit the ball, or looking away at the last moment?", and answer in the negative. Then I'll reform my ways, and all starts going well again.

Some videos say that you can't actually watch the ball off of your strings, I guess that's so. But I can definitely see my strings hitting the ball on the serve, and usually on overheads. It's very tempting to look away on an overhead to see if it can be returned. In a tight situation where you need a second serve to go in, I just remind myself that I'm going to actually watch my racket head hit the ball, and then it's usually fine.

Maybe it's annoying to hear, "Keep you eye on the ball." But we have a tendency to get sloppy, and forget to execute this basic bit of advice.

 

[cks]

But I'll shank a few and ask myself, "Am I watching my racket hit the ball, or looking away at the last moment?"

Same here. Once I start framing shots, I know I'm moving my head either right at contact or right before.

 

[mac-1210]

It's not critical to see your strings hit the ball on a serve. If you watch slow motion footage of professionals, many aren't looking at the ball at the moment of impact. (Some do - Carlos Alcaraz is an example).

Here's Casper Ruud at Wimbledon the other week that I got some good slow motion footage of...I have frozen the frame at which his head has dropped to look down court. Note how far the racket is from contact. The reason for this is that the ball is pretty much stationary from trophy position (when he is looking at the ball) to strike.

Same for Ugo Humbert...

I believe the reason we have the propensity to look down court on the forehand is that the human brain is pretty good at working out the spacial aspect of predictable ball flight, so a lot of the time we can get away with it and it leads us to naturally do this. Add some unpredictability into it (wind, spin, court surface) and thats why it becomes necessary to drill ourselves to watch the ball to the racket. Having said this, I've heard that the Federer long post strike stare, whilst often cited as a great example of watching the ball, is unnecessary.

Dominic Thiem is worth a watch...he actually closes his eyes at the moment of contact on most of his forehands!

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Like anyone hasn't heard that tip a million times. But I'll shank a few and ask myself, "Am I watching my racket hit the ball, or looking away at the last moment?", and answer in the negative. Then I'll reform my ways, and all starts going well again.

Some videos say that you can't actually watch the ball off of your strings, I guess that's so. But I can definitely see my strings hitting the ball on the serve, and usually on overheads. It's very tempting to look away on an overhead to see if it can be returned. In a tight situation where you need a second serve to go in, I just remind myself that I'm going to actually watch my racket head hit the ball, and then it's usually fine.

Maybe it's annoying to hear, "Keep you eye on the ball." But we have a tendency to get sloppy, and forget to execute this basic bit of advice.

It's irrelevant whether one can actually see a 4ms event [the time the ball stays on the strings].

What's very relevant is keeping your head still at contact and not swiveling your head to watch the ball's trajectory. The best way to do this is to watch the contact point.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

It's not critical to see your strings hit the ball on a serve. If you watch slow motion footage of professionals, many aren't looking at the ball at the moment of impact. (Some do - Carlos Alcaraz is an example).

I would amend this to read "If you're a professional who has practiced the stroke ad infinitum, it's probably not critical to watch the contact point. if you're a rec player, it might very well improve your accuracy; it sure couldn't hurt to try."

 

[Steady Eddy]

It's not critical to see your strings hit the ball on a serve. If you watch slow motion footage of professionals, many aren't looking at the ball at the moment of impact. (Some do - Carlos Alcaraz is an example).

Here's Casper Ruud at Wimbledon the other week that I got some good slow motion footage of...I have frozen the frame at which his head has dropped to look down court. Note how far the racket is from contact. The reason for this is that the ball is pretty much stationary from trophy position (when he is looking at the ball) to strike.

I believe the reason we have the propensity to look down court on the forehand is that the human brain is pretty good at working out the spacial aspect of predictable ball flight, so a lot of the time we can get away with it and it leads us to naturally do this. Add some unpredictability into it (wind, spin, court surface) and thats why it becomes necessary to drill ourselves to watch the ball to the racket. Having said this, I've heard that the Federer long post strike stare, whilst often cited as a great example of watching the ball, is unnecessary.

Dominic Thiem is worth a watch...he actually closes his eyes at the moment of contact on most of his forehands!

I've also noticed that some tour players don't look at the ball on the serve. But maybe that is because they have such a consistent toss?

Sometimes when I'm waiting on an overhead, I get eager and I have to tell myself "Wait...Wait...WAIT!" If I remind myself to watch the racket hit the ball, I do okay. If I peek to see if it's a good smash then it's anything from a mishit to a whiff.

Other times I don't know why the best players wouldn't watch the ball. But, like swinging volleys, it might be one of those things that they can get away with that I cannot?

 

[Fintft]

It's irrelevant whether one can actually see a 4ms event [the time the ball stays on the strings].

What's very relevant is keeping your head still at contact and not swiveling your head to watch the ball's trajectory. The best way to do this is to watch the contact point.

OP, as a benchmark you are not supposed to see if a ball hits the net. This is the first and last thing I try to fix during practices and matches.
It also relaxes you, desiguises the shot etc.

 

[mac-1210]

I've also noticed that some tour players don't look at the ball on the serve. But maybe that is because they have such a consistent toss?

My slo-mo footage was 240fps and looking at the number of frames, between that picture I posted and contact is probably a conservative 0.08sec. Even on an inconsistent toss with slightly slower racket head speed, I don’t think that a ball moves that much to be critical to be visual with the ball to know where to orient the racket head in space to hit at the centre. ie Even for an amateur, the racket head speed is far greater than that of a tossed ball...which at the apex of toss is zero.

Sometimes when I'm waiting on an overhead, I get eager and I have to tell myself "Wait...Wait...WAIT!" If I remind myself to watch the racket hit the ball, I do okay. If I peek to see if it's a good smash then it's anything from a mishit to a whiff.

Other times I don't know why the best players wouldn't watch the ball. But, like swinging volleys, it might be one of those things that they can get away with that I cannot?

Regarding a forehand too, I don’t think it is necessary for anyone to see a ball touch strings. You could get away with closing your eyes at the time of contact. I think, as mentioned above, trying to see the contact facilitates a still head which is the most important factor in all of this. Tracking the ball remains important though.

Federer is often held as the exemplar of watching the ball...mainly because of his unique way of staring at where the contact point was well into the follow through. At the rec level, copying the forehand version of this has a danger of preventing the hitting shoulder from being out front and a good uncoil during the follow through. It is probably better to ignore Fed and mimic Murray/Djokovic/Nadal who tracks the ball towards contact then moves the head round with the racket follow through.

So “watch the ball hit the strings” is definitely good facilitation thought to more consistent strikes, but actually seeing the ball near the strings isn’t in itself the necessity. Recognising, tracking the ball, then maintaining a still head is the real key.

I did see a really good youtube video that broke this down and discussed both serve and groundstroke, but can't for the life of me find it right now!

 

[Chas Tennis]

Like anyone hasn't heard that tip a million times. But I'll shank a few and ask myself, "Am I watching my racket hit the ball, or looking away at the last moment?", and answer in the negative. Then I'll reform my ways, and all starts going well again.

Some videos say that you can't actually watch the ball off of your strings, I guess that's so. But I can definitely see my strings hitting the ball on the serve, and usually on overheads. It's very tempting to look away on an overhead to see if it can be returned. In a tight situation where you need a second serve to go in, I just remind myself that I'm going to actually watch my racket head hit the ball, and then it's usually fine.

Maybe it's annoying to hear, "Keep you eye on the ball." But we have a tendency to get sloppy, and forget to execute this basic bit of advice.

My approach is to look at what ATP players do with high speed videos. I consider their strokes to be the most important information for high performance tennis, a reference standard.

On the serve, most ATP players are not looking at the ball at impact. They break off looking just before impact. Some look at impact.

We should know what is true and what is false so that we know what to believe. To check whether most ATP players are looking at impact or not for the serve, pick 10 servers by random and view them slow motion in a side camera view.

Are they looking or have they broken off their ball viewing by impact? %

For ground strokes, Federer's head is very still. But Medvedev's head moves rapidly around. I believe that he looks at the ball or close briefly but he does not do what I would call 'keep his head still'. I'd say the Federer and Medvedev are examples of top players with different ball watching techniques. There were threads on their ball watching in the last year or so.

 

[user92626]

It's not critical to see your strings hit the ball on a serve. If you watch slow motion footage of professionals, many aren't looking at the ball at the moment of impact. (Some do - Carlos Alcaraz is an example).

Here's Casper Ruud at Wimbledon the other week that I got some good slow motion footage of...I have frozen the frame at which his head has dropped to look down court. Note how far the racket is from contact. The reason for this is that the ball is pretty much stationary from trophy position (when he is looking at the ball) to strike.

Same for Ugo Humbert...

I believe the reason we have the propensity to look down court on the forehand is that the human brain is pretty good at working out the spacial aspect of predictable ball flight, so a lot of the time we can get away with it and it leads us to naturally do this. Add some unpredictability into it (wind, spin, court surface) and thats why it becomes necessary to drill ourselves to watch the ball to the racket. Having said this, I've heard that the Federer long post strike stare, whilst often cited as a great example of watching the ball, is unnecessary.

Dominic Thiem is worth a watch...he actually closes his eyes at the moment of contact on most of his forehands!

So, watch the ball or don't watch the ball?

 

[user92626]

Like anyone hasn't heard that tip a million times. But I'll shank a few and ask myself, "Am I watching my racket hit the ball, or looking away at the last moment?", and answer in the negative. Then I'll reform my ways, and all starts going well again.

Some videos say that you can't actually watch the ball off of your strings, I guess that's so. But I can definitely see my strings hitting the ball on the serve, and usually on overheads. It's very tempting to look away on an overhead to see if it can be returned. In a tight situation where you need a second serve to go in, I just remind myself that I'm going to actually watch my racket head hit the ball, and then it's usually fine.

Maybe it's annoying to hear, "Keep you eye on the ball." But we have a tendency to get sloppy, and forget to execute this basic bit of advice.

Eddy,

I solved this shanking problem by going with a bigger racket.

Right now I'm at a 115 sq. inch racket.

Rule of thumb is after 50, every half a decade means 5 square inch increase to your racket.

 

[mac-1210]

So, watch the ball or don't watch the ball?

I reckon watch it, but best to understand why you are doing it and not worry when you never really come away feeling that you see contact. And if you try to copy Fed, note that it could lead to unintended movement problems.

 

[nyta2]

It's irrelevant whether one can actually see a 4ms event [the time the ball stays on the strings].

What's very relevant is keeping your head still at contact and not swiveling your head to watch the ball's trajectory. The best way to do this is to watch the contact point.

when i'm really keeping my head still and eyes on contact, i "see" a yellow blur (guessing it's the ball going into and out of contact), superimposed with a perpendicular <fill in your racquet color> blur
that said, most times i'm "peeking", and don't see the blurs...

 

[Sir Weed]

My approach is to look at what ATP players do with high speed videos. I consider their strokes to be the most important information for high performance tennis, a reference standard.

On the serve, most ATP players are not looking at the ball at impact. They break off looking just before impact. Some look at impact.

We should know what is true and what is false so that we know what to believe. To check whether most ATP players are looking at impact or not for the serve, pick 10 servers by random and view them slow motion in a side camera view.

Are they looking or have they broken off their ball viewing by impact? %

For ground strokes, Federer's head is very still. But Medvedev's head moves rapidly around. I believe that he looks at the ball or close briefly but he does not do what I would call 'keep his head still'. I'd say the Federer and Medvedev are examples of top players with different ball watching techniques. There were threads on their ball watching in the last year or so.

It's one thing what they're looking at. Another thing is what their brain is doing with this visual information: processing hand position relative to ball taking into account intended ball trajectory of stroke.

 

[mac-1210]

when i'm really keeping my head still and eyes on contact, i "see" a yellow blur (guessing it's the ball going into and out of contact), superimposed with a perpendicular <fill in your racquet color> blur
that said, most times i'm "peeking", and don't see the blurs...

Trying to think of what I see or am looking at on both serve and groundstroke at contact, I'm not really sure. I will have to consciously think about it next time I go on court. When I'm not hitting the sweet spot, I do sometimes come away from court thinking I wasn't tracking the ball very well.

One techinque I tend to do to to try and get the eye back in is to consiously think about the ball trajectory, try to see its peak after the bounce, if that makes sense.

 

[Chas Tennis]

It's one thing what they're looking at. Another thing is what their brain is doing with this visual information: processing hand position relative to ball taking into account intended ball trajectory of stroke.

I try to stick to what can be seen in high speed videos. Nerve signals can't be observed in the videos, just positions of things.

I do know that if the player sees something, then decides something with the brain and then sends a nerve signal to a muscle, often that total time is longer than the time to impact, so it can't be done. For example, if a server is looking at 10 milliseconds before impact and sees something, I don't think that they can move muscles before impact. Of course, we should go into details with specific muscles, using the time it takes nerve signals to travel from the brain to the muscle. Often the travel times of the nerve signals themselves are longer than the time to impact, for example, than 10 milliseconds. [ISR from start to impact is about 25 milliseconds.]

Maybe the above is telling us something about why ATP servers can break off viewing before impact. ?

Some of my Youtube videos have a count down scale showing a frame and the time in milliseconds remaining to impact.

Search: nerve signal velocity

Maybe there is a map showing the travel times of the nerves to each part of the body?

It feels instantaneous, but how long does it really take to think a thought?

Sensory information comes into the system, and we initiate actions in response. Quantifying how quickly that happens is tricky – especially since our own perceptions of the timing aren’t quite right.

theconversation.com

".................... the time it takes for the movement commands to travel from the brain to the arm muscles (which is on the order of 16-25 ms)."

Nerve signal velocity.

Nerve conduction velocity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org