Every Tennis player will have heard the phrase “look at the ball!”But is this right?
How can players make the most of their vision to improve their game, and try to sort out good advice from all the information in the public domain today?
20/20 vision is a term used to express normal visual acuity (the clarity or sharpness of vision) measured at a distance of 20 feet. Normal vision is a great asset on court, but is only a part of how and when your vision plays such an important role in improving consistency and accuracy. So, should we “look” at the ball, “watch” the ball, “track” the ball, or “see” the ball?The truth probably is all of the above! As with all matters in Tennis, timing is the essential ingredient, and knowing what to do, how to use our vision, and when, makes all the difference.
There are times during play when in fact we don’t need to see or look at the ball.
This is very well explained on video by Tomaz Mencinger via his website https://www.feeltennis.net/still-head-at-contact/where he confirms that elite players have a gaze which can be described as focused or global, (all players are one or the other). Some appear to look at the ball at contact – Federer, where others see the ball incoming to the zone - Serena, but all achieve high levels of consistency and quality of shot. When this technique falters we start to see more errors and less consistency.
If you watch the whole video; Tomaz explains that the elite pros don’t look to see where their opponent is, so this allows them to remain focused on the contact, even after the ball is gone. The player does not attempt to follow the ball off the strings, but keeps the head still with eyes fixated on the contact point, after contact. This ensures that the swing path of the racket remains true. A clean contact. Movement of the head to look at the ball or the opponent can adversely affect the swing path of the racket.
This groundstroke accuracy at contact develops because the player’s gaze is on the anticipated contact with the ball, and the shot is played into the safe target zones deep in the court, and away from the lines.
The next essential is to see the shot that your opponent plays, which allows you to anticipate the return and recover, by anticipating the track of the ball, seeing the incoming bounce, and executing your next shot with a clean contact.I like to think that seeing the ball best describes all the different scenarios experienced during a game. There are times when we do need to look at the ball for an overhead, anticipate the contact point for a volley, ensure the racket path meets the ball for an accurate serve, all of which use our visual powers. After you see the return to your shot then your ability to achieve a good contact is dictated by your prediction of the speed, flight and bounce incoming.
Tomaz says that keeping your head still at contact is a project which takes time, but concentrating on the contact, combined with confidence in the direction and depth of your groundstrokes wins points;
See the ball, trust your racket.