Today we show you a simple trick to see the ball better. This video is for all skill levels.
Hey guys, Nate here from PlayYourCourt. Today, we’re going to examine – Are you really watching the ball?
Every tennis pro you’ve ever taken a lesson with, has asked you, “Are you watching the ball?” Or they tell you, “You got to watch the ball.” Right, so let’s dive into it. What does that really mean? What we’re going to focus on here is the old saying, are you looking at the tree or are you looking at the forest? A lot of times when we’re playing tennis, we’re seeing the tree but unfortunately, visually, we’re picking up everything. So what that means is you’re seeing the ball, but you’re seeing your opponent, you’re seeing the backdrop, you’re seeing the car that just parked behind the fence, you see the airplane up above you. Hopefully not the airplane above you, but you’re seeing way too many things.
Focus on the Ball
Your brain is trying to collect all this data. At the end of the day, the game is truly about just watching this yellow, arguably greenish tinted ball. And so what happens, our brain gets a little bit bored. We have a hard time just zero in and we become a little ADD and we start focusing on a lot of different things. So what we’re going to talk about are tricks to get you to watch the ball better. For this example, we’re using a Pro Penn ball here and what we’re going to get you to focus on is actually the red lettering. So as this ball is moving, try to see Pro Penn in red. And you’re going to see a blur of just red turning over. And by focusing on this, you’re going to really train your brain and your eyes to only focus on the ball.
Anticipate the ball’s path
Now the cool thing is when you start trying to look up, when you really just try to start seeing the lettering on the ball, you’re going to start seeing whether it’s topspin or backspinning. Heck, maybe it’s like side spin. They miss hit it and you’re going to see it on this weird axis. And you’re going to know to get your feet going. But this is how we truly watch the ball, okay? And by watching the ball, we’re going to be able to anticipate better, we’re going to get our unit turn back, we’re going to get our feet in position. So watching the ball absolutely improves contact. All right, so next time you’re in the court, if you feel like you’ve had a long morning or long afternoon, you’re a little spaced out, start getting trained. Get your eyes used to reading the lettering and this will bring your attention back to the ball and give the optimal performance.
Guys, this was just a really quick little actionable tip that I hope it helps. It’s a fairly broad tip. Everybody can use this because at every level, we need to focus on watching the ball. Unfortunately, we don’t know a lot about all of you out there PlayYourCourt. We’ve actually got a lot of videos that are tailor-made specifically to every ability, every level. All right, so if you hit the button below, you sign up. We’re going to send you these tips and they’re going to be tailor-made specifically for your level. If you enjoyed this video, do me a favor. Hit like, leave a comment, tell me what you thought. Always happy to have some dialogue and get feedback. Hope you enjoyed it, we’ll see you soon.
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