How to Watch the Ball in Tennis – All You Need to Know About

Keeping an eye on the ball or watching it is a very common phrase mostly coaches use on a court while instructing their trainees during the tennis drill. This term depicts the rallies on a court while playing or keeping an eye on the opponent’s activity to play in a better way and secure maximum score, or you can say watching the ball is used for concentration and attention a player plays on the ball. 

But there is no doubt in saying that it is a technical term and to answer this question of how to watch the ball in tennis requires some logical responses. 

How Can You Predict the Ball from Your Opponent?

To predict the ball from the opponent’s side, the player must coordinate his body and mind, and the second important point is to generate hand-eye coordination and his eyes and brain, known as fixation points or saccades. 

Moreover, you can predict the ball in three sequential steps:

A- Observation 

First, your eyes work in watching the ball, so you have to focus your eyes on the strike of your opponent by creating the saccades. 

B- Prediction 

When you focus on the stroke, then your brain immediately makes an imaginary line starting from the opposite side of the net to your side.

C- Action 

Action depicts the contact of your racket with the ball. Your mind anticipates where the ball will land, and you run accordingly before the tennis ball arrives. 

This observation, prediction, and action sequence is common among all players because they all are doing this unintentionally.

More Detailed Mechanism of How to Watch the Tennis Ball

1. Focus on the Flight of the Ball 

The story begins when your opponents give service because it will give you a clear image of the ball’s trajectory, and instantly your brain makes the geometrical angles that help you detect where the ball will end up. Mostly the beginners are losers in this step. That is why they miss the ball and commit a foul, so you have to make the final adjustments before landing the ball on the court surface. 

The top players use these strategies to depict the angles:

• How far the ball is present, either it is on the left side or the right side. 

• How long the ball will take to reach them. 
• How much height the ball will gain before reaching them. 
• What will be the effect of the ball type on the ball and the bounce and ultimately on the return serve? 

You must be very clear about these points; otherwise, you will get extra strain on your mind and body besides missing the serve. 

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2. Notice the Activity of the Ball after Bouncing 

• The second point is crucial if you want to contact the ball with the racket’s sweet spot.
• Ball bounce is very important because a bad bounce breaks the game’s pace and a good bounce decides the swing of the ball in a very good way. 

3. Focus on the Ball before Contact 

Watching the ball before you hit it with the racket is significant as it decides your returning serve. For this, you have to observe the ball when it is between 0.5 meters to 2 meters away from the contact point, and watching the ball at that point is quite easy because mostly the ball is not much visible when it is at its full flight. The brain works and helps the hand hit the shot by giving the last information and predicting the ideal contact point.

4. Practice for Watching the Ball 

Watching the ball is surely a natural phenomenon, but you can improve watching the tennis ball with an accurate strategy and constant drill. 

Here are some drills discussed below that will help you while you are practicing tennis:

Keep the Focus on the Ball

Drop the ball, and when it comes in, bounce watch it clearly with focused eyes before you make contact with the ball. It will be helpful while you are playing mini tennis and while rallying. 

Observe from where the Trajectory Initiates

Before starting the baseline warmup, you must be very sure of where the ball will take its flight and where it will end up as the whole activity of the ball depends on this information which could be better gained with the assistance of trajectory judging computer your brain.

Watch the Blur of the Racket 

• No doubt keeping an eye on the ball is crucial if you want to return an unbeatable service, but it is also true that the ball and racket both make the serve correct, so you also have to pay attention to the racket while you are hitting the ball. 
• The blur of the racket, which is passing through the field of vision, hit an accurate shot. 

Observe the Ball Disappear 

Focusing on the ball at different points is undoubtedly tough, but it is mandatory; otherwise, the ball will disappear. You must focus on the ground behind the contact point to keep the ball all time under your observation. 

Keep Your Head Still While Making Contact 

Keeping the head still while making the racket contact with a ball is almost impossible, especially if you are a beginner. This technique requires a lot of practice to keep an eye on the ball. At the same time, flying is a natural phenomenon. 

The brain automatically starts predicting the final position, but keeping the head still is difficult but mandatory; otherwise, you will unintentionally pull the racket from the actual contact point.