How To Hit Cleaner Shots - Watch the Ball Like Federer

The cleanest ball strikers in history, whether it's Federer, Djokovic, Agassi, or Nadal, are known for their ability to watch the ball into their incoming contact more accurately and cleanly than anybody else. But it's also the first step to looking effortless on the court and hitting shots that echo through the court like gunshots. Now, the question is, is watching the ball actually a trainable skill, or do we need to be blessed by the heavens I mean, don't get me wrong. Some of it is talent. I mean, just look at Federer's pair of eyeballs. They're just, they're just marvelous. Jokes aside, while there is some natural ability involved, reading the ball is not just a learnable skill. It's one of the most important skills to learn in tennis. In his autobiography, Nadal once said, And he's exactly right. Every time your opponent hits the ball, the ball is coming at you with a different mixture of speed, spin, height, direction, and depth. Now the problem is, to the untrained eye, all of this complexity looks like just a mumbo jumbo of random chaos. And ultimately, it causes many rec players to miss a majority of their shots with shanks and forced errors. So today, you're gonna learn how to read the ball, your opponent, and their shots like an open book so that you can stop feeling late, achieve a cleaner contact, and start hitting your shots with confidence. Let's go. Let's start with one of the most common tennis doctrines that we probably hear on the court. Keep your eye on the ball. Every coach and their student's friend and their uncle's dog talks about this. But what does it really mean? The problem is, watching the ball can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, depending on who you ask. And this vagueness makes it one of the most misunderstood things in tennis. We also don't give our eyes as much credit as they need in the role of tennis. I mean, just wait until the lights go down and it gets to like, you know, 7 p.m., and all of a sudden, you're missing all these balls wondering what's going on. And it kind of makes sense. The role of the eyes and vision in tennis is incredibly complex, which did make it hard to write this video, by the way. So to truly master the upcoming steps in this video, we first need to get a fundamental understanding of exactly how our eyes track moving objects in general. But for those of you who wanna skip straight to the key steps, you can use this time code right here. First, the detail and processing speed of your vision is actually gonna depend on the different degrees of eyesight that we're talking about. So let's start with sharp focus. Generally, we have about two degrees of sharp focus when the light actually hits the little tiny concave in your eye called the fovea. Now, imagine if you're staring out into the distance and you're looking at a piece of furniture or your neighbor, although that is a bit creepy. Or if you're trying to read small letters in the distance. H, four, M, potato shape, coffee mug shape. Basically, we need to eliminate the external information and sharpen our focus to actually be able to track and recognize these objects. Now, from sharp focus, we have something a little bit outside of this called the field of vision. Now, in this range here, things start to probably get a little bit blurry, but you can still detect shape, color, and movement. And further outside of that, we have what we call the peripheral vision. Now, by this point, we can't really detect much besides movement. So it's almost like viewing a very low quality video. So this is where things start to get complicated in tennis. When we're watching the ball, which degree of vision are we actually talking about here? Are we purely focused on the two degrees of narrow vision throughout the entire shot? Well, let's talk about that. On top of all this, there are many movements that the eyes can actually perform. So it's gonna be important to break these down as well. Some of these motions are gonna be conscious, others are gonna be less conscious. So let's take, for example, your pupils starting to dilate when it's adjusting to the darkness. That's a subconscious action. But something like looking left to right is a little bit more in our control. So for the sake of simplicity, we're gonna be breaking down these motions into four primary movements. The first are called saccades. These are rapid ballistic movements of the eyes that abruptly change the point of fixation. This basically happens when you're switching your focus from one object in the distance to another. Next, we have something called smooth pursuit. These are slower tracking movements of the eyes designed to keep a moving stimulus on the fovea. This is what you typically use when you're staring outside the window and watching a train move in the distance. The third movement is called avergence movement. This is what we use to track distance when your eyes start to converge together as an object moves closer. Then we have vestibulo-ocular movements. This is where we stabilize our eyes and fixate on, let's say, our environment and watch an object move across our field of vision. So for example, let's take an owl who's hunting their prey. Even though they're flying at top speeds, they're still able to keep their head tracking on their prey. And the fifth movement is called ocular extension. This is where the eyes pop out of their sockets, especially when we're in shock. Usually only cartoons can do this. Now the eyes are only taking in the data or these streams of light waves. So if our eyes were like cameras, they'd be basically hooked up to a super network that's constantly reconfiguring these images with CGI. That's your brain. You see, your brain is constantly interpreting the world around you. And a lot of these constructions of images are based on pattern recognition. Back before the days of Walmart and McDonald's and $5 Footlongs, we needed this as a skill to hunt, to scavenge, and to hide. And because doing things like detecting faces were super important for us to be able to cooperate with each other, we developed this really keen ability to detect faces, even on wooden ceilings. Or perhaps you see shapes of familiar objects in the clouds. And when you see a peach, you see John Travolta's chin. Now we just wanna be able to see a tennis ball, not to question our consciousness or reality. So how does all of this relate to our game? It doesn't. No, I'm just kidding. Just like our brains have been evolved to track objects for survival, we can also train it to detect patterns optimized around achieving a specific goal, an even more important goal than survival, hitting a tennis ball. For example, if you don't play chess, this set of pieces probably doesn't mean much to you. But if you were a grandmaster, you'd clearly see that it's just mate in three moves. Chess masters are able to recognize the positions of chess pieces, which allows them to immediately understand the situation they're in and what move to make next. And this ability to read and anticipate shots is your key to understanding exactly how to start hitting cleaner shots and taking your game to the next level. So the title of this video should really be how to anticipate the ball, or how to anticipate the ball less wrong than your opponent, just like Federer. So now let's break down the act of watching the ball, tracking the ball, right into your contact spot in five simple steps. Let's get into it. Now, as your opponent loads and prepares to make contact with the ball, instead of looking at the ball, elite players are instead focusing on reading their opponent as they load and start their swing. This is similar to how athletes in combat sports, they don't just read their opponent's fist coming in once they started moving. No, they look for subtle cues like the opponent's stance, their weight positioning, their hand positioning, and also the incoming shoulder. And just like that in tennis, we need to look for those subtle cues that our opponents give to us, whether it's their stance or their backswing, that help us in creating the best guess as to where the ball will end up on our side. Based on their grip and how their hitting arm position is prepared, you can tell whether they're gonna hit a slice or a topspin or a flat shot. Or if they're rotated more into the net, they're likely going cross court instead of down the line. And anytime your opponent is off balance or really on the run, you can immediately recognize it as an attackable ball and be ready to move into the net. And these are the tiny nuances that elite players are able to pick up, and it almost makes them look like they can read the future. Now as players unload and begin to strike the ball, we move on to step number two, reading your opponent's contact. The best players are able to read and anticipate the ball's location faster and more accurately than everyone else. And this ability to quickly anticipate where the ball is going is a crucial skill in not just tennis, but pretty much all sports that require hand-eye or foot-eye coordination. We all know football legend Cristiano Ronaldo. Now in 2016, a group of scientists put Ronaldo into a room and gave him a challenge. Someone would toss a soccer ball into the field and Ronaldo would start moving up to kick the ball. But there was a slight twist. Right after the ball's initial flight, they switched the lights off, cutting out his vision entirely. Now despite being in pitch black darkness, Ronaldo was spot on with his various attacks because he was able to predict the ball's final position based on the feeder's body position and the initial flight of the ball. And just like Ronaldo, the best ball strikers in tennis are able to stay one step ahead because they can read and anticipate these shots so quickly. Now most club and junior players, on the other hand, are probably still thinking about the last shot or reacting to the oncoming ball once it's halfway across the other side of the net. And as you can probably expect, this is exactly what caused that jam or rushed feeling at contact. So next time, as your opponents begin hitting the ball, instead of merely reacting to what you see, try to proactively predict the general area of where the ball will end up on your side. And if you wanna improve this even faster, try practicing this with as many different types of players with different hitting speeds and spins as possible. You see, if you only play with the same type of player again and again, you really start to get a groove and a rhythm for their shots. And by this point, you're no longer practicing the proactive anticipation because you already know where it's gonna go. So to help with this, we've partnered with Scott and Nate over at PlayYourCourt.com. Look, we know that one of the biggest reasons that players have a really hard time improving or sometimes quit the sport entirely is because it's very difficult to find a solid group of hitting partners to practice with. And this gets even harder the higher and higher levels of play that you experience. And I always recommend to my students that you usually have three types of tennis players in your inner circle. You've got players that you can comfortably handle and experiment new techniques with. You've got players right at your playing level who can give you a good challenge and help you assess your strengths and weaknesses. And you've got a few players a little bit better than you who constantly stretch you and force you to get out of that comfort zone. So whatever type of player or even coach you're looking for, PlayYourCourt is one of the biggest platforms to find quality practice partners in your area. And many of our students have actually used it to find some really solid hitting partners to practice a lot of the drills that we work on with. So if you wanna level up your game with a good circle of quality hitting partners and coaches, then either go here or click the first link in the description below and you'll get 50% off your membership today. Now another good way of practicing that proactive ball reading is with your split step. What you wanna do is to try starting your split step a bit earlier than you might be used to. Instead of starting your split when your opponent hits the ball, try starting your split when they accelerate moments before contact. This will give your brain just enough time to process your opponent's shot right as you land and you're able to execute that first reaction step as quick as you can. And the speed of your first step can often make or break your ability to read and respond to the incoming ball. Another advanced floor pattern that you could use here is the float step. This is where instead of splitting with two feet, you're landing on the inside leg while already pivoting your foot closer to the ball to start moving. And this is what gets you to look like you're floating and flying around the court so intuitively. So your opponent makes contact and now the ball is in flight. Step number three is to start watching the ball's flight and bounce. If the ball is coming slower, then you can use the tracking the ball advice where you're using the smooth pursuit to track the ball. Here, you're seeing the ball clearly, which direction it's spinning and where it will be when you make clean contact. But as the ball starts coming faster and faster, it starts to become almost impossible to track with the naked eye. At this point, the ball will zip out of that tiny two degree field of sharp focus that we have. And let's say you were actually able to focus on the ball even if it's moving that fast. Well, it's still gonna take more time for your brain to process and react to what's going on. Instead of a clear sphere looking tennis ball, you're gonna see a blurred image or a streak. And at the highest levels, this is what the majority of the incoming fastballs look like. When Djokovic is facing Isner's 140 mile per hour serve or Sinner's 85 mile per hour backhand, what is he actually looking at? According to Dr. Damien Lafont, the human eye is unable to see or register the contact of a fast approaching tennis ball with the strings of the racket. And he goes on to say that the great delusion of tennis is that one can see the ball at all times and keep it in focus. The optical illusion is called completion phenomenon in which a player believes he sees the ball during its entire flight. In other words, the key to hitting clean shots consistently is not just tracking the ball, but anticipating its position and looking ahead of where the ball will be. And instead, you're not merely seeing a sphere, you're seeing a blur. And the best players are able to anticipate this movement so well, so intuitively, that their body movements become reflexive instead of having to actively think about it each time the ball comes. Now, when all you see is a blur, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Psychologically, the brain does a very good job at detecting movement, even if it's based on a static image. So let's take a look at this. You'd probably guess that the object is gonna end up here based on the blur you see. As the ball flies through the air, it might curve a little bit from the spin, but for the most part, its path will be easier to anticipate since only drag and gravity are changing its path. Now, the crucial thing to look for here is the ball's bounce because things like the court surface, the type of ball, the debris on the court, the lines and the spin can all create variances that cause you to misread the bounce. So as soon as your opponent hits, try to visualize the ball's trajectory and focus on where the ball will bounce. And then from there, rise into your contact zone, which takes us to step number four. Okay, so the ball bounces and gets closer to your contact. This is the zone where you can no longer visibly see the ball. You see, as the ball gets closer to us, it moves faster across our field of vision. This is why you can clearly see cars moving through the freeway from afar, but they look like a blur when it's up close. At this point, players execute a technique called the quiet eye. It's used by many top athletes in golf, football, basketball, baseball, and many other sports. The quiet eye is where you keep your field of vision and your head still relative to the court. As you turn or move, you're stabilizing your head and your eyes on the target so that your field of vision remains still no matter how you move or rotate. The best way to visualize this is an owl that's flying through the air and moving its head perfectly still, locked in on its target or its prey. Now, as you make contact with the ball, things get a little interesting. While you do want to keep the ball in your field of vision, most players aren't actively focusing on tracking the ball at this point. It turns out that at this speed, watching the ball or tracking it all the way to contact is not as useful. You see, by this point, the brain's done the work of calculating the ball's position through time and space. So you should be able to theoretically close your eyes and still hit a clean shot. Players like Wawrinka, Djokovic, Agassi, and Murray are looking slightly ahead of their contact point, likely stopping their heads and eyes from moving as soon as the ball enters this fog zone. And as you can see from Thiem or sometimes Federer, they actually keep their eyes closed at contact. If you want to emulate Federer's head position at contact, instead of trying to see the ball as you hit it, I recommend trying to look behind your racket strings. In either case, the common thread that all of these players are executing is to keep their heads still through their contact zone well after their shot. Many rec players, on the other hand, look up toward the target they're trying to hit to right away or sometimes even before contact. And this one tweak opens up the possibility for your body to over-rotate or for your entire body to fall off balance, which leads to a poor contact and, counterproductively, more likely a missed shot. So as the ball bounces and rises into your contact zone, visualize the contact point you want to make with the ball, whether you're hitting a forehand, a backhand, a slice, or even a volley. And tied to that is step number five, mastering your proprioception. This is the perception or awareness of the position and movement of your body. As the ball gets closer to you, this is where you want to start focusing more inward. Now this sounds spiritual, but I promise it works. You want to focus on how your contact should feel and look like. So next time you're hitting with your opponent, let's say you're trying to make contact with the ball and here I want you to put all of your attention into how comfortable or how clean your contact feels. And if you've got your head and body stable and on balance, you'll be able to feel your hitting arm and racket a lot better. Getting in touch with the actual feeling of the correct contact is one of the key determinants of how well you're able to give yourself the feedback to start executing these techniques more consistently. No matter what level you're at, the critical element for accelerated growth and learning is the actual ability to go, hey, that felt right. If you don't know exactly what you're doing right or wrong, it's almost like you're taking shots in the dark. You'll see that even pros, if they miss their shots, they'll often shadow swing their contact and extension, likely reinforcing that proprioception or feeling over their contact point. That's why in the next video of this series, we're gonna be covering how to master your contact point. So be sure to subscribe and hit that bell notification icon so that you'll be the first to know when that video comes out. And once again, if you want to grow your inner circle of tennis players and start actually being able to apply some of these drills and techniques that we covered on the court, be sure to check out playyourcourt.com and get 50% off your membership by clicking the first link in the description below. Trust me, you'll thank me later. And until next time, guys, go out and train hard. I'll see you in the next video.