Seeing the Ball

[jared_frogtennis]

Hello All,

I have a question related to perception of the ball. When I'm teaching my juniors there are some athletes who can see and react to the ball well, then there are others who stare at the ball and prepare, yet do not move. Then there are non-athletes who can react to the ball and non-athletes who cannot.

How do you get juniors to react to the ball earlier? Basically how do you develop perception in younger players? Is it just repetition? Situational based on the drills that are performed?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

Jared

[stotty]

Hello All,

I have a question related to perception of the ball. When I'm teaching my juniors there are some athletes who can see and react to the ball well, then there are others who stare at the ball and prepare, yet do not move. Then there are non-athletes who can react to the ball and non-athletes who cannot.

How do you get juniors to react to the ball earlier? Basically how do you develop perception in younger players? Is it just repetition? Situational based on the drills that are performed?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

Jared

Great question. It's a fascinating part of the game. I look at it differently. I shift the emphasis from "seeing" to "time". I like my students to understand what having "time on the ball" means and how to create it. Time is everything. It is one of those things which separates good players from lesser players...having better perception. Admittedly much of it can only be learned by experience of playing and moving up the ranks in standard, but we can always encourage a quick turn, early preparation, and read the cues of opponents.

A simple way to develop time is to have your players volley against a wall at close range...challenge them to volley-rally as quickly as they can. If volleyers frequently practice in this way, he will feel they have an ocean of time when they are playing the real game. It works for groundshots as well.

Using practice drills where players will always have less time than in the real game, will increase their "time on the ball". Relative to my standard of play, I developed more time than all of my peers by doing such drills. They work.

[klacr]

Interesting dilemma. Not because it's unique, but because it's something every coach and teacher has faced and yet so little is talked about it.

Stotty's tips are helpful and think that those are great exercises to start with.
But perhaps the idea of "seeing the ball" and perception is not so much a physical, athletic skill as it is a mental skill. The intensity, alertness and anticipation are critical factors. Here are two articles on this site from USTA coach Jay Berger.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...icipation.html

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_performance/jay_berger/anticipation_part2/anticipation_part2.html

Hope that helps and gives you a sense of what may be going on with your students. I'm confident that Stotty's tips and these articles will give you some guidance as to where to begin.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[jared_frogtennis]

Stotty,

Great ideas. Preparation and turning early are big parts, but I just want them to move their feet to the ball! Thanks for the tips I will definitely use them!

Kyle,

I saw those articles after I posted, and I love them. Good ideas and good insight. I believe that this topic should be talked about more among our community because it is a common issue. If we talked more about the easiest/best way to help our juniors work on perception/anticipation/watching what the ball is doing kids would move a great deal better.

I'll let you know what works for my students after I experiment. Thanks guys!

Jared