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TennisOne Lessons It's About Time: Learning Tennis as an Open Skill part 3 Wayne Elderton We are continuing our series on learning tennis as an Open Skill. Tennis is a game, and like all games, in order to counter an opponent"s tactics and apply your own, we need to be aware of what they are doing. "Reading" what the situation is about (called "Perception") comes in two categories:
Our focus today will be on Opponent-Based Perception. It is not uncommon for players to put opponents into situations where they can gain advantage but, because they are unable to recognize it, they don"t capitalize. Conversely, their opponents can be in a position to attack however, they don"t see it and fail to switch to defense. Have you ever experienced a situation where you should have attacked but missed the chance or didn"t notice an opponent sneak into the net until it was too late?
Doing the right thing at the right time is the essence of any game. Learning tennis by just learning and practicing strokes, is learning tennis as a ‘closed’ skill (like diving or gymnastics). If a football Quarterback only practices great running and throwing technique, will that be enough to win games? Just watch any good QB and see all the quick and varied decisions he needs to make to see where receivers are, avoid the opposing team, etc. To help our opponent-based perception, the trick is to train shifting your selective attention onto the opponent. No where am I advocating giving up any focus on your impact. Having a solid focus on your impact with good balance, a still head, and ‘quiet’ eyes is critical to hit the ball well. Just look at recent articles by Tennis One’s Dave Smith and Scott Ford or research by PhD Damien Lafont to see the importance of this aspect of a shot. However, no one who plays well makes an either/or choice (either stay focused on the impact and don’t shift to see what happens to the ball and opponent, or focus on the ball and opponent to the detriment of the impact). It must be both! Our video will provide some drills to help train your ability to shift your focus to the relevant details required to identify what an opponent is doing so you can apply the best tactics to win. Of course, just seeing what is going on doesn’t mean you own the skills to play the ball in the most effective way possible but, this is the start. Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Wayne Elderton's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
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Wayne Elderton