TennisOne Lessons

The Unexpected Benefits of Tracking the Ball

Daryl Fisher

Have you ever had a time when you felt like you were hitting a tennis ball well but not playing well? Tennis is not just a game of hitting the ball well, as there is also an important aspect that involves decision making. Some of the decisions are subtle chess-like maneuvers. How, then, do players make decisions in the small amount of time they have between shots? The answer has quite a bit to do with tracking the ball.

Tracking the Ball

To see a tennis ball you are about to hit is helpful in an obvious way: you need to track the ball in order to know where and when to swing your tennis racket so as to contact the ball. No one can play tennis blindfolded. Most of us who have gone beyond the beginner stages of tennis aspire to more than just making contact with the ball, however. Most of us want to control the ball, and more than that, to hit the right shot at the right time.

A perfectly executed stroke is useless if it is done at the wrong time. For an obvious example, you would not go for a great lob if you have the opportunity for an easy overhead. Many choices are not this obvious, however. Interestingly enough, cognitive psychology research with the game of chess as its focus gives some insight as to how we learn to make such decisions, and this, in turn, can help us improve at tennis.

First, the Research

Tennis has been compared to a physical chess match, and so, though I play chess only at an intermediate level at best, I find research related to the development of expertise in chess interesting. Of particular interest to me is some research done by Adriaan D. de Groot. His research papers that are of specific interest to tennis are “Thought and choices in chess (1965),” and “Perception and memory versus thought (1966).” De Groot was looking for what made chess masters different from other players, and as a result he made some discoveries that had surprising results with regard to expertise in general.

One of the perhaps surprising factors with regard to chess masters is that they are not more intelligent in domains other than their area of expertise. De Groot looked for differences between master chess players and less expert and found… None. The only discernible difference was that chess masters made better moves. Interestingly enough, chess masters only considered about the same or fewer number of moves as other players.

This result, of course, is highly unsatisfactory with regard to the study of expertise. There is some carry-over of expertise from one highly related area to another, such as from tennis to racquetball (though not from racquetball to tennis it seems), for example, but from areas of expertise with no discernable overlap, there is no discernable carry-over. For example, physicians are no better at stock picking than the average investor.

There is more, however. De Groot found that chess masters were able to look at chess games and recognize patterns. In experiments where chess masters and weaker players were shown chess configurations for about 5 seconds and then asked to reconstruct the positions, chess masters could accurately position about 20 pieces on the board, whereas weaker players could only do about 5. “About 5” is in line with what would be considered typical of most people.

Interestingly enough, when chess masters and non-masters were shown boards with pieces that were placed in a way that would never occur in a real game, so that the pieces were placed on the board in a random or chaotic fashion, the chess masters’ ability to remember piece positions dropped to be only as good as the non-expert ability. (Evidently the chess masters also complained that the chaotic piece placement was uncomfortable and disturbing.) In these cases, the memory of the chess masters was not aided by their ability to group information into patterns, so they could only remember individual piece placement like everyone else.

More than Just Recall

More than just recalling patterns, chess masters benefit from their pattern recognition by having a response associated with a particular pattern. In this way, a response to a particular pattern is a fairly immediate image that pops into their heads (Newell and Simon, Human problem solving, 1972) and so they do not have to think through their responses move by move like most of us do. This helps to explain why some chess masters can play 50 different opponents at the same time, making a move and then going to the next board to make a move, then going to the next board to make a move and so on, and ultimately win the vast majority of the games. The chess masters can recognize a pattern, and fairly immediately realize a response to that pattern.

Translating To Tennis

The pattern recognition demonstrated by chess masters is relevant to tennis. In the same way that chess experts see patterns and can respond with stored solutions, so can tennis players. Of course tennis players must also maintain the physical ability required to execute their mentally built-in solutions, much to my dismay as I get older and try to use some of my younger-man stored solutions, but most of the solutions still work. And as for the ones that do not work, some retraining will be required.

So there are a number of ways in which a tennis player sees a ball and recognizes a pattern. There is a physical response so as to be able to keep the ball in play, and there is the strategic choice aspect of the response, like that demonstrated in chess. The development of both the physical and strategic aspects are crucial to your overall ability as a tennis player.

Keeping the ball in play is not a component of chess in the sense that the physical ability to move a chess piece is not an issue, only the decisions as to where to move the pieces are. In tennis, however, your decisions are only as good as your ability to control the ball.

For this reason a tennis player must develop responses to physical patterns so as to know how to reply to a particular shot. A good physical response does not make someone a good player, however. Generally speaking, a good physical response means that someone hits well but perhaps still has trouble competing well. I have heard this type of player called a “ball machine pro.” This person might look good, but perhaps this type of person has not yet learned to choose well among shot options.

This is where the second form of pattern recognition becomes useful. Assuming that our opponent does not hit a winner or near-winner, our continued success in a point depends on our two-fold ability with pattern recognition, one to respond physically and the other to respond with a strategic choice of shot. The difference could be described as working the point rather than simply putting balls in play. Are you just getting the return of serve in play, or are you doing something with the shot? There is significant value to consistency, do not misunderstand, but there can be considerable benefits associated with doing something a bit more purposeful.

Try It

I have brought up the value of meeting the ball in front of your body in the article “Contact in Front and Tracking the Ball” for the value of just knowing where the ball is, but now knowing where the ball is becomes even more crucial given the chess related research. Now it is clear that the image of what to do with the ball will come to mind like a pattern, based on where the ball is in relation to you, the court, and your opponent.

While hitting, work on tracking the ball. Just paying attention to your contact point alone will help you. Try the following drill: after you hit the ball, evaluate whether you met the ball in front or not. If you did, say “yes” out loud. If you did not, say “no.” This will help you with the physical portion of the pattern recognition.

With regard to the strategic portion of the pattern recognition, I recommend practicing from all areas of the court. Of course it would be impossible to have just one drill for such a recommendation, but no matter what drill you do from any area of the court, consider your alternatives for which shots could be the best from that location.

Additionally, I encourage you to learn about alternative strategies. The first step toward owning additional options on the court is to learn about them prior to needing them. If you have trouble with a particular playing style, take a lesson or read an article on how to play that style most effectively.

My last suggestion: play tennis. You know, compete! While competing, continue to pay attention to meeting balls in front during points, but immediately after the point give attention to your shot choices. If you made an error, you will need to understand whether you made an error in shot selection or if you simply made an error in executing your choice. Just becoming aware of the difference will help you improve. With practice and experience you will also improve at trusting your patterns. Trusting your patterns is what confidence is all about.

Learning to choose the right shot at the right time takes time. If it is any consolation, chess masters typically recognize around 50,000 patterns, and to learn these patterns takes years of study and competition. There is no short-cut for chess masters either. Additionally, let me console you with the fact that learning regarding shot selection can be enjoyable and allow for a lifetime of healthy exercise and mental challenge.

As to what pattern you choose, you would fairly obviously like the pattern to work to your benefit, but to say what exactly that pattern is might be far from obvious. Simple choices include cross-court and down the line, but spins and the height of the ball provide variety.

Ideally you will own a choice of pattern options so as to be able to handle different opponents and their pattern preferences. As a basic example of why you would like options, consider a player that can only serve to a limited location in the deuce service box. This is problematic because there is value in being able to get at an opponent’s weaker side, but even if the serve already goes to the opponent’s weaker side, variety will be required because the opponent will likely recognize the limited placement and adjust accordingly.