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TennisOne Lessons 
Quiet Eyes: Giving your Strokes a ChanceDavid W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne You’ve worked your mechanics, honed your groundstrokes, developed solid volley techniques, and established a reliable swing path on each shot. You have quieted your mind, focused your mental image to visualize the desired trajectory, spin, and target. You get the shot you want, like a nice easy second serve to return or a mid-range approach shot or that fairly easy volley...And you shank it. Frame it. Mis-hit it, or simply hit the ball anywhere but where you wanted to. So what happened? One of the most common errors players of all levels make is the lack of maintaining a steady or quiet head during a stroke. The eyes focus on the ball, track the ball, and contribute to the mental focus of any given shot. However, if a player moves or bobs his head during the stroke, the eyes can’t maintain the necessary connection with the ball to insure the quality of the hit. Because the urge to see where the ball goes contributes to this common flaw, instructors, books, and articles address the issue of “keeping the eyes on the ball” probably as much as any mechanical or technical issue related to tennis, and for good reason. The fact is, many players simply do not know how to “train” their head and eyes to maintain the optimal connection to the moving ball. It is usually easy to recognize players who maintain a level of calmness with the head and eyes as they track and strike the ball. We often label this mode as “playing in the zone” or “playing unconscious.” We hear players who are in this confident zone say things like, “I was seeing the ball so clearly” or “the ball seemed so big” or “the ball seemed to be moving in slow motion.” This “holy grail” of playing ability is often a fleeting feeling or period of time that comes and goes mysteriously. Obviously, if we could “bottle” the means to produce this zone or mental confidence, we would be the most sought after instructor or “guru” on the planet! Yet, the human condition limits our ability to maintain such patterns of success. There are so many variables that contribute to the ability—or inability—to get into the zone, let alone remain there for any length of time, that there has been not one all-encompassing method players can adopt or train for that works every time for every player. This concept of maintaining “quiet eyes” can be carried over beyond the hitting zone as well. If you watch most skilled players, they move with a fluid, refined motion, almost as if they had a book balanced on their head. Roger Federer is, in my opinion, the king of this type of movement. His head stays on a fairly level plane, even while moving for wide balls; he seems to almost glide across the court.
A past great, John McEnroe, moved his body very upright, seldom getting his body weight too far away from his center of gravity. Recreational players, notoriously move with their head bobbing like one of those bobble-head dogs seen in the back of your fathers old Pontiac! Their bodies seem like contortionists; arms and legs flailing all over the place like a spasmodic “Gumby” high on crack! Interestingly enough, many players in all sports find themselves within the zone at various times, even those at the lower levels of the game. Hackers, dinkers, pushers, and players using every conceivable method of hitting balls have had days where they simply feel they can’t miss. Even if their techniques don’t allow them to hit more effective shots, players who are “unconventional” can have days where they feel they are controlling their shots within their methodology exceedingly well. (The down side here is that this often results in players believing they don’t need to retool their games. Instead, after this rare great day, they become and convinced they are on their way to becoming a player, all they need to do is recapture that feeling. But we will address this concept on another day!) Technical Information As mentioned, there are many variables that contribute to a player finding themselves in the zone. It is not uncommon to have players finding themselves in the zone when they simply are not even trying or are not addressing specific or conscious patterns to “make” themselves get in the zone. Others have tried very specific training methods and have found success within these processes. Yet, we see many players revert back to old habits, forget the training means themselves, or they simply have other issues cloud the means in which the player got into the zone.
I believe that the most comprehensive pattern of understanding this phenomenon and training for it can be found in Scott Ford’s “Parallel Mode Processing” series of articles (see the TennisOne Lesson Library) that describe the conditions, the physiological components that contribute to being in the zone, and the training methods which help players improve their ability to get into the zone more often. His simple ‘Yes’ at contact, (Visual Presence—The Eyes Have It), is a very powerful training tool that I’ve used for hundreds of students with various degrees of success. W. Timothy Gallwey’s book, INNER GAME OF TENNIS, was one of the first publications to address the concept of playing in the zone and discussed means in which players could train themselves to get into it more consistently. The book, published first in 1974, is still used by thousands of players in dozens of countries. In my own book, TENNIS MASTERY, I discuss many elements that are part of what I call “Mental Tennis”. From how the emotion of fear can affect us to using Zen in how to learn to “live in the present,” there is a wide range of variables that contribute to a player’s ability to get closer to playing in the zone. Dominant Eye One thing to consider is that most people have a dominant eye. Because the tennis player, when striking a ball, is turned to one side or the other based on balls hit on the forehand or backhand side, the position of the eyes change on each wing. For example, a right-handed player will have the left eye as the lead eye on the forehand side, the right eye on the backhand. Depending on dominance, a player may perceive the ball differently on each side, with one side having better acuity due to the dominant eye being on the forward side. Contact Zone
It is just common sense to understand that looking up during, or even just after a stroke, will not change a ball’s trajectory or direction. Once hit, a ball’s course is predetermined. Players must “TRUST” their stroke, their ability, and look for the ball during the contact phase of the stroke. Establishing what they want their shot to encompass, players then must work to maintain what I call, “Eye Focus” on a ball. While players can’t see the actual contact point where and when the ball hits the strings (it happens too fast), the consciousness of looking for the ball and stroking with a quiet head is what helps players make good, clean contact. This concept of keeping the eyes quiet and on the contact zone longer is one of the real components of playing in the zone. This is because when a player is focused on seeing the ball better and not worrying about where it may be heading, he will hit cleaner shots with better timing—which contributes to greater hitting confidence. Roger Federer is one of the best models for maintaining eye contact within the contact zone. Nearly every picture of him hitting a ball shows his eyes focused clearly on the contact window. And within video clips, you can examine this same quality of his head remaining quiet during this all-important phase of the shot. Training
Having played and coached golf in addition to my thirty-five years teaching and playing tennis, I’ve used several training methods from one sport to help students in the other sport. There is a training method in golf that I’ve used in tennis to help players develop better head and eye control as well as improve touch, feel, and aim. Directional Perception A very simple training drill I uses is to have the student keep the head down and say what direction a particular shot went. For example, you might be working on crosscourt forehands. After a shot, without looking up, verbally say “left, right, or right at it” when you “felt” the shot was on target. After this disclosure, look up and see where the shot went. This practice tool will help you recognize the feel for the shot, directionally speaking, but, more importantly, it will help train you to keep your eyes from looking up prematurely. A player can inculcate this by simply dropping a ball to himself (or have a pro or friend drop-feed a ball to him) on the forehand or backhand side. When hitting the ball, try to define three things without looking up:
These three perceptions will help a player with three areas of the game: Improve aiming, keeping the head down, and feel for the ball. By learning to recognize the feel of a shot, the body can gain a better understanding of timing and aim. When a player works on building this recognition, he develops better timing based on feel rather than guesswork. By trying to feel where the ball went, the player learns to keep the head down within the shot. Obviously, the student will need to look up at some point to gauge where, in actuality, the ball went to see if their feelings and perceptions are indeed accurate. Balance As mentioned earlier, another intrusive stroke element that contributes to mis-hits is poor balance. When we watch the pros play, they seem to glide around the court, perfectly balanced regardless of the difficulty of the situation. Yet, at the club level, poor balance is a major contributor to poor contact. Balance, or lack thereof, usually results from footwork problems or preparation. Players often “reach” for the ball instead of moving their bodies into balanced position as a unit to meet the ball. When a player reaches for a shot the body weight moves out over the center of gravity creating an off-balance position during the swing. Pros tend to move an average of 10 to 12 steps for every ball. Compare this number to the average club or recreational player who moves 4 to 6 steps on average. This comparison points to the fact that average players simply stop their feet earlier and reach more on every shot. (See my newsletter “Reach with your Feet, not with you hands” for added information.) Conclusion It is obvious that the ability of a player to hit better shots has a great deal to do with the eyes. And, the ability to see the ball clearly and for a longer period of time is dependent on many variables, many of which can be trained and considered. Work on these patterns and see if they help you play better tennis.
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David has taught over 3000 players including many top national and world ranked players. He can be reached at acrpres1@email.msn.com. |
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