What do I Mean when I say Keep Watching the Ball Inbetwen Points

Here are some questions that I received on an instruction in my book:

Between points and games, you say to "keep watching the ball".  What do you mean by this?  Do you really mean watch the ball just sitting there on the court?  Most of the time between points, the balls are in someone's pocket, so I cannot see it.  Or do you mean this figuratively?  As in imagine seeing the ball.

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No, I mean this literally. Find some ball on the court to focus on. If you have the ball in your hand, you can bounce it or anything else as long as you are focusing on it. If you must, focus on a ball on another court. If there is truly no ball anywhere that you can see, then you are excused from this for that short period of time. You can still focus and be aware of your breathing.

It is also very helpful to be aware of both the ball and your breathing. Before I was able to be aware of my breathing when I was playing in a match, I would at least focus on my breathing in between points as well as focus on the ball.

This can be a very powerful exercise but I have to say it is very hard to do but worth working on. One way to practice this if you are playing with a fellow mental game enthusiast, is to just play with one ball for a while. See how many times your mind wanders from consciously seeing the ball when you are trying to do it every second.

Be aware of what your mind is thinking during the time you lose your focus. Remember, this is just another way to keep in the here and now and train your mind to stay focused on seeing the ball. The whole point of this is, if you see the ball, even between points, you will be able to focus on it that much easier during the actual point.