David Ranney's Tennis Blog

A Short Discusion on the Bounce-Hit Method

I recently sent out my latest Mini Lesson on Tim Gallwey’s Bounce-Hit method of focusing and this is an e-mail I received with some additional insights and my comments.

 

Hi David,

First of all congratulations on what you are trying to do through your website, book and teaching.  Keep up the good work and i wish you all the very best.

I am also very interested in the mental perspective and have a few comments on your latest issue.

First of all, instead of saying bounce-hit, perhaps one-two would be better.  I played around with Gallwey's insights while teaching many years ago.  The reason is because I found many players had a much harsher intonation on the hit than they did on the bounce.  Obviously the ego is not involved in the bounce, but is on the hit so tension only came when the ego was involved.  However, often the hit can be interpreted as a command instead of an observation.  So by saying one-two, it emphasized that these two symbols were simple observations of when the ball touched the ground and when the strings touched the racket (or as close as we could get to those two events).

The key, I think, is not to consciously change the intonation and say the word more softly.  This is done by the conscious mind and has lead to no greater awareness and therefore no real change.  However, what I did was to ask the client to actually focus on the intonation of the bounce and the hit or the one and the two and allowed them to hear the difference.  Sometimes this happened quickly and sometimes it took time, but either way I resisted the temptation to tell them because I knew that there own realization would be a greater catalyst for change.

This is a small thing, but something that inspired me to use as an excuse to reach out and connect with you.

Again, keep up the good work and I wish you the very best always,

 

***********************************************************************************************

 

Thanks for your comments. I really like to have other people’s insights.

 

I have not tried to use the one-two words while playing yet as we are snowed in and I have not played for over a week. I think it doesn’t really matter what words you use as the main purpose is to get your conscious mind out of the way and saying any words will help. The reason I personally like the bounce-hit words is so that I can have a better awareness of how hard I am trying. I have to keep monitoring how I say hit so that it is more relaxed. I find that my conscious (ego) mind always tries to get around the methods that I use so I have to change what I am doing from time to time. Sometimes I will do just do the bounce hit, other times I will do the bounce hit after the serve and return of serve and sometimes I will just do my normal focus which is seeing the ball and focusing on my breathing. I do find that saying the bounce-hit with really seeing the ball well works best for me most of the time.

 

Some of my students have suggested using other words, like bounce-swing. One of my students actually recites the power of two as he is playing. He says 2, 4, 8 ,16, 32 etc. Of course he is still really focusing on the ball and staying relaxed. Again, the point, as you said, is to get the ego out of the way and if saying bounce-hit is an issue with the ego, then the person should use different words.

 

What you say about the intonation is right on the money. I believe that is equally important to getting the most out of this way of focusing. Where I differ from the traditional Tim Gallwey’s method is that I help my students be aware of what I feel is the “correct” way to say the words and then let the student discover for himself or herself what works best for them. By giving them a goal, I believe helps to get them to the ideal place much faster.

 

Thanks again for sharing with me your ideas on the matter. I am going to put this discussion on my blog so maybe it will add to others understanding on the issue of focusing.

 

David

**************************************************************************************************************

Hi David, a few comments on your comments on my comments:

 

Of course, the words we use are inconsequential.  You could say 'coke cola' or pep-si.  Each word corresponds to an event.  The first word corresponds to the ball touching the ground, while the second word corresponds to the ball connecting with the strings (although, in reality, cannot reality see this happen!). 

According to my understanding, 'trying', which you keep referring to, is an obstacle to allowing the ideal mental performance state.  Who is trying?  It is the conscious mind that is trying and that is what you are trying to silence in the first place with the counting.  In addition, trying requires effort and how long can you make an effort.  At some point you will have to rela

 

There is no 'correct' way of saying the words.  It is what it is.  For example if your voice becomes high pitched on the 'hit'; it is an indication of tension, which in turn is an indication that fear has entered through the conscious mind.  You can change the intonation (the outer), without affecting the fear (the inner) that is behind the intonation.  To change the outer without touching the inner is no change at all and will ultimate fail.

 

You talk about a goal.  Who makes the goal?  This goal and all goals come from the conscious mind.  The conscious mind creates the concept of time (past and future) and yet we want to be in the present which is not a part of time.  Goals force us into the future, we want to be present.  So, do you think it is possible for goals, which are a function of the conscious mind to help us reach a place beyond the conscious mind? 

 

Getting to the 'ideal' place will not happen faster by creating a goal; in my understanding it will prevent you from ever getting there.

 

I thik action is driven by intention and intention is necessary, but goal is something that brings attachment.  I do not want to get into semantics here, but goal in the sense you use the word will be a hinderance, in my opinion.

I think that this drill is of limited value.  It certainly has some short-term value, but there are larger issues at stake here.  The whole point of using the bounce-hit or any such combination is to trick the conscious mind into silence.  We are moving from fear-based judgement (a tool of the conscious mind) to simple observation (what I like to call 'instinctive mond').  But why is there fear in the first place?  Because of desire?  Desire is goals.  Desire is there because we mistakingly believe that achieving our goal or fulfillling our desire has some value.  It has very limited value.  When we see that goals can only bring us the outer, we may also see that giving up our goals gives us the inner ( the ability to play and live life without fear) and the inner is everything.

 

David, I hope you forgive my boldness in challenging some of your comments, but I feel we are both after the truth and we are both aware, I would imagine, that we do not have the truth.  We are all on the path and I am just sharing with you the view from my path.  It may be of some help to you, or it may not.

 

By all means place this dialogue on your blog.

 

much love,

 

happy

****************************************************************

Hi Happy,

 

Now you will know why I didn’t get into a lot of the philosophical part of playing the mental game. I just can’t explain it like Tim Gallwey and apparently like you can.

 

Much of your disagreements with my statements are semantics and I agree with everything you have said here with one addition about the goal issue. Some people and maybe most need to have some goal in mind in the beginning. With that being said, at some point down the road, any thoughts of the goal needs to drop away. By the way, maybe my use of the word goal is not the right one. Your use of the word intention may be a much better word to use and, in fact, I like it much better than goal.

 

So, I believe that in the beginning and for most people, this intention has to be defined in order to make faster progress. Otherwise, one is wandering around in the dark. They may eventually get where they want to go, but it will most certainly take them longer. A few will not find their way at all. Once they “find their way”, they will be able to go there again and again and at some point they will be able to get there without any thinking and maybe even get there more efficiently. And just maybe, they will discover for themselves that this place is not really where they want to go so they then move on. There is absolutely an evolution going on as I am still finding out things about myself and my tennis game and I feel that there is much more to come.

 

Thanks again for your comments. I enjoy having these kinds of discussion. My only “but” it that I don’t like to have them in writing as I don’t type very well and I don’t like not having to be able to talk back and forth as we would do if we were having this discussion in person.

 

Maybe someday we can continue this in person.

 

All my best.

 

David

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.

********************************************

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.

Would Seeing The Ball And Breathing Really Help An Exceptional Player

Here is an e-mail i received.

A friend of mine, ..... plays tennis everyday twice a day, plays doubles all of the time.  I don't think he see the spin or controls his breathing but is an exceptional player.  The thought comes to mind, "I wonder how much better he could be if he only knew?"

Yes, if your friend would get into seeing the ball and breathing, he will benefit greatly, just like you do. But a lot of good players are not open to this way since if makes them let go of control and many people don’t like to do that.

Here is a story about my friend Ken Stewart who wrote the preface in my book. After showing him how to really see the ball, he told me about a match he played about 3 weeks later. He was asked to play doubles with three 6.0 players. He insisted that he couldn’t play at their level but they were desperate for a 4^th. Anyway, he said he was “forced” to see the ball because of the pressure to play well and he told me that he was the best player on the court.

A Question on Saying "hit" in the Bounce-Hit Excersise

I got this question from one of my subscribers to my Mini Lessons that i thought was a good one.

 

"Have you ever tried touch or hits by adding the s you more naturally tend to exhale. I have used the touch when I feel too tensed at key points and I guess the associations with the word touch seems to bring more calm than hit."

 

Here was my answer:

 

The reason I would not want to use “touch” is that I want to make sure that I am saying “hit” softly. When I make sure that I say “hit” softly and at a lower octave, I know I am relaxed. I have not tried using "touch" or adding the "s" and I guess I need to try it before I say it doesn’t work or isn't a better way. Thanks for the ideas.