David Ranney's Tennis Blog

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.

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.