How to Anticipate Where Your Tennis Opponent’s Shot is Going
You battle your regular tennis rival every week. The problem is they’ve always got the upper hand. Wouldn’t it be good if you could get an edge? Something like know where your opponent’s shot is going – all before they hit it.
Is it possible? And if so, how?
Well, a good starting point would be to see what the professionals say.
What Coaches Tell Us
Let’s go to your local coach. What they’re likely to tell you is to look at your opponent’s preparation. For example, they might say, ‘closed shoulders’ means they’ll hit cross-court. And ‘open shoulders’ means they’ll hit down-the-line.
But there’s a problem. Tips like these simply don’t work. If you follow them you won’t get any better at knowing where your opponent’s ball is going. And chances are you’ll get worse.
So why don’t these tips work? Why can they make you worse? And more importantly, what would work?
What the Research Says
Some clues are found in a study of tennis players who had to predict where their opponents would hit the ball.[1] Their opponents randomly hit backhands and forehands to different parts of the court. The players wore special glasses so the researchers could track exactly what they were looking at.
What the researchers found was astonishing. During their opponent’s preparation, their eyes darted back and forth collecting clues. In particular their eyes continually compared the opponent’s shoulder rotation with their changing hip rotation. It was this highly specialized and complicated visual routine that helped them predict where their opponent’s ball was going. Nothing remotely like the simplistic ‘look where the shoulders are pointing’.
And here’s the interesting bit. This frenetic dance of the eyes and cerebral analysis takes place in milliseconds in the subconscious. All without the player being aware of it.
So focusing on a couple of parts of your opponent’s body – like whether their shoulders or hips are aligned or moving – won’t do the trick. This advice doesn’t go anywhere near capturing the frenetic dance your eyes get up to.
But what now?
So the question is: How do you get your eyes to do this subconscious and frenetic dance so you become a better player?
The answer to this question and much more are to be found in my ebook, What’s Chicken Sexing Got to Do with Tennis? And How to Return Serve like Roger Federer.
Until next time.
Roger Wheller
‘I read the research so you don’t have to’
[1] Williams A.M. Ward P. Knowles J.M. & Smeeton N.J. Anticipation skill in a read-world task: measurement, training and transfer in tennis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol.8, No.4, 259-270, 2002.
