How To Watch The Ball Like Roger Federer in Tennis

How To Watch The Ball Like Roger Federer in Tennis.
Federer tracks the tennis ball perfectly and does something very unique in the process. For many tennis players, as we're about to make contact with the tennis ball, we make one lethal mistake. We lift our heads and our eyes shift focus away from the tennis ball towards either our intended target or our opponent. This is a great way to destroy your timing in tennis and ruin the quality of your tennis strokes. By lifting our head, we lose balance and lose focus of the target, which is of course the tennis ball, at the most critical part of a tennis stroke, the contact zone.
How To Watch The Ball Like Roger Federer:
Roger Federer is known as the maestro, and he makes tennis look so easy and effortless to many. One of his best qualities on the tennis court is his ability to maintain his focus on the target, the tennis ball.
Federer is famous for turning his head and holding that position until way after the contact point.
Why Does Federer Do This?
Roger Federer turns his head towards the contact point on his forehand, backhand, slice and volleys so that BOTH eyes can see the strike zone.
Most players have one dominant eye and one non-dominant eye when it comes to watching the ball in tennis.
If you're a right-handed tennis player, chances are you're left eye dominant.
If you don't turn the head properly as you make contact on either your forehand groundstroke or your forehand volley, you'll be watching the ball mainly with your non-dominant eye which is the right eye.
By turning the head to the side and creating a triangle between the right eye, the left eye and the ball, you can now zone in properly using both eyes.

Can You Really See The Contact Point In Tennis?
Since the actual contact point happens so fast, it's almost impossible to see the blur of the ball hitting your strings.
That being said, however, what is possible is to see the ball rising up to your racket and then coming off the strings.
This is the key to hitting the ball much cleaner and more in the sweet spot on the racket.

Watching The Ball Properly (At All Times)
To really make a huge difference to your tennis game, try to watch the ball:
- As your opponent makes contact with the ball. This will allow you to react quicker and recognize where the ball is going much faster. This in turn will allow you to move to either the forehand or backhand side earlier, and start your racket preparation much sooner, creating time for yourself.
- As the ball passes over the net
- As the ball bounces on your side of the court
- As the ball rises towards your strike zone
- As the ball comes off your racket

Video Timeline:
00:00 - Why Roger Federer Turns His Head When He Hits The Tennis Ball
00:56 - Can You Really See The Contact Point?
01:58 - How To Hit The Sweet Spot More Often
02:50 - Creating The Triangle at Contact

#Tennis #RogerFederer #TopTennisTraining

[vtoolselb]

Great observations - Not only does he watch the ball into his strings, his facial expressions shows that he is at peace mentally.. The only other pictures showing such relaxed facial expressions that ever I saw was Borg. I truly believe that Federer sees the ball better than anyone else on the planet. Therefore, his ability to see the ball, along with his relaxed face told me that he was mentally miles ahead of the rest of the world when he was in his prime.

And one more thing - did you mean to put Marin Cilic in this video at the 2:09 point?

[KleinRoche]

Find someone who pays as close attention to you as Federer pays to a routine practice groundstroke.

[gabrielgeorge]

Great lesson Simon, I liked how you talked about turning your head to watch the ball properly. Keep posting!

[sg]

This is key for all the shots in tennis. It helps you keep your shape and form. Also keeps you disciplined and focused. But you gotta have good anticipation because you might look down too much and not give enough time to look up opponents shot especially for advanced players where it's fast pace.

[crosscourtrabbitcompletetennis]

A point all too often overlooked. Well done.

[brettneuberger]

I discovered something fascinating a couple of weeks ago while hitting against a wall. I was in my head and getting frustrated that the ball was going everywhere! So, I decided to stop for a bit and focus intensely on the ball. And I do mean intensely. I didn’t allow myself to look at anything else, even while I held it in my hand; I looked at its fuzz, it’s lines, it’s overall shape etc. I then watched intently as I dropped it and proceeded hit again….seeing it come off my strings…hit the wall…bounce on the ground…and hit my strings again. I soon realized I literally couldn’t miss hit it, nor could I seem to miss my mark — so long as I didn’t start “thinking” about what I’d just discovered.

(Another interesting note…to me anyway: I’ve realized as I keep my left arm up — with my hand in the waving position during rotation — it gets my arm out of the way quicker so I’m able to keep my head steady and thus see the ball all the way in without obstruction….and it of course puts me in better body position to hit the ball well.)

As it was, I happened to be filming my practice session at the time and have gone back for fun and calculated my accuracy between the time I was focusing only on the ball and the time prior when I was in my head. Sampling two minutes of continuous hitting from each, I hit my target 53% of the time while in my head, and 82% while focusing on the ball. (yet, even when I missed, it wasn’t by much.) It’s not a cure-all…but as I continue the practice and stay out of my head, focusing on what’s immediately in front of me — the ball — my body, swing, timing, and aim seem to take care of themselves automatically. Keep your eye on the ball — deep wisdom. :)

[iam_rawdaalaa]

Yup ..u are right coach .. sometimes I play without concentration on this point n that's exactly a great fault of me ...if I have concentrated on that before, I would have improved my self more n more ..thank u so much for Ur effort ❤️❤️❤️ keep posting always new updates ..they are really beneficial ❤️❤️💎❤️❤️

[peterdrury]

Great video. I have always tried to watch the ball but when everything is clicking just right, that good habit drifts away. The two eye approach makes a lot of sense and will be very helpful.

[davehumphrey]

Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Dave from Mid America

[cristianconstantinescu]

Awesome tips, I always try to do that when training with my coach, such simple things yet so important -watching the ball!

[RVDS]

Great video Simon. Two questions: How come that so many high level players don't watch the ball as properly as Fed, and of course still have amazing results. I also try/do this since watching your videos. Though I notice when in matches I kind of forget about it sometimes or I'm in the zone and don't think about it but still playing really well.

[terry]

great video and great advice. That is my problem tracking the ball correctly.

[PrecisionPointTennis]

So excellent! I’ve been trying to see the seams of the ball like Roger lately and when I do, I hit the best possible shot it seems. When I forget and hit like I normally do and don’t see the seams, I can miss by a few inches. That fraction of seeing the seams is unparalleled. It does feel like Federer when I do it right. Thanks for this. I’m getting there…

[garyf]

Thanks for the video. Like Roger, I'm right handed but left eye dominant. This helps tremendously, and it almost feels like magic when you truly watch the ball as it zooms off the strings. I catch myself looking across the court, but nothing useful is happening there while you're hitting the ball.

[enriquenavarro]

Great teaching clear explanation, and good 👍🏻 coaching 👏

[garfgo]

I believe it is good in practice to exaggerate the watching of the ball by keeping the head still after contact for a couple seconds. This is something I am working on so it becomes natural in play. Another great lesson, thanks.

[renauddaniere]

Hey guys ! Thank you for this video. I have a question for you. I am right handed but blind from the left eye (I mean really blind) and I have struggle with my forehand because I think I see the ball too late. What could be your advice so that I can improve a little ?

[rishabhmehrotra]

Can you talk about different playing styles? Like pushers and aggressive baseliners and how to find which suits your game?

[mrpog]

Hi please make a analysis on Carlos Alcaraz also loving the forehand revolution course definitely worth $300 dollars. Just bought your turbo boost tennis 2.0

[bagusindrapermana]

Very good point coach. This is what i have been trying to do for the past 3 months. During warm up i can do it if i put my focus and really concetrate. But when the match starts, i look at the ball at contact only once if not zero.. any drill on how to train this skill coach?? It is really hard for me and very frustrating..