Tennis Exercises Help “Keep Your Eye On The Ball” – Part 1

If you’ve ever taken even a handful of tennis lessons you have no doubt heard it repeated by your coach over and over “Watch the Ball!” You’ve heard it so many times, you either want to throw your racket or smack your coach with it (not suggested). And the thing is, when you hear those simple 3 words, you’re usually thinking to yourself, “I AM WATCHING THE BALL! Can’t you see that? What else do you want me to do?”

Look at this simple graph. We’ll explain in part 2 of this article what it means and how to use it to improve your tennis game.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (direction of ball movement)
A    1    2    3    4    5    B
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Here are some statistics about points scored in typical tennis matches at the amateur level. About 85% of the points in a tennis match are errors by one of the players. That means that only 15% of points are “earned points”. As the standard of play rises (i.e. the various pro tours), the percentage of shots that can be called “errors” keeps dropping until at the very top of the pro tennis tours (such as the US Open) about 60% of all points scored from opponents’ errors and 40% are earned points. Keep in mind that these are just averages and every match will be different. But for purposes of comparison, these percentages are important.

Which brings us back to where we started this discussion, Keeping your eye on the ball right up until the moment you strike it, is absolutely vital to minimizing unforced errors. And that, boys and girls, is why you hear tennis coaches repeat the “Watch The Ball!” command so often. You win more points by making fewer errors. Get the ball back over the net and there’s a high probability that your opponent will make an error.

Any player who can consistently manage to maintain the 85% to 15% ratio is a superior tennis player. These levels of performance are typically only achievable by the top players on the pro tour. The only other way to achieve them is to put a beginning player up against a intermediate/expert player. But that is not a typical situation.

So what is the bottom line? Simply by getting the ball back over the net and giving your opponent another chance to make an error, you give yourself a tremendous advantage that can’t be over-emphasized.