when it comes to the role of your eyes in the game of tennis we have to differentiate between ball
tracking and ball recognition so ball tracking is your ability to track the ball as it's coming
to you on the other hand ball recognition is your ability to read the incoming ball
for example being able to read underspin Top Spin or the penetration of the incoming ball
early is going to be of a great Advantage but in today's video I don't want to discuss ball
recognition I want to discuss ball tracking but more specifically I want to discuss how
ball tracking is correlated to your biomechanics now unfortunately they don't go hand in hand your
biomechanics are going to be counter-intuitive to your ability to track the ball so let me explain
to you why that is the case if I'm standing on the Baseline and tracking the ball that's coming at me
naturally the most comfortable way to track the ball is going to be open with my head positioned
towards the incoming ball now if you play tennis this way your biomechanics are going to suffer
because as soon as you determine where the ball is going you want to turn to the specific side
you want to hit from so let's take the forehand as an example when I see the balls coming to my
forehand I'm going to make a turn and now my head needs to turn over my shoulder in order to track
the ball the same is true for all your backhands whether we're talking about a one-handed backhand
two-handed backhand or a one-handed backhand slice your head is gonna be positioned over
your shoulder while you're tracking the ball now to make things worse we're not going to stop there
we're going to load The Strokes even further so for example on the backhands what you will see
that this is not a sufficient turn independent of what type of back end you're attempting you
want to actually turn your back towards the other side so that you'll have to turn your head even
more over your shoulder to be able to track the ball properly on the forehand some players are
going to continue to turn even more making ball tracking more difficult because the head will
need to go over the non-dominant shoulder as the players are tracking the ball now why do you want
to turn in this way why not just play tennis like this and have the ability to comfortably track the
ball because you're going to miss out on the most important element of all ground strokes which is
torso rotation if you don't turn and play the ball like this you're going to be causing great harm to
your tennis development and you're going to have an impossible time advancing at the recreational
levels and have an impossible time to play tennis at the higher levels so in other words the loading
of the body and the Torso rotation are fundamental elements that all high-level players have in
common now here are the good news in your setup process you're not going to set your body up so
that the ball is right in your body you're going to have the ball to the side of your body because
that's where contact will be established and that makes ball tracking a little bit easier so
let's go through each individual stroke and I'll explain to you how ball tracking is correlated to
the biomechanics of each individual stroke so on the forehand you do need to turn and you're
going to be tracking the ball with your chin over your shoulder now the ball is going to be coming
at you you might still be setting up the shot and as you initiate your stroke now you're going to
continue to track the ball which is going to be coming closer to your right side if you happen to
be right-handed and the position of your head is going to become more comfortable so in other words
as the ball gets closer to you you obviously don't have to look at it like this anymore it's going to
get more comfortable to track the ball properly and on the forehand you have to understand that
this is a stroke that has a contact Point That's Unique so all players at the high level without
any exception will make contact in front so in other words the dominant shoulder will
be at least at the level of the non-dominant shoulder but in most cases it will be ahead
and now you will see something interesting at the elite level and at the high level some
players will keep their head towards the contact Point while other players will have their head
pointing forward now you ask yourself why would that be the case Novak Djokovic for
example who's Breaking All the records in the tennis world doesn't keep his head at the ball
his head is forward when he makes contact with the forehand how can that be possible well you have to
understand the context of the fastest part of the forehand which takes place in sheer milliseconds
and players are hitting the forehand 80 to 100 miles an hour so it is absolutely impossible to
see the ball even if you tried you wouldn't be able to see the ball touching your strings so
the fact that some players keep their head down at the moment of contact it's not to be able
to see the ball this is a stylistic element of the forehand it's not wrong by any means Roger
Federer Carlos alcaraz keep their head down when contact is established but the vast majority of
players at the elite level has their head forward when contact is established on the forehand now
the reason why most players have their head pointing forward at the moment of contact is
that the forehand contact point is different from any other shot in tennis it's hit way out front
so it's actually counter-intuitive to keep your head down so it's not wrong by any means If You
observe that your head is down at the moment of contact I happen to hit the forehand like this
as well this is not wrong but it's also not wrong if your head is forward how about popping the head
up too early now you're going to get in trouble because remember you have to track the ball as
long as possible but not only that the head needs to match your torso rotation so as you're rotating
into your forehand the head can simply match this movement then rotate forward in this way again if
you have a style where the head is turned towards the contact this is not wrong by any means now on
the backhand side the contact is completely different whether we're talking about a slice
pack and a one-handed backhand or a two-handed backhand our chest is going to be towards the
side fence the two-handed backhand has a little bit more torso rotation than the one-handed slice
and the regular one-handed backhand but still the chest is more towards the side fence and you're
going to see all high level players keep their head down when they make contact with the ball
you're not going to see a player have their head forward on any back end this makes absolutely no
sense when we think about the biomechanics that are performed on the backhand side so again you
take any backhand you're going to make a turn as big as possible you're going to put your chin over
your shoulder and this turn is crucial so you can get as much torso rotation as possible into
the contact attack and as you're rotating your head is going to be tracking the ball and as the
ball gets closer to you this tracking is going to be more comfortable because you are rotating and
the ball is getting closer to you and then when you make contact naturally the head is going to
be in a straight position why because the body is still turned towards the side how about the valley
well here we don't have to worry about rotation the valley is a deflective shot and the chest is
going to be positioned slightly sideways ideally and because of the side base position of the
chest it's going to be natural to keep the head positioned towards the string bed at the moment
of contact both with the forehand and for the backhand Valley now how about the serve well here
we don't have to worry about ball tracking so much why because when you toss the ball to yourself the
ball is flying up at a very low speed so the ball is extremely easy to track now how about
the contact Point here's where things get very interesting just like the forehand the backhand
the contact is over a milliseconds and remember to serve is the fastest stroke in tennis this is
absolutely impossible to see the ball touch the string bed at the moment of contact so here's
what you will observe at the high level and at the elite level when we're talking about a kick
serve we know that contact is established right above the head and players therefore don't look
at the ball when they perform a kick serve they will be tracking the ball as long as possible
because as that racket starts approaching the ball forward the head straightens out think of it this
way you will not be able to transfer your weight forward if you are trying to look at the ball on
your kick serve with a contact that's established right over your head this will cause an imbalance
in your body making the forward weight transfer very difficult so if you take any kick serve at
the high level at the elite level you're not going to see a single player look at the ball
when they hit a kick all players who look forward how can I do that you got to remember that context
is established in milliseconds just like any other shot and you don't necessarily need to
look at the ball when you make contact of course you have to track it as long as you possibly can
but you cannot see the contact with the ball anyways now how about the flat and the slide
serve here the contact is going to be established in front of our head so just like the kick serve
the head will not be positioned like this looking up it will straighten out so that
the weight transfer can be performed but because the contact is established in front of the head
is theoretically possible to see the contact but remember the contact cannot be observed in real
time if you play close attention to Elite level players and you take still images of them right
when they make contact with the ball on a flat and a slice serve or even on a kick serve you'll
see that some players actually have their eyes closed this is also true for the forehand by the
way some players like Dominique theme have their eyes closed when they make contact with them all
now how about stances will different stances make ball tracking easier there's absolutely
no correlation between your closed stance or your open stance and your ball tracking why do I say
that because regardless of what stance you perform your shots with you have to keep your biomechanics
fundamentally sound so it's not a case that if I hit a semi-open stance forehand that I'm going to
be more open no I'm going to turn the exact same way whether I'm doing a semi-open stance forehand
or a closed stance for and I'm still going to have to track the ball with my chin over my shoulders
it's true for the forehand and all backhands whether I'm doing closed stance or semi-open
stance or completely open stance I still have to turn my torso why because torso rotation is one
of the most important fundamentals that you need to possess on all ground strokes now thankfully
human beings have peripheral vision which makes ball tracking quite easy now the one difficulty
that some Recreation players might experience is having the ability to turn their head over their
shoulder I have had some students who have neck injuries and they simply can't turn their head
over their shoulder like high level players do so in that case you're gonna have to sacrifice
your biomechanics and you're gonna have to turn less to be able to comfortably position your neck
so that's the only caveat to this is that some players have physical limitations that prevent
them from loading their shots properly now I mentioned peripheral vision and let's put it
to the test let's assume a player has a weakness in one eye so what I'm going to do here is I'm
going to put a patch over my right eye so I can't see anything out of my right eye I
only have my left eye so let's start off at the back end and see if I can keep my fundamentals
intact in other words I'm going to try to coil as much as I can and load my body the right way
however I can't see my right eye and let's see if that has an effect on my backhand so
I'm going to turn as much as I can there's no problem with ball tracking I can see the ball
perfectly and I'm turning my normal amount that you can see I'm able to Rally without any problems
let me try a one-handed backhand and again would turn as much as I can and again you see no issues
with ball tracking whatsoever of course it's a little bit uncomfortable to play with one eye
I'm not gonna lie but I'm turning as much as I can and I can see the ball just fine okay let's try
it two-handed backhand and see if there's any differences there again absolutely no problem
tracking the ball making contact with it again the peripheral vision in my left eye is allowing me
to track the ball just fine all right guys now I got the patch
on my left eye and let's see if I can make contact with the forehand again I'm going to try to turn
as much as I can let's see what happens huh
again no problem at all tracking the ball a peripheral vision has allowing me to see
the ball perfectly ah almost lost my shoe no problem and again I'm turning
and no issues with striking the ball and while we're at it let's test the serve now my left
eye is patched up let's see what happens okay no problem we're tracking the ball
and making contact and let's patch up the other eye and see if there's any difference
again absolutely no problem whatsoever tracking the ball and making contact with it so guys ball
tracking is incredibly important without ball tracking you will not be able to play tennis
however do not jeopardize the fundamental biomechanical elements on your ground strokes
which is your loading position you take a look at any player that's good at tennis what you're
going to observe exactly what I demonstrated in today's video all players do it the same you will
not find the player not turn on their forehand or on their back and accept when they're in
emergency situations without any time but in 99 of the cases players are loading their body why
because the Torso rotation is a fundamental element of the ground strokes that you have
to learn and utilize if you want to advance in the game of tennis
I just want to prove that when you have an eye patch over the eye that's closest to the ball
you still have enough peripheral vision in your other eye to set up the stroke properly
and keep your fundamentals intact some of you guys are going to see this as a Training Method
do not go out there and practice with an eye patch I'm not going to sit here and tell you
that tracking the ball with one eye is better than tracking it with two eyes of course when
you track the ball with two eyes it's going to be more comfortable and it's going to be a lot
easier I have no idea if there's any benefits to playing tennis with one eye or if it's harmful
I'm just telling you to not do it also if you do two unfortunate circumstances only have one
eye you can still play tennis and track the ball properly while keeping your fundamentals in place
that is the good news so I just wanted to say this and I will see you guys in the next video