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Watch the ball! How many times have you heard that said?
Many times I'm sure. But is this actually good advice? Today
I'm going to look at the subject of keeping your eye on the
ball in more detail, and I'm hoping to give you some food
for thought before you utter those 3 magic words again.
Watch the ball - what does this mean?
To start with, when we tell ourselves or someone else to
watch the ball, what do we actually mean? I would suggest
that when most of us say this, we are talking about watching
the ball closely from the time our opponent hits the ball
until it hits our own bat. I'll start with this definition
and talk a bit more about other aspects of watching the ball
later.
Is it good advice?
So is this the right thing to do? Until recently, I myself
was of the opinion that it really wasn't necessary for a player
to watch the ball right onto his bat. My reasons were as follows:
- Provided you have watched the ball up until it is a couple
of feet away from you, the ball shouldn't be changing in
its direction or flight enough to matter.
- It is more important to be watching the opponent and what
he is doing, in order to plan where you are going to hit
the ball.
- Your peripheral vision is good enough to keep track of
where the ball is, and allow you to make contact.
Of late, however, I have changed my mind. What started me
thinking was when I was searching for photographs on the ITTF
website to use for my articles, and I noticed photo after
photo of the professionals looking closely at the ball just
before and during contact. I've included some of these photos
down the left hand side for you to see for yourself. Note
how carefully the pros are watching the ball in each case.
Seeing what the pros do got me thinking more about whether
my reasons were as good as I thought. With further analysis,
I came up with the following counter-arguments to my old way
of thinking.
- A table tennis ball is a light object, and it's flight
is easily affected by gusts of air or the spin on the ball.
Watching the ball onto the bat is the best way to make sure
your bat goes to exactly where the ball is, not to where
you think it should be!
- The sweetspot on a table tennis bat isn't all that big
- you need to be watching the ball closely in order to make
sure you hit the ball in the sweetspot and not the edges
of your bat.
- Professional table tennis players do it, so if they need
to, we probably need to as well!
- Your peripheral vision may not be all that good for watching
a fast moving table tennis ball onto a relatively small
racket head.
And this is why I now tell my juniors (and myself) to watch
the ball right onto the bat.
Other points to look at (if you'll pardon the pun!)
Don't focus exclusively on the ball
You must watch the ball closely, but don't ignore everything
else. You need to be aware of what your opponent is doing,
or else you are likely to hit a great shot right to where
he is waiting for it.
Peripheral vision is still important
You should still be using your peripheral vision when hitting
the ball. Just make sure that you are using it to get an idea
of where your opponent is moving to and where he may be vulnerable.
Your peripheral vision should be much better at locating a
far away slow moving large opponent in relation to a static
table tennis table, than it is at tracking a close up fast
moving table tennis ball in relation to yourself, who will
probably also be moving.
Demonstration
For those of you yet unconvinced, or trying in vain to convince
your students, try this little demonstration exercise. Stand
at one end of the table and watch the net closely. Then have
another person stand to your forehand side and randomly (but
reasonably slowly) move their hand up and down. See how easy
it is to tap their hand while still watching the net. Then
try it while watching their hand and see the difference.
Stop watching the ball!
Just thought I would throw that in to see if you are still
paying attention. Although I do mean it, in all seriousness.
Once you have hit the ball yourself, there is not much point
in watching the ball closely to see where you have hit it
- it should hopefully be going pretty much exactly where you
want it to go. You would be much better off switching your
attention to your opponent and what he is doing, so you have
an idea of what shot he is going to play next and where he
is going to hit it.
Overview (Sorry - I can't help myself!)
So in fact, I would recommend that your focus should change
as follows. Once you hit the ball, you should be watching
the opponent closely up until the time he makes contact with
the ball. Then you should be watching the ball closely up
until the time you hit it. Once you have hit the ball, you
should go back to watching the opponent again, until he makes
contact with the ball, and so on.
Conclusion
As you can see, there's more to this watching the ball issue
than just looking at the ball like a seagull eyeing a chip.
So the next time you take your eye off the ball and miss it
completely, don't just yell at yourself to watch the ball
- but keep in mind just when to watch it closely, and when
to focus on your opposition. After all, when's the last time
you heard someone yell - "Watch the opponent"?
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