THE CONSTANTLY CHANGING situations that occur throughout a match require players to quickly shift their visual attention to keep pace with the speed of play. The game of tennis is built on time, or more specifically, the lack of time. As your technical skills improve, the speed of the game increases, leaving you with less time to cover the court. Improving your footwork and on-court fitness can help; however, if your eyes are taking in too much or too little information, you will be late to react to your opponent’s shot (moving well after the ball has been hit). Even worse, you could begin to over-anticipate where the next shot will be hit. Over-anticipating, or guessing, often has you moving in the wrong direction, requiring you to stop and quickly change directions to cover the ensuing shot. This additional movement wastes energy, which can be vital to winning a close second set or a decisive third set.

Consider these numbers. Professional tennis players on the Sony Ericsson WTA and ATP tours regularly face serves hit at 120 mph. At only 23.77 meters away, a serve hit at 193.1 km/h (120 mph) will take 0.58 seconds to travel the length of the court and cross the opponent’s baseline. Within that time, players require at least 0.25 seconds to effectively and accurately process whether the serve has been hit in one of three possible directions (e.g., down the center at the “T”, down the middle at the opponent, or out wide). This leaves only three–tenths of a second to move and hit a return. When considering these numbers, one would think it is impossible to return a serve on tour; however, we watch tour players accomplish this task all the time. Even more impressive is that tour players are able to cover approach shots and volleys, which are hit from closer distances, thus reducing the time available to react.

Following a successful match, Andre Agassi often commented that he played well because he was seeing the ball early. How is it that Agassi could see the ball so early off his opponent’s racquet? If the eyes have been that important to success on the court, how is it that we have not been providing specific vision training to tennis players all these years? The answer is simple. It was left to being learned through experience alone. The only problem with experience is it often requires using trial and error, which may never fully develop the desired skill in an athlete. Only recently have we developed training programs that will effectively develop the appropriate vision needed to improve your mental quickness and performance on the court.

So, what have we learned from examining elite tennis players? All the research indicates that elite tennis players have the ability to (1) quickly and accurately recognize patterns during play, (2) maintain their focus on only the most relevant information, (3) accurately predict their opponents’ actions from information provided prior to the ball being struck, (4) understand and react to situational probabilities and their opponents’ tendencies, and (5) use their vision to make better decisions during play. Developing all of these areas requires many hours of intensive training specifically designed to enhance situation awareness, anticipation, and decision- making; however, there are a few quick tips that can help you the next time you play.

For years, tennis coaches have been teaching us to keep our eyes on the ball. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a coach say, “Keep your eye on the ball,” I would be a millionaire ten times over. The reason coaches have been preaching this skill is because it is beneficial to keep your eyes on the ball when you are hitting the shot. The only problem is that you will be late to react to your opponent’s shot if you are only focusing on the ball during the rally. As described earlier, you need your vision to quickly and accurately see patterns and process information from your opponent, assess probabilities and tendencies, and make effective decisions. All of this is difficult to do if you are only watching the ball. The next time you play tennis, pay specific attention to your opponent’s court positioning, body alignment before contact, and the racquet angle at the point of contact. At first, this may be difficult and feel awkward because you may have only focused on the ball and your own game. However, by attending to the information leading up to the point of contact, you can begin to quickly and accurately predict your opponent’s actions. One aspect that is important to remember is your eyes will track from your opponent’s court positioning, to her body alignment, then to the racquet angle at the point of contact, and finally back to the ball. In addition, if you play the same players each week, pay special attention to their shot tendencies. Knowing their favorite shots and how they incorporate those shots into their match strategy can give you a particular advantage. Not only will you be able to react to those shots more quickly, but you can also develop strategies that will force them to play shots they are less comfortable hitting.

Finally, making effective decisions regarding where to hit your shot can make it easier for you to cover the court. An effective drill to improve your decision-making is the Crosscourt/ Down the Line Drill. Begin by hitting crosscourt. The point starts once one player attacks down the line. If the player who hits down the line first wins the point, they earn one point; however, if they lose the point, the opponent earns two points. You will not only begin to learn how to make better decisions, but learn how to read your opponent’s intentions as well. Play to seven points and then switch to backhands crosscourt. Remember, once one player hits down the line, anything goes. This drill can also be done in doubles. The point starts once one player attacks down the line (passing shot or lob) or a player poaches at net. Mastering these skills will improve your mental quickness and help you win more matches. Developing the perceptual skills of a tour player requires individualized training of multiple skills (e.g., situation awareness, anticipation, and decision- making), which is now available to all players.