Vision Quest

Things to know about tennis vision.

1. Tracking of the ball requires a continual shift in focus and orientation between distances. It requires visual acuity and accommodation to maintain clarity of vision as the ball and opponent constantly move in distances both near and far. At a slow pace, the process involves a smooth pursuit tracking system with movement of both the head and eyes to follow the ball. At a faster and standard pace of play, the process requires a series of saccades with little to no movement of the head. A saccade is a rapid, conjugate shift in the point of eye fixation or focus. It involves a visual search strategy of shifting focus not only on the ball but also on the opponent, racquet, court, and other important variables to predict ball flight trajectory, pace, spin, net clearance, bounce, etc. A well-developed tracking mechanism establishes spatial awareness and orientation in relation to the ball, court, and position of your opponent and provides the proprioceptive input required to initiate your response (movement, stroke pattern, shot selection, etc.).
2. The visual search strategy begins with a concept called “quiet eye”. Quiet eye is the final tracking gaze or fixation of focus on your target, ball and/or opponent prior to executing a stroke or stroke sequence or moving in response to a shot hit by your opponent. It serves as the processing agent for determining where and how your opponent is to hit the ball and where and how you hit the ball in response. Better players with a skillful quiet eye focus their gaze on only the salient features necessary for response and execution. They are able to eliminate distractions and focus only on the important components necessary for success. The best players hold their gaze longer and with more deliberate intent than players with less ability.
3. Steady eye control and gaze requires a quiet upper body, quiet mind (shutting out all unnecessary outside stimuli), dynamic balance, postural stability, and a level head position. Similar to how a cheetah first sights and then advances to attack his prey, you need to be locked in and fixated on the task at hand with a steady head position and an unwavering gaze.
4. There are other benefits for a quiet eye. Fixating your gaze on a specific target anchors your vision and promotes your ability to peripherally scan for other important cues. A focused, stable, and longer gaze serves to quiet and slow the mind and improve the ability manage stress during competition.
5. So, what does this mean? In simple terms for tennis, tracking follows a three-step process. The process begins with a visual “quiet eye” assessment of relevant cues to predict the pace, spin, trajectory, and direction of the oncoming shot just prior to actual contact by your opponent. The next step is to follow the initial flight of the ball (with a “soft” focus) after contact to confirm and recalculate as necessary your initial assessment of ball direction and characteristics. The third step requires a saccadic redirection and a more narrowing of eye focus from the initial flight of the ball to your predicted interceptive point of contact with the ball (or where you now expect to hit the ball after factoring all other variables including your corresponding movement and racquet preparation).
6. There are factors and conditions to potentially hinder your visual acuity, recognition, spatial awareness tracking on the court. Vision and spatial awareness can be distorted by positioning on the court. An opponent who plays tighter to the baseline or inside the baseline (for example in returning serve) tends to shrink the court from your perspective and can cause your shots to fall short. Likewise, an opponent positioned further back behind the baseline can lead to a misjudgment of court depth and location of the baseline and cause you to overhit. Judgement errors can be compounded on clay composition courts when lines get covered by court material. The difficulty in judging depth based on positioning in relation to the baseline and net creates a potential obstacle to performance but also a potential opportunity. You can vary your positioning to disrupt the tempo and rhythm of your opponent(s).
7. Vision can be distorted by the court lines and fixtures (particularly the net), viewing background and play on adjacent courts. Targets on the court can only be viewed by looking through the net. This can inadvertently draw your shot line on a trajectory path through the net (which of course, is a big problem in tennis). The alternative is to use net clearance as your target and vary the height of net clearance depending on your position on the court. The net, specifically the net center strap can be used as a positive visual target reference. For example, directing your shots over the center strap helps to define cross courts angles.
8. A direct midday sun can hamper performance particularly for the serve. Means to deal with a difficult sun for the serve include wearing sunglasses and/or a hat with a visor, altering your starting position, opening or closing your stance (position in relation to the baseline), using your tossing hand to shield the sun and taking pace off the serve (preferably with spin) and/or modifying positioning and tactics after hitting the serve to provide more time to recover from any temporary blindness or loss of vision before you are required to hit your next shot. Shadows and diminishing light conditions can also be disruptive. Hitting out of a shadow or into a shadow can distort vision, time and shot recognition. Ball judgement requires more focus and advanced tracking skills (accomplished mostly by more time on the court). Tactics to use the sun to disrupt rhythm and shot execution include lobbing into the sun and taking time away by playing tighter to the baseline to return serve and/or closing after hitting the return. Similarly, manipulate your shot pace and directional targets, lines, angles, and trajectories to take advantage of shadows and changing light conditions.
9. How do you train your eyes for better vision tracking, recognition, timing, and spatial and positional awareness? There are several off-court options. Begin by training the eyes to follow a moving object (such as the tip of a pen held in your hand) without moving your head. Follow the tip of the pen into the tip of your nose and out to arm’s length and then up and down, diagonally up and down and left and right. Alternatively, track the tip of the pen by moving both your eyes and head together left and right, diagonally left and right and up and down. Next, train the eyes to switch focus between targets of different distances (one up close and one more distant). Switch your vision back and forth from the tip of the pen (held up close) to a more distant target. Establish a clear focus before making each switch. Increase the number of repetitions and decrease the interval of time between each switch as you get more proficient. There are other more sophisticated computer apps, tools, and games to improve vision. There are drills or games to test peripheral vision where subjects are asked to focus their gaze on a central, fixed target and then identify objects that randomly enter or appear in their peripheral field of vision. There are interactive “Whac-A-Mole” type games to test vision and reflexes where subjects touch objects on a panel or board when they light up or when they light up according to a specific pattern. Or you can keep things simple and use a tennis ball or multiple tennis balls in toss/catch and juggling games with a friend or coach to improve hand-eye coordination and ball-tracking skills.
10. Training vision also requires time on the court hitting balls and responding to balls hit from different angles and court positions. To improve both vision and timing in a live-ball rally, recite out loud “bounce” each time the ball bounces and “hit” when you contact the ball. Announce “forehand” when you recognize a shot is directed to your forehand and “backhand” when you recognize a shot is directed to your backhand. Use the court lines to divide and number the court into four quadrants and then announce which quadrant (1, 2, 3 or 4) you expect the ball to land each shot. Work to improve your ability to pick up early cues and reduce the time it takes to recognize shot trajectory, direction, and depth. Other options to improve tennis vision and reaction time include two ball rallies, maintaining rallies from inside the baseline, returning serves from a server hitting serves from inside the baseline and hitting balls with one eye covered to train each eye independently and to ensure you are not relying on one dominant eye to track the ball. The important thing to remember is that your tennis vision can be improved with regular training and emphasis during hitting sessions and play and that there are options to make this training and hitting more interesting and fun.