Learning by Watching

One of the best ways to learn something is to watch someone who does it well.

The regular “trying to learn” way to watch this video would be to try to remember what Federer is doing as you watch the video. Step 1, step 2, step 3.

The Zen Tennis way would be just to watch the video and enjoy it for what it is. See it as a unit, not a set of steps. Be a neutral observer, notice what is happening without attaching your goal of being a better tennis player to it.

Be aware of any thoughts like “wish I could hit like that” or “I’ll never be able to do that” and let them go. Perhaps you could imagine yourself as the player in the video and experience the video kinesthetically.

Watch the Ball!

One of the most repeated phrases in tennis lessons has to be “Watch the Ball!”

Often we think we are watching the ball, but if you’ve ever seen a slow motion video of yourself, you’ll probably notice that you don’t follow the ball all the way to your racquet. This leads to hitting away from the sweet spot on the racquet and balls falling short or flying off at an angle.

The ‘regular’ way to watch the ball better is to remind yourself (or listen to the coach scream it at you) “Watch the Ball!). Yep, been there tried that. Unfortunately it doesn’t really work, at least not for long. If it did work, coaches wouldn’t have to keep repeating it so much.

With this regular method you have to continually have the voice in your head saying “Watch the Ball!” When you forget to say that, you forget to watch the ball. Yikes, sounds like hard work!

The Zen Tennis way to watch the ball is to not ‘try’ to watch the ball. Rather become naturally interested in the ball and what it is doing.

For example, see if you can determine exactly what direction the seams are moving as it approaches you. How does this spin change when it bounces? What pattern do the seams make as it flys towards you? Where are the seams at the exact moment the ball contacts your racquet?

In this way you become naturally absorbed in the ball itself as an object that is interesting in itself. You are drawn to watch the ball closely because it is interesting, not because you are telling yourself to watch the ball. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being told what to do. But I do like doing things that are interesting.

If you’re doing a kids clinic or workshop, an exercise you could try is to draw or paint a different shape onto a few different balls and then play a game where the first kid to shout out the shape of the ball as it is hit across the net gets a point. The first kid to 5 points gets to hit the ball for the next round.

An advanced version of this might be to have to shout out the shape and the direction it is spinning. Next you could have someone block the ball after it bounces and have the kids tell you what position the shape was in at the exact moment it hit the racquet.